Monday, January 05, 2004
December 2003 - The Wedding and The Un-Honeymoon
We got married in December. It was just as we had thought it would be. Purrrfect!
Have a look at our wedding invite
::BOMBAY TOUR::
On the 17th of December after all our friends had arrived from abroad and around India, we took them on a tour on Bombay, we started with Kanheri Caves, picked Nick up on the way, Laurel and Jason were next. All of us headed over to Dharavi, Asia's biggest slum. Also one of the best places to buy leather. All our friends went crazy buying leather. Laurel and Jason were pretty sick of it all by the end. They had severe jet lag.
Then we headed over to Bandstand, one of the prettiest places in the suburbs. From there we took the rental minibus to Colaba, the Gateway of India. We had dinner with Pia, Mili (my cousin), Mukti (Pia's friend) and Vicky at a tiny Goan restaurant called Joseph's. So GOOD!
After food now we wanted some drink. We headed over to a relatively unknown place called "Suzie Wong", a midsized yatch harboured right off Marine Drive in downtown Bombay, we took ferries there. The place had changed, but was cool none the less, quiet and no teeny boppers. :-)
To close off the night, we headed over to the Hanging Garden and got some great shots of Bombay's coastline at night.
We had an awesome time!!
::MEHENDI::
The next day we had our Mehendi Party. 5 women came and did mehendi on all the women's palms and feet. Eventually all the men wanted to get the henna tattoos done on their backs... We had Bengali rolls ordered for lunch and went through another 3 cases of beer. That month we must have gone through 10 cases of beer atleast, beside all the beer we drank at pubs, the wedding and the reception.
::THE WEDDING::
19th of December.... Such a chaotic day. I thought with all the work we put in before the event, thing would be smooth, but that was not to be.
The bane of our lives was BUNTY, our tailor. He did a great job with Tricia's and my clothes, but took waaaay too long with the rest. He delayed all our events by atleast 3 hours. Oh well! Alls well, that ends well.
Anyways, we arrived at the Resort (the hotel)by 9:30am, immediatly I saw that the decorator did a horrible job. So I had get the whole altar (for lack of a better word) rearranged. That took a lot of work and emotion. Bunty had gotten Tricia and our wedding party delayed by 90 minutes. But the location was fabulous. A lawn on Aksa beach at Madh Island, shaded by many coconut trees. The background sound was the breaking of waves. Finally everybody arrived and things were awesome. Tricia was looking so good, I was looking passable too. ;) We had about 70 guests. Very small for an Indian wedding, where a couple of thousand guests are common. If we didn't know their first name, they were not invited. Simple! The good thing was that, my dad agreed with this.
Mr Basu conducted the proceedings. He did a fabulous job. He gave us a lot of sound advice. The music conducted by Ms. Acharya was just perfect. There are some snippets in the video section of this website.
Daniela's (Tricia's maid of honour) speech was amazing. She spoke of the first time she met Tricia in 1997 and me in 2001... she spoke of how I express my affection to Tricia. Funny stuff, about picking noses.
Anna sang "From this moment on" by Shania Twain. People were moved to tears. It was perfect. I am not a pop/country fan, but I could not have wanted any other song. Thanks so much Anna.
The ceremony was a potpourri of Western and Indian traditions. We had the wedding cake, garter, exchanging wedding bands, the varmala (flower garlands). The entire proceeding was in English.
We then had a good bengali lunch consisting of jinghe posto, mangsho dalna, shorshe bata maach, chingdi malai curry, chana daal... food that is not available easily in Bombay.
After a while everybody left and contrary to the popular "Suhaag raat (wedding night)" stories, we were so exausted, we forgot dinner and slept all the way till next morning, got a huge continental breakfast. It was nice to get away from the jungle... that we knew was beckoning us...
::THE RECEPTION:: (Jen's Pictures)
20th December 2003 (Maciej's pictures)
The whole day was spent running around, making sure everything was in the right place. The electricity at the venue, the decorator, the bartenders, the caterer, the jazz band, transportation... so much :) Vicky helped a lot at the venue, so I could delegate most of it.
As evening approached, we got ourselves ready. As usual, Bunty was seriously late. He got everybody late by 2 hours this time. Luckily both Tricia and I had Joe, a good friend. He helped out during Pia's wedding and was a so much of a help during our wedding. A shy quiet dude, who goes out of his way for everybody. All our friends loved Joe.
