Well hello India.
I arrived in Mumbai in a whirlwind on Tuesday night. It wasn't as dramatic an arrival as I expected. Meaning that unlike Delhi, it doesn't reek of petrol. That distinctive India smell that I remember from Delhi was not there as strongly. Which was fine by me.
After a bit of consternation finding my airport pickup (ahem it wasn't there), I managed to find get the hotel reservations guy at the airport to call my hotel and fix that minor dilemma. So after a 300 ruppee (8 buck) airport shuttle ride, I made it to my prebooked "boutique" hotel. To say the least it wasn't boutique nor worth the cash I paid for it. But apparently that is just Mumbai for you.
I quickly made my way to the hotel restaurant, ordered a kingfisher (really tasty beer) and some Aloo Jeera with Garlic Naan. Holy hell it was good food. Please note that this was the ONLY redeeming characteristic of the hotel.
Once I had eaten, I went to bed and luckily slept like a baby...That is until I felt like I was in a wind tunnel. At about 8am the street was filled with thousands of people, about twice as many people as I am used to seeing even on a busy Indian street. There was no car traffic (I assume because they would be unable to pass though). But in any case, there were about 5 thousand people enjoying their morning outside my window. It was louder than anything I have ever experienced in my life.
I had about two hours before I needed to catch my train to Gujrat for the first days of the wedding. So I did a quick jaunt through the throng and headed back to grab a cab (whom ripped me off and didn't use a meter...bastard) and headed to the train station.
Trains in India for those of you who don't know are incredibly enjoyable. I was in Second Class AC, which means I shared a cabin with three other people and one adorable 3 year old Gujrati boy who was learning his english alphabet. I also had a sleeping berth which was killer for my nap around 2pm.
When I arrived in Vadadora, Gujrat I was met by my friends aunt and taken to my hotel. For the next two hours I wrestled with securing an Indian phone number (success!) and headed to Alma's Cousin's house for her mehendi. Unlike a traditional mehendi night (which is still to come) all the important ladies (aunts, sisters, mom and the like) had their mehendi done early since this wedding is so freaking huge. The official mehendi night is in two days and will be attended by 200 people and there will be 15 (or so) henna artists. Nuts I tell you.
Alma's mehendi took THREE hours and she hasn't even had her feet done yet. But its beautiful.
After that we finally made it back to the hotel at 3am. Phew! 36 hours in India and I am already pooped!!!!
posted by Makenna Johnston @ 8:04 PM
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