amritsar, pakistan, and how we crashed a punjabi wedding...

We've had such a crazy past 24 hours. But first back to Delhi... we spent our last days there doing fun things like bangle shopping, and visiting sites from Bollywood movies I enjoy. Here is a photo of me under the EXACT same tree that Aamir Khan recites poetry to Kajol under right before the Chand Sifarish song in Fanaa. I am such a nerd.


After Delhi, we took a night train up to Amritsar. (Which was good, except there was a mouse on the train that kept running past my feet and making me jump.) Amritsar is kind of an out-of-the-way place, pretty far north and it seems that not as many foreign tourists venture up this way. Understandably, because there is not much to see here, with the exception being the Golden Temple, which is a very huge Sikh temple and part of my "list of places I must see because it featured in a Bollywood film I liked". We weren't expecting too much from our brief stop here, but it's been so much fun! We went to the temple yesterday (see photo - I am not making a fashion statement, you have to cover your head when you're inside) and while we were wandering around, Micah disappeared. Usually when this happens, it means he has made friends with someone (most likely women) so I wasn't too surprised when I found him 20 minutes later with two girls. We ended up wandering around the temple with the girls, then around Amritsar. They took us to a park/memorial thingy, where one of them tought Micah and I (but mostly Micah) how to bhangra dance, much to the entertainment of the crowd that gathered to point and laugh while Micah made an ass of himself. Hilarious.


After that we were parting ways because Micah and I decided to go visit the Pakistan border, but before we left they told us they were going to a wedding that night and we should come with them, and to call them later... haha, I'll get to that. So anyway, we took a van out to the India/Pakistan border, where they do this really cool closing ceremony every night which involves the guards from both sides yelling and stomping around a lot while enormous crowds cheer them on. There were SO many people there, it was actually really exciting. Here is a photo of the electric barbed wire fence at the border, and a photo of Pakistan behind the gate during the closing ceremony. There were huge crowds on both sides, interestingly the Indian side was so colorful and the Pakistan side everyone was wearing all black and white.

After we got back, we called our new friends (their names were something like Shubnam and Ruby, not sure exactly) and they told us to come over to Shubnam's house. So Micah put on a fancy new suit that he had custom-made in Delhi, and we went over. I had nothing to wear (I have a sari, but I don't own the garment that goes under a sari so I'd have been indecent) so they lent me a salwar kameez type outfit to wear. Then they took us to the wedding... I suppose the fact that we didn't even know who was getting married was irrelevant, nobody seems to care. Anyway, IT WAS SO COOL!!! It was like a proper Punjabi wedding. The bride and groom were sooooo done up, it was incredible. The groom rode in on a white horse behind a marching band and a bunch of people dancing! And it all happened inside this huge banquet hall type place, where there was so much food it was unbelievable. I ate a ton, and it was hands down the best Indian food I have ever had. There was this crazy ice cream too, it was like vanilla but much better, almost like the flavour that's in cookie dough ice cream, but full of actual pieces of fruit and stuff. Amazing. As for the actual wedding part... well, I have no idea when that happened, there was no ceremony as such, you just kind of watch the bride and groom come in and sit on these throne-like things at the front of the hall, and then everyone runs around eating and not paying much attention. Apparently there was an all-night party afterwards, but we left shortly after stuffing our faces.

Afterwards, we went back to Shubnam's house again, and ended up staying the night because it was too late to get a rickshaw back to our hotel. In the morning, Shubnam's mom made us tea and a yummy breakfast that was a potato-onion-pancake type of thing. And then her mom let me keep the outfit I had borrowed as a gift! So nice of her! After all this, Shubnam's brother drove us back to our hotel on his motorcycle. I've never been on a motorcycle in my life... picture Micah and I flying down bumpy roads in a small Indian town on the back of a motorcycle (no helmets either, ahhhh) with Micah in a fancy suit and me in a traditional Indian outfit. It was probably the most random thing ever. Anyway, here is a photo from last night after we got back from the wedding. (Micah has some really amazing wedding photos on his camera but I can't get at them to post.) It's me with Ruby, Shubnam, and Shubnam's mom.


We are now leaving to get on a 20 hour train to Jaipur. I am hoping for no mice.