That night we had about 300 or so guests, again usual Indian ones are 10 times the size. The location was again beachside, this time on Juhu beach. We rented a large landscaped plot with a dance floor, lawns and lots of parking.
The music was excellent, jazz and some blues done by the string quintet, the bartenders from a big hotel, the food was fabulous and the decor was amazing (which took Tricia and me ages to work out).
We met so many people, cannot even begin to remember them. Thanks to all of you for coming to share a wonderful evening with us.
We ended the party around 3am and headed back to our house, by our chartered bus. On the way there, we found a bottle of Gin and everybody started doing shots. Joe, got really drunk...
As soon as we got into our house, Joe collapsed in all his party clothes. That was the day Jennifer Spillman, earned her new name "Dr. Evil". She put makeup on his face, made him look like the undead. Good job Jen!
::BIRTHDAYS & LEAVING BOMBAY::
The next day (21th December) was my Dad's and Anna's birthday. My relos almost played truant, refusing to come to the celebration that Tricia and I planned. But Dad convinced them and they showed up.
The Biryani was fabulous and we drank tons of beer (yep, nothing was any differnt)... we got a couple of great cakes and put the magic candles which relight as soon as you blow on them... confused my dad. Anna too had never seen them, These candles need to be dipped in water. My father had a better solution. He closed the cake box, and pretended they weren't there, like the quintessential ostritch. Lo and behold! It worked!
Earlier in the day my family, tricia's mom, aunt and I opened the gifts and envelopes of moolah. Not a bad booty. Am considering converting to Islam to do this again. Most of the gifts we horrendous. Amazing, the kind of crap people will give you, in the guise of a gift. The best was a mouldy, used vegetable slicer, which was from the early 80's... just plain insulting... oh well!
That evening the bus from Akbar Travels picked us up and we headed over to Kurla Terminus... wading through the croud, we found the right compartment (coach) and found our berths all over it. Tricia's mom and aunt weren't happy, with their location. I tried my best to pacify things, eventually things got resolved.
That night we drank vodka, ate fruits and had a blast on the train towards Coimbatore. After a nice 30 hour journey, we reached Coimbatore, a bus picked us up from the station and raced us to Cochin, a 4 hour drive. That day we realised that Mallus (Local Keralites) have no concept of time estimation. We had been told 2 hours!!!
::COCHIN::
The hotel was fabulous. We headed over to our rooms, look a nice warm bath. Tricia and I had a room to ourselves, but the rest of the gang (Dorothy, Kathy, Anna, Daniela, Meme, Laurel, Jen, Jan, Nick, Petri, Bjorn, Jason and Maciej) shared to large suites. Not bad at all.
That evening we headed out to the city, walking around for a bit. We found a Kathakali demonstration place. This is the traditional dance of Kerala, lots of paint and other fantastic costumes are used here. The dance was a small part from the epic Ramayana. Was pretty good. WE walked around the market where the damn foreigners started buying hindi pop!!! They asked me for recommendations, trying very hard to keep my lunch down, I looked at the crass labels. Me, recommend, Indipop/Bollywood, me... funny.
Later in the evening we headed back to the hotel, which was by a river and they even had a restaurant there. Had a nice scrumptious dinner and NO BEER. They RAN OUT OF BEER! This was going to be a recurring nightmare in Kerala.
The next day we visited a few churches, the Cochin fort, the chinese fishing nets, where everybody had a great time. Have a look at the pictures of people...
We had lunch at Maddy's, fabulous food. Took ages. The pineapple was the most expensive I'd ever had. More shopping.
::MUNNAR::
Then we headed over towards Munnar. Unfortunately we left a little too late. It was supposed to be a 3 hour trip... which turned out to be a 6 hour trip. By the end, nerves were frayed. Nick was quite upset. The girls peed on the road, as did the boys. Everybody wanted to get to their hotel rooms...
Eventually we did! And was a fabulous location it was. In the middle of tea estates on the mountains. The breakfast the next was horrible, but the view made up for it...
We spent some time in the tea gardens and found fake Mirinda and Sprite. Unfortunately, Daniela was sick, so Jan took lots of Video footage and pictures. We headed to Matupetty dam among some other sightseeing, including a non-echo point.
