Rob and Anna's travel adventure

New Year Adventure #1, "the wedding crashers":

At lunch I met a traveler from Germany, and we decided to go to the ancient cave temples on the Elephanta Island. This is an island with ancient cave temples carved around 5th century AD. When we got back to Mumbai, we decided to take a bus around, and ended up in a Muslim part of town. Huge temple on a semi-island, and absolutely gorgeous sunset. Getting back to our part of town was a challenge, Indian buses are over-crowded, people jump on and off the bus when it is in motion, but we managed it... After dinner (in a crazy fast paced restaurant where every waiter seems to be running non-stop), and chai, we headed out to the waterfront (where our hotel is located). On the way there we noticed a huge, grand, posh wedding reception on the pier. They seemed to have rented the whole thing - big white canopy, red carpet, flowers everywhere, candles, women are dressed in the shiniest clothing and jewelry you can imagine. We stopped near by and were watching from a distance. A man came out in a traditional white formal attire, and asked me if I would like to have a look closer. I shyly said I would, and we were invited in. Soon after food and drinks appeared, we got introduced to the most important members of the family, and minute by minute we got closer and closer to the bride and groom. I thanked everyone, and explained that we probably should leave because we may be offending the party with our attire (we were dressed in dusty khakis, t-shirt, and had a well used back pack after five weeks on traveling in India). The family said absolutely not, they wanted us to stay, and since I was worried about my attire, they had a solution. They told me to go behind the stage, and soon after a woman appeared with a brand new fabric for sari (Indian dress). In an instant, they began wrapping around the sari around my body, I tried to protest (they were paying too much attention to me, a complete stranger), but they insisted they were happy to do that. So, I ended up wrapped up in a brand new sari, then taken to the stage to have photos taken with the bride and groom, photographers began running to the stage, etc. Long story short - I ended up to be "the honorary daughter" of the family, and the family insisted I should keep my sari as a memory about their family... Wow... I still don't know what happened, but I can tell you one thing - I will never forget this! Me, a complete stranger, was welcomed with such a hospitality and sincerity, how could one forget this?

Adventure #2 "hotel crushers and procession with drums"

I met an Indian elderly lady at a local Indian restaurant - Ann Edwani - a few days ago. I bugged her with questions about Indian food (as you know I do that some time, especially when that concerns food), and we ended up exchanging our names and addresses in Mumbai. Several days later, I saw her again at the same restaurant, and she asked me if I had any plans for the New Year's Eve. I said not really, so she invited me to spend an evening together. We met in the evening, she took me out for chai (the real thing), showed me good and cheap places to buy groceries (a real grocery store is here!), showed me what biscuits to buy, mango juice, etc. And, she went to the restaurant and ordered inexpensive veg cutlets (only 18rs, 50 cents) for a take-out! She insisted that way I would have food for the night, and wouldn't have to wander around with all those guys around and numerous crowds. Also, Ann Adwani turned out to be a queen of cheap, and knows all the deals around. She said she knew just the place with a Christmas tree, but we would have to pretend to be the guests (already sounds like my kind of a gal). So, we went down to the Taj Mahal hotel, the one for "members only", where a small cup of coffee costs about $10 (still pretending we are guests there). :) Apparently, she goes there occasionally (as a pretending guest), so she knows the drill. We sat down in comfortable sofas at the beautiful Christmas tree next to a wall water fall, flowers, and candles. We spent some time conversing about politics and life, and had a little escape away from the real India - with pollution, cars, cows, etc. Ann is very well versed in politics, and seems like a cool elderly lady. We parted later that evening, and began heading out to my hotel.