Mumbai India, Jan/Feb 2012

When I first decided travel to India to meet my friends Dhara for her sisters wedding, I had no idea what to expect and what I was in for.  India is like no other country i've been too, and I would say that I have been lucky enough to travel to quite a few places.  I stayed at the Kemps Corner hotel, a hop skip and jump away from Dhara's apartment.

Each morning I was woken by a rooster and the drone of cars incessantly honking.  To call it a relaxing vacation would be far from the truth.  I was on the go from the moment I touched down in India, and could tell right away that India was going to be quite an experience.

We quickly checked into the hotel, small room but it was quite perfect for what it was needed for, although the bed was frightfully uncormfortable.  It was like sleeping a piece of wood with a slight pillow top covering it.  I did not sleep well most nights due to the traffic noises and the uncomfortable bed, but fortunately I wasn't in the hotel room that long during the days.  Below is the roof top patio where our complimentary breakfast was served.  It doesn't look like much but the breakfast was quite good and the view actually quite nice.  It felt like the only place where you could actually see greenery.

But Don't be fooled by the greenery, the honking still persisted right below the canopy, ruining any type of possible tranquility.

I found India to be quite polluted, from the moment I stepped off the plane there was a haze of smog that covered the city.  To get into the city from the airport in the "suburbs", you cross what is called the ceiling of India over the arabian Sea.  The bridge would be beautiful and so would the city-scape, if you could only see it clearly through all of the smog.  It was quite a first impression of India.

But more to come about the actual country later, the first part of my trip was pure wedding mayhem.  On Friday after setting my stuff in the hotel, Dhara and I went straight to go get our nails done.  This definitely helped me relax after the inital shock of India.  After nails, I went to Dhara apartment for the mehendi tradition, also known as the henna ceremony.  It's traditional in Indian weddings for the bride to have her full arms and her feet painted in Henna.  Friends and family will generally have only their hands palms and their hands done.

The Henna starts out quite dark and is thick, and you aren't suppose to move your hands for at least 2 hours until the henna dries/sets in, it was not easy not moving my hands for that long.  

My hands should have turned out like Dhara's below, however due to a miscommunication, opps, I washed the henna off my hands when I should have just just removed the henna by scraping my hands.  so my hands turned out much lighter then they should have been.  Did you realize that the henna actually tingles/burns when it is drying on your skin.

And this was my henna outcome!  And i'm still trying to wash off the remaining remnants of the henna, it lasts much longer then you'd think.

The next day was filled with more wedding prepartions and lots of amazing food.  Her family made sure I enjoyed all of their home cooking, and trust me I did, but they wouldn't believe me when I told them I was full, they just keep filling my plate (and truth be told it was so good I ate it until almost commatose).  I did have some of the most amazing food I'd ever had though.  I just needed to eat more in moderation.

Saturday night is what they call the Sangeet, which is known as the music festival.  Both the friends of the bride and the friends of the groom perform choreographed dances, something I've never witnessed before.  It was quite a good time.  Getting there on the other hand was quite an interesting experience.  Driving in Bombay is absolutely terrifying and I thought we were going to die several times during the trip to the Grapevine (where there was a roof top reception was, with delicious food and drinks of course).  On the ride over we almost got into several car accidents, one incident in particular stands out.  While driving on the crazily on the congested roads a car nearly backed into our cab.  Dhara promptly found me sitting nearly on top of her in the small cab, did I mention that Pranav was sitting in back as well.   They were quite enjoying my total fear of driving in this city.    I promptly needed a glass of wine when we got to the venue.   I guess it's also important to note that cars/cabs in India do not have side or rear view windows, so they use their horns to let any driver, biker or pedistrian they are coming up on behind to pass you.  Need I say more.  But driving aside the night's festivities were so much more interesting.

Vidhi was looking gorgeous as usual, and I was able to finally meet Dhara's finance (even though that was by nearly jumping on him and Dhara in the cab).  The event is usually just for family and close friends but fortunately being a guest from far away I was able to manage an invite.

 During most of the evening I was chatting with several members of Dhara's family, and they made sure that I tried every time of Indian food imaginable.  I must say I did enjoy the food more then I ever would have thought.  All of it was absolutely amazing, and it was all vegetarian, but you really couldn't tell.  I really do love spicy food, but it turns out too much can be bad for your immune system but that we'll address later. :-)

I spent a great deal of time by myself most of the night but after the dancing I finally joined the bride to be and her future husband and friends who did nothing but try to make me feel welcome.  Below are some pictures right before the performances began.  It was actually a lot of fun watching them on stage.

  

Most of the actual pictures I have are movies.  Hopefully the movie links work  but knowing my luck with technology they won't.  I couldn't even believe that the guys all got up there and danced.  They all had so much fun, I wish I could have been more apart of the action.  The guys dancing was absolutely hysterical.  I have to give them props because I don't think any American guy would ever do anything of the sort.

  

  Enjoy the Video's and more wedding details to come in the next post.