That evening was Christmas eve. We had a fabulous time exchanging gifts and doing a white elephant gift exchange. Even our gift exchange was a secret friend gifting. Where the reciever did not know who his/her gift was coming from. People got some fabulous stuff. Tricia a pretty crystal whale from Bjorn, she gave some local arty things to Meme. I got a personally engraved Swiss Army Knife from Jan and gave some perfumed oils to Aunt Kathy. Lots of beer and booze made the night perfect... :)
The next day Tricia's mom and Aunt headed off, back to Bombay to catch a flight to NYC and then LAX, finally PDX.
::PERIYAR::
The same day we headed of to Thekaddy. The drive was rockin'. We had a good local lunch of rice and sambar on a banana leaf, which Maciej hated, since he wasn't given any cutlery... Nope he doesn't believe in the "When in Rome..." business. :-) So he used a knife and fork and ripped the poor banana leaf to shreds. Then he proclaimed that he wanted more beef in his food. He was informed that we are in India, not Argentina.
Later that day we went straight to Periyar National Park but it was already closed. We then went to main shopping area where all the girls and some of the boys shopped. I think Maciej checked his email. I helped everybody bargain the prices down to more realistic numbers. The shopkeepers have one theory. If you are white, you must be rich. What do you say Laurel? :-) How does college pay these days?
We took Maciej to a restaurant which served meat and specifically beef that night. That too did not please him. So Bjornie and Jan-boy decided to take the "when in rome..." literally. I was eating raw chillies with my food to pump up the spice. Jan decided that he is man enough for chillies. So he takes half a chilly and gives the other half to Bjorn. On the count of three both were supposed to chew the chilly down. Jan did. Bjornie chickened out. Now chewing on raw green chilles takes balls and Jan the man, has balls of stainless steel, but even those took some punishment, as the chilly hit him. Then as tears started flowing, he rubbed his eyes, unmindful that they were covered in chilly juices... oh my god! He was a sight to behold. Daniela's face was quite animated too.
The next day we left early for a tour in the jungle with a forest officer, who walked us for about 2 hours though the jungle. He showed us some very interesting fauna and birds. We even saw some tiger claws on a tree. Saw some elephant dung. Was a fun walk.
After that we headed back to the forest office and took the boat trip down the river to look for wild animals. We saw buffaloes, deer and a few wild elephants. Another good day.
Later we saw some monkeys gettin' jiggy with it. Some video in the video section.
Nick left at the end of the day.
::ALLEPEY::
That day we arrived in Alleypey a little late and checked straight into our hotel which was straight from some 50's movies, with lino floors and laminated closets in very psychedelic colours, kinda wierded me out for a little while. Had a decent barbecue dinner with only half the people. Some beer was good, but the rains came down. Slept well.
The next day we headed out to the waterfront and got to our houseboats. Now, these are REALLY HOUSEBOATS. They have working toilets, electricity, fans, kitchens, coolers... the works. Fabulous. Unfortunately they (the boatmen) ate most of the cocolates we stored in the cooler, but what the hey...
We were divided into the couples boat and the singles boat. :)
We spent the entire day just floating downriver from one village to another, very ideallic. We read, chatted, drank more beer (big surprise here) and had a smorgasbord lunch, with tropical fruits and fresh fish.
Later that evening we decided to jump into the warm water for a swim. Jan climbs up to the bow, moons us and jumps into the water, my camera was a little slow to respond. The sunset was amazing.
At night we docked and the boatmen got us Toddy the local booze, made from coconuts. Freakin' nasty. Petri, Jan and I drank a glass or so... very very bad... Never again. I think. That night Tricia and I got NO sleep at all. Very hot, muggy and the mosquitos almost ate us alive. Horrible.
The next day we did some more of the first. Eventually we docked. Jason was little upset since he thought we were rushing him. The singles were also upset since they thought we were making them wait. :-)
::KOLLAM::
The same day we drove off to Kollam which has some fabulous backwaters. We were a quite exausted, so Tricia and I stayed back. Daniela/Jan and Laurel/Jason stayed back. We took a nice clean shower and hung out in my room. A little while later, we headed downstairs to play a spot of cricket. I played cricket last in college. We played underarm. I smacked a cover-drive straight into tricia's thigh, he was laughing and crying at the same time. She had a massive bruise. We played for a little while longer. That was going to be our first attempt at sport.
That night we had more booze and chilled in our room. We renamed Laurel to Miss Miagi. She taught all of us to light our farts.. She was awesome.
::VARKALA::
The next day we got ready to leave for our final destination in Kerala... Varkala. Supposedly the best sunsets in the Indian subcontinent. As we left the hotel, which again was on the riverside, we spotted some working elephants. Finally we had something to do with our "most expensive pinapple" and the "massive knives". Jen fulfilled her dream of sitting on an elephant. They were happy creatures lugging logs around. We took some amazing pictures of them eating the pinapple. Everybody was very pleased.
Later that day we drove to Varkala, about 40 kilometers north of Trivandrum. This is a small town on a cliff, facing the sea, which a tidy little beach at the bottom of the cliff. Blue, clean, warm water... The sight from a vantage point was fabulous!
We checked in the hotel, a decent clean beach house. No great shakes. Immediatly we headed off to the beach. Things were perfect here. Only thing was that, there were no Indians on the beach. After some investigation, we realised there was demarkation between the Indian side and the foreigner's side. Some indignation followed soon after, but we realised when we have all the bodacious women as part of our entourage, gawking Mallu boys, might not make things as much fun.
We played lots of cricket. I mean LOTS! An older very tanned Aussie gent joined us with his much younger French trophy girlfriend. My outswingers weren't working on wet sand. Jan was bowling and batting very well. Bjorn brought shame to all Belgians with his very strange bowling action. A little mallu boy joined us with his very fast bowling, very impressive.
One very rude, yoga practicing Aussie woman, who was with her girlfriend, told us that none of us could play cricket, which enraged Jan, considering that they had been playing for about 1 hour... The reason for that, was that while batting I send the ball in her direction and it smacked straight on her bum. Serves her right!
That day we stayed up very late and had tons of sea food from fresh cought fish. People loved it. As always, Vodka and Old Monk spiced rum made our evening. Another Aussie boy joined us and unfortunately I got a little drunk and got into an arguement with him. Regret that.
The next day was the 31st of December. We woke up late, had a typical Mallu breakfast at a small little place, with the best view in southern India. Unfortunately, Laurel and Jason had to leave, to catch their flight... we were sad to see Ms Miagi and the snowman leave.
More cricket followed. Saw the Aussie witch again. The girls went shopping. In the evening, we headed of to one of the better sea food restaurants in that area. Had a huge sea food feast, with lobsters, crabs, prawns, fish... the works. Went down to the beach with all our friends and brought in the new year with a cheer.
Tricia and I took a walk down the beach. It was nice, being with my new wife on a beautiful beach on new year's eve and also have some of our best friends so close, and some on their way back to their homes. That is when we realised that our honeymoon was almost over and we will have to get back to our routines very soon. Happy and sad at the same time.
The next day we woke and got back to packing, unfortunately, the previous night Tricia had some of her gold jewellery stolen from our room... they were gifts.
We jumped into our faithful pink bus with our fabulous driver, when we realised that we were VERY VERY LATE... So our normally relaxed driver was visited by the ghost of Senna. He drove the 40 kilometer distance in record time, thereby scaring all of us. But we got there on time.
As we started unloading our stuff from the bus, some loaders came to help us out. These are usually fabulous ways to rip someone off. So I asked them to leave, but they would not budge. I tripped over a luggage trolley in my haste and ripped one big toenail almost all off and the other big toe had a big gash. We gave the busdriver a nice tip and went to catch our flight. I got Tricia and me upgraded to Club class.
::BACK HOME::
In Bombay, Tricia took two cabs to get back home with everybody while I took an autorickshaw with Daniela to go buy gifts for her sister. Unfortunately the cabbie ripped Tricia off very badly and charged her 4 times as much. Maciej left from the airport itself.
That evening, the Swiss left. Jan mooned almost everybody including an elderly couple before he walked into the terminal. Again more sadness, both that Jan's ass won't get a better tan and that we won't see some good friends again.
Anna, Jen, Bjorn, Petri, Tricia and I headed back to our home, for dinner. We drank wine/beer in the awesome wine glasses that Maciej brought. We had already returned all the cutlery and crockery, so almost nothing was in the house... not very easy.
In the next couple of days everybody else left. Anna spoke to Tricia and me. She told us that the last time she visited India for my sister Pia's wedding, the experience wasn't all that great. She didn't really want to come back to India. This time she was sad to leave... we were sad to see her leave. We were sad to see everybody leave.
What made us happy was that these people took the time, effort and money to come to India and be part of our wedding. That made our wedding so much more special. This includes my cousin Mili, who was visiting her family in the other corner of the country. She came too. My dad's side of the family coming was a given, but I am thankful and grateful that they came to be part of a very non-traditional, un-conservative wedding.
We thank all of you. You will be part of our memories forever.
Have a look at our wedding invite
::BOMBAY TOUR::
On the 17th of December after all our friends had arrived from abroad and around India, we took them on a tour on Bombay, we started with Kanheri Caves, picked Nick up on the way, Laurel and Jason were next. All of us headed over to Dharavi, Asia's biggest slum. Also one of the best places to buy leather. All our friends went crazy buying leather. Laurel and Jason were pretty sick of it all by the end. They had severe jet lag.
Then we headed over to Bandstand, one of the prettiest places in the suburbs. From there we took the rental minibus to Colaba, the Gateway of India. We had dinner with Pia, Mili (my cousin), Mukti (Pia's friend) and Vicky at a tiny Goan restaurant called Joseph's. So GOOD!
After food now we wanted some drink. We headed over to a relatively unknown place called "Suzie Wong", a midsized yatch harboured right off Marine Drive in downtown Bombay, we took ferries there. The place had changed, but was cool none the less, quiet and no teeny boppers. :-)
To close off the night, we headed over to the Hanging Garden and got some great shots of Bombay's coastline at night.
We had an awesome time!!
::MEHENDI::
The next day we had our Mehendi Party. 5 women came and did mehendi on all the women's palms and feet. Eventually all the men wanted to get the henna tattoos done on their backs... We had Bengali rolls ordered for lunch and went through another 3 cases of beer. That month we must have gone through 10 cases of beer atleast, beside all the beer we drank at pubs, the wedding and the reception.
::THE WEDDING::
19th of December.... Such a chaotic day. I thought with all the work we put in before the event, thing would be smooth, but that was not to be.
The bane of our lives was BUNTY, our tailor. He did a great job with Tricia's and my clothes, but took waaaay too long with the rest. He delayed all our events by atleast 3 hours. Oh well! Alls well, that ends well.
Anyways, we arrived at the Resort (the hotel)by 9:30am, immediatly I saw that the decorator did a horrible job. So I had get the whole altar (for lack of a better word) rearranged. That took a lot of work and emotion. Bunty had gotten Tricia and our wedding party delayed by 90 minutes. But the location was fabulous. A lawn on Aksa beach at Madh Island, shaded by many coconut trees. The background sound was the breaking of waves. Finally everybody arrived and things were awesome. Tricia was looking so good, I was looking passable too. ;) We had about 70 guests. Very small for an Indian wedding, where a couple of thousand guests are common. If we didn't know their first name, they were not invited. Simple! The good thing was that, my dad agreed with this.
Mr Basu conducted the proceedings. He did a fabulous job. He gave us a lot of sound advice. The music conducted by Ms. Acharya was just perfect. There are some snippets in the video section of this website.
Daniela's (Tricia's maid of honour) speech was amazing. She spoke of the first time she met Tricia in 1997 and me in 2001... she spoke of how I express my affection to Tricia. Funny stuff, about picking noses.
Anna sang "From this moment on" by Shania Twain. People were moved to tears. It was perfect. I am not a pop/country fan, but I could not have wanted any other song. Thanks so much Anna.
The ceremony was a potpourri of Western and Indian traditions. We had the wedding cake, garter, exchanging wedding bands, the varmala (flower garlands). The entire proceeding was in English.
We then had a good bengali lunch consisting of jinghe posto, mangsho dalna, shorshe bata maach, chingdi malai curry, chana daal... food that is not available easily in Bombay.
After a while everybody left and contrary to the popular "Suhaag raat (wedding night)" stories, we were so exausted, we forgot dinner and slept all the way till next morning, got a huge continental breakfast. It was nice to get away from the jungle... that we knew was beckoning us...
::THE RECEPTION:: (Jen's Pictures)
20th December 2003 (Maciej's pictures)
The whole day was spent running around, making sure everything was in the right place. The electricity at the venue, the decorator, the bartenders, the caterer, the jazz band, transportation... so much :) Vicky helped a lot at the venue, so I could delegate most of it.
As evening approached, we got ourselves ready. As usual, Bunty was seriously late. He got everybody late by 2 hours this time. Luckily both Tricia and I had Joe, a good friend. He helped out during Pia's wedding and was a so much of a help during our wedding. A shy quiet dude, who goes out of his way for everybody. All our friends loved Joe.
That night we had about 300 or so guests, again usual Indian ones are 10 times the size. The location was again beachside, this time on Juhu beach. We rented a large landscaped plot with a dance floor, lawns and lots of parking.
The music was excellent, jazz and some blues done by the string quintet, the bartenders from a big hotel, the food was fabulous and the decor was amazing (which took Tricia and me ages to work out).
We met so many people, cannot even begin to remember them. Thanks to all of you for coming to share a wonderful evening with us.
We ended the party around 3am and headed back to our house, by our chartered bus. On the way there, we found a bottle of Gin and everybody started doing shots. Joe, got really drunk...
As soon as we got into our house, Joe collapsed in all his party clothes. That was the day Jennifer Spillman, earned her new name "Dr. Evil". She put makeup on his face, made him look like the undead. Good job Jen!
::BIRTHDAYS & LEAVING BOMBAY::
The next day (21th December) was my Dad's and Anna's birthday. My relos almost played truant, refusing to come to the celebration that Tricia and I planned. But Dad convinced them and they showed up.
The Biryani was fabulous and we drank tons of beer (yep, nothing was any differnt)... we got a couple of great cakes and put the magic candles which relight as soon as you blow on them... confused my dad. Anna too had never seen them, These candles need to be dipped in water. My father had a better solution. He closed the cake box, and pretended they weren't there, like the quintessential ostritch. Lo and behold! It worked!
Earlier in the day my family, tricia's mom, aunt and I opened the gifts and envelopes of moolah. Not a bad booty. Am considering converting to Islam to do this again. Most of the gifts we horrendous. Amazing, the kind of crap people will give you, in the guise of a gift. The best was a mouldy, used vegetable slicer, which was from the early 80's... just plain insulting... oh well!
That evening the bus from Akbar Travels picked us up and we headed over to Kurla Terminus... wading through the croud, we found the right compartment (coach) and found our berths all over it. Tricia's mom and aunt weren't happy, with their location. I tried my best to pacify things, eventually things got resolved.
That night we drank vodka, ate fruits and had a blast on the train towards Coimbatore. After a nice 30 hour journey, we reached Coimbatore, a bus picked us up from the station and raced us to Cochin, a 4 hour drive. That day we realised that Mallus (Local Keralites) have no concept of time estimation. We had been told 2 hours!!!
::COCHIN::
The hotel was fabulous. We headed over to our rooms, look a nice warm bath. Tricia and I had a room to ourselves, but the rest of the gang (Dorothy, Kathy, Anna, Daniela, Meme, Laurel, Jen, Jan, Nick, Petri, Bjorn, Jason and Maciej) shared to large suites. Not bad at all.
That evening we headed out to the city, walking around for a bit. We found a Kathakali demonstration place. This is the traditional dance of Kerala, lots of paint and other fantastic costumes are used here. The dance was a small part from the epic Ramayana. Was pretty good. WE walked around the market where the damn foreigners started buying hindi pop!!! They asked me for recommendations, trying very hard to keep my lunch down, I looked at the crass labels. Me, recommend, Indipop/Bollywood, me... funny.
Later in the evening we headed back to the hotel, which was by a river and they even had a restaurant there. Had a nice scrumptious dinner and NO BEER. They RAN OUT OF BEER! This was going to be a recurring nightmare in Kerala.
The next day we visited a few churches, the Cochin fort, the chinese fishing nets, where everybody had a great time. Have a look at the pictures of people...
We had lunch at Maddy's, fabulous food. Took ages. The pineapple was the most expensive I'd ever had. More shopping.
::MUNNAR::
Then we headed over towards Munnar. Unfortunately we left a little too late. It was supposed to be a 3 hour trip... which turned out to be a 6 hour trip. By the end, nerves were frayed. Nick was quite upset. The girls peed on the road, as did the boys. Everybody wanted to get to their hotel rooms...
Eventually we did! And was a fabulous location it was. In the middle of tea estates on the mountains. The breakfast the next was horrible, but the view made up for it...
We spent some time in the tea gardens and found fake Mirinda and Sprite. Unfortunately, Daniela was sick, so Jan took lots of Video footage and pictures. We headed to Matupetty dam among some other sightseeing, including a non-echo point.
That evening was Christmas eve. We had a fabulous time exchanging gifts and doing a white elephant gift exchange. Even our gift exchange was a secret friend gifting. Where the reciever did not know who his/her gift was coming from. People got some fabulous stuff. Tricia a pretty crystal whale from Bjorn, she gave some local arty things to Meme. I got a personally engraved Swiss Army Knife from Jan and gave some perfumed oils to Aunt Kathy. Lots of beer and booze made the night perfect... :)
The next day Tricia's mom and Aunt headed off, back to Bombay to catch a flight to NYC and then LAX, finally PDX.
::PERIYAR::
The same day we headed of to Thekaddy. The drive was rockin'. We had a good local lunch of rice and sambar on a banana leaf, which Maciej hated, since he wasn't given any cutlery... Nope he doesn't believe in the "When in Rome..." business. :-) So he used a knife and fork and ripped the poor banana leaf to shreds. Then he proclaimed that he wanted more beef in his food. He was informed that we are in India, not Argentina.
Later that day we went straight to Periyar National Park but it was already closed. We then went to main shopping area where all the girls and some of the boys shopped. I think Maciej checked his email. I helped everybody bargain the prices down to more realistic numbers. The shopkeepers have one theory. If you are white, you must be rich. What do you say Laurel? :-) How does college pay these days?
We took Maciej to a restaurant which served meat and specifically beef that night. That too did not please him. So Bjornie and Jan-boy decided to take the "when in rome..." literally. I was eating raw chillies with my food to pump up the spice. Jan decided that he is man enough for chillies. So he takes half a chilly and gives the other half to Bjorn. On the count of three both were supposed to chew the chilly down. Jan did. Bjornie chickened out. Now chewing on raw green chilles takes balls and Jan the man, has balls of stainless steel, but even those took some punishment, as the chilly hit him. Then as tears started flowing, he rubbed his eyes, unmindful that they were covered in chilly juices... oh my god! He was a sight to behold. Daniela's face was quite animated too.
The next day we left early for a tour in the jungle with a forest officer, who walked us for about 2 hours though the jungle. He showed us some very interesting fauna and birds. We even saw some tiger claws on a tree. Saw some elephant dung. Was a fun walk.
After that we headed back to the forest office and took the boat trip down the river to look for wild animals. We saw buffaloes, deer and a few wild elephants. Another good day.
Later we saw some monkeys gettin' jiggy with it. Some video in the video section.
Nick left at the end of the day.
::ALLEPEY::
That day we arrived in Alleypey a little late and checked straight into our hotel which was straight from some 50's movies, with lino floors and laminated closets in very psychedelic colours, kinda wierded me out for a little while. Had a decent barbecue dinner with only half the people. Some beer was good, but the rains came down. Slept well.
The next day we headed out to the waterfront and got to our houseboats. Now, these are REALLY HOUSEBOATS. They have working toilets, electricity, fans, kitchens, coolers... the works. Fabulous. Unfortunately they (the boatmen) ate most of the cocolates we stored in the cooler, but what the hey...
We were divided into the couples boat and the singles boat. :)
We spent the entire day just floating downriver from one village to another, very ideallic. We read, chatted, drank more beer (big surprise here) and had a smorgasbord lunch, with tropical fruits and fresh fish.
Later that evening we decided to jump into the warm water for a swim. Jan climbs up to the bow, moons us and jumps into the water, my camera was a little slow to respond. The sunset was amazing.
At night we docked and the boatmen got us Toddy the local booze, made from coconuts. Freakin' nasty. Petri, Jan and I drank a glass or so... very very bad... Never again. I think. That night Tricia and I got NO sleep at all. Very hot, muggy and the mosquitos almost ate us alive. Horrible.
The next day we did some more of the first. Eventually we docked. Jason was little upset since he thought we were rushing him. The singles were also upset since they thought we were making them wait. :-)
::KOLLAM::
The same day we drove off to Kollam which has some fabulous backwaters. We were a quite exausted, so Tricia and I stayed back. Daniela/Jan and Laurel/Jason stayed back. We took a nice clean shower and hung out in my room. A little while later, we headed downstairs to play a spot of cricket. I played cricket last in college. We played underarm. I smacked a cover-drive straight into tricia's thigh, he was laughing and crying at the same time. She had a massive bruise. We played for a little while longer. That was going to be our first attempt at sport.
That night we had more booze and chilled in our room. We renamed Laurel to Miss Miagi. She taught all of us to light our farts.. She was awesome.
::VARKALA::
The next day we got ready to leave for our final destination in Kerala... Varkala. Supposedly the best sunsets in the Indian subcontinent. As we left the hotel, which again was on the riverside, we spotted some working elephants. Finally we had something to do with our "most expensive pinapple" and the "massive knives". Jen fulfilled her dream of sitting on an elephant. They were happy creatures lugging logs around. We took some amazing pictures of them eating the pinapple. Everybody was very pleased.
Later that day we drove to Varkala, about 40 kilometers north of Trivandrum. This is a small town on a cliff, facing the sea, which a tidy little beach at the bottom of the cliff. Blue, clean, warm water... The sight from a vantage point was fabulous!
We checked in the hotel, a decent clean beach house. No great shakes. Immediatly we headed off to the beach. Things were perfect here. Only thing was that, there were no Indians on the beach. After some investigation, we realised there was demarkation between the Indian side and the foreigner's side. Some indignation followed soon after, but we realised when we have all the bodacious women as part of our entourage, gawking Mallu boys, might not make things as much fun.
We played lots of cricket. I mean LOTS! An older very tanned Aussie gent joined us with his much younger French trophy girlfriend. My outswingers weren't working on wet sand. Jan was bowling and batting very well. Bjorn brought shame to all Belgians with his very strange bowling action. A little mallu boy joined us with his very fast bowling, very impressive.
One very rude, yoga practicing Aussie woman, who was with her girlfriend, told us that none of us could play cricket, which enraged Jan, considering that they had been playing for about 1 hour... The reason for that, was that while batting I send the ball in her direction and it smacked straight on her bum. Serves her right!
That day we stayed up very late and had tons of sea food from fresh cought fish. People loved it. As always, Vodka and Old Monk spiced rum made our evening. Another Aussie boy joined us and unfortunately I got a little drunk and got into an arguement with him. Regret that.
The next day was the 31st of December. We woke up late, had a typical Mallu breakfast at a small little place, with the best view in southern India. Unfortunately, Laurel and Jason had to leave, to catch their flight... we were sad to see Ms Miagi and the snowman leave.
More cricket followed. Saw the Aussie witch again. The girls went shopping. In the evening, we headed of to one of the better sea food restaurants in that area. Had a huge sea food feast, with lobsters, crabs, prawns, fish... the works. Went down to the beach with all our friends and brought in the new year with a cheer.
Tricia and I took a walk down the beach. It was nice, being with my new wife on a beautiful beach on new year's eve and also have some of our best friends so close, and some on their way back to their homes. That is when we realised that our honeymoon was almost over and we will have to get back to our routines very soon. Happy and sad at the same time.
The next day we woke and got back to packing, unfortunately, the previous night Tricia had some of her gold jewellery stolen from our room... they were gifts.
We jumped into our faithful pink bus with our fabulous driver, when we realised that we were VERY VERY LATE... So our normally relaxed driver was visited by the ghost of Senna. He drove the 40 kilometer distance in record time, thereby scaring all of us. But we got there on time.
As we started unloading our stuff from the bus, some loaders came to help us out. These are usually fabulous ways to rip someone off. So I asked them to leave, but they would not budge. I tripped over a luggage trolley in my haste and ripped one big toenail almost all off and the other big toe had a big gash. We gave the busdriver a nice tip and went to catch our flight. I got Tricia and me upgraded to Club class.
::BACK HOME::
In Bombay, Tricia took two cabs to get back home with everybody while I took an autorickshaw with Daniela to go buy gifts for her sister. Unfortunately the cabbie ripped Tricia off very badly and charged her 4 times as much. Maciej left from the airport itself.
That evening, the Swiss left. Jan mooned almost everybody including an elderly couple before he walked into the terminal. Again more sadness, both that Jan's ass won't get a better tan and that we won't see some good friends again.
Anna, Jen, Bjorn, Petri, Tricia and I headed back to our home, for dinner. We drank wine/beer in the awesome wine glasses that Maciej brought. We had already returned all the cutlery and crockery, so almost nothing was in the house... not very easy.
In the next couple of days everybody else left. Anna spoke to Tricia and me. She told us that the last time she visited India for my sister Pia's wedding, the experience wasn't all that great. She didn't really want to come back to India. This time she was sad to leave... we were sad to see her leave. We were sad to see everybody leave.
What made us happy was that these people took the time, effort and money to come to India and be part of our wedding. That made our wedding so much more special. This includes my cousin Mili, who was visiting her family in the other corner of the country. She came too. My dad's side of the family coming was a given, but I am thankful and grateful that they came to be part of a very non-traditional, un-conservative wedding.
We thank all of you. You will be part of our memories forever.
