Delhi Wedding

Well, we had an amazing time in Delhi celebrating Kunal and Monika's wedding. There were 3 days of functions, fun and dancing. Dave Kennewell joined us for the last 2 days of functions. Highlights included Nathan's stole catching fire at the wedding, Dave being harassed by an elephant and much more. It was awesome fun being part of the baraat. As Kunal was on the horse and chariot, all of his family and friends danced with a huge band for hours as we approached the wedding venue where Monika and her family was waiting for us. There were fireworks, an elephant, huge lanterns, a moving bar and LOTS of noise - it was excellent fun!!

We'll let Dave's photos do the talking....

Us with Kunal (my cousin) and Monika

Some of the family

Henna hands

Kunal and Ishan

With Ishan and Tania

Wedding chaos in the house

Girl cousins tying the sehra on to Kunal

Dancing with the band at the temple

Kunal and Ishan on the horse

A bit wary in front of elephant

Dancing fun!

Kunal and Ishan on the chariot

Kunal peeping at his crazy family dancing

Case in point.

This drumming guy looks like ravan

Kunal's dad tearing up the dance floor

And again....
And some more...

And some more....

Monika arriving on palki

The bride and groom
Dave eating like a Maharaja

Waiting for the wedding ceremony to start (it's about 3am in the morning....)

Leaving after the wedding ceremony (about 5am....)

Annapurna Circuit

We just completed Annapurna Circuit!! Dave, Nathan and I had a blast and now we have "Calves of Steel" so look out! We're just adding a few photos, mainly Dave's, given that I dropped our camera on route...... We took 17 days to complete the circuit. The length of the circuit is disputed and most say it is 230km long. I would agree that it is at LEAST this long and possibly they mean 1,230,000km.

Luckily none of us had done anything at all to prepare for the trek, except buy ridiculously cheap trekking gear in Kathmandu. My "Goretex" boots were only $30 and I was shocked to discover on route that they weren't waterproof! Who would've thought?!

The boys required an additional acclimatisation day in Yak Kharka near 4000m (wooss bags). I started getting a headache at 4550m but we all took tablets and were ok for the day of the pass. The day we did the pass (5416m high!) was stunning - beautiful sunshine and no wind - whoopee!! Our Guide has done the circuit 100s of times and couldn't believe our luck with the weather!

Scaling a landslide / road "construction" (with no warnings of blast times - how exciting!)

After watching "Into Thin Air" sitting on a yak rug, we couldn't believe people could be so unprepared before climbing Everest. After the movie we opened the door of the 'cinema' to discover pouring snow - we ran back in thongs/sneakers without any wet weather gear....

Where's Dave?

We went for a little acclimatisation stroll after reaching 3500m. We were lucky to view this avalanche from very close up! Meanwhile back at the lodge, our guide was a little concerned of possibility of 3 missing Australians

All lodges claimed to have "24 hr Solar Heated Shower" - brrrrrrrrrrr (Dave didn't shower for 6 days in a row! Nice one!! Sorry to Dave's mum - this is no indictment on how your raised your dirty little boy)

Trekkers contemplating the 1km climb to the 5416m pass the next day.....

Walking at about 5am to get to the pass. It's freezing and the air is thin....

Still trudging up the 1km ascent....

Proof we made it to the Thorong-La pass - woohoo!! 5416m!!

What goes up, must come down!! Well done to my $10 fake North Face wet weather pants - they worked!!

Wet, wet, wet on our way to Pokhara (this is where my "Goretex" boots FAILED)

Teaching the local Nepali people to play poker with chocolate money

MOUNTAIN MAN COMPETITION

Pre and post Mountain Man experience. Who has the best mountain beard?

The following will offend vegetarians

Well what a start to the new year. Not unusually we were greeted in the morning by Masai who had taken to popping by to have long chats to us in what we believe was Swahili, happily bantering away with us completely unaware of what he was saying. This morning it seemed Masai wanted to lead us somewhere - we didn't know what he wanted so we followed him into the property next door and came to understand he wanted us to take a photo of him. After much confusion we finally realised we needed to go to where a large cow was standing and take a photo of Masai and Nathan with this cow. So here is the photo.

This is where we met Loveness, a very friendly Tanzanian girl who introduced herself to us after we walked into the yard unannounced with a Masai warrior and took a photo of her family's cow. Loveness who is a lawyer in Dar es Salaam informed us that in a few minutes, the cow was to be slaughtered cooked up as part of their family new years tradition. She introduced us to her lovely family and they all insisted we join them and their friends in the days celebration. The slaughtering was hard to stomach and has surely made us reconsider our eating habits. Masai was a key-man in the process and although he was thin and tall, he was crazily strong! He turned the whole cow over on his own! And he did not spill a drop of blood on himself or anyone else. The whole process was swift and precise with everyone operating as a well oiled machine. It was incredible and a little disturbing to see the massive pots full of seasoned beef which had been moo-ing only minutes before.

Then we got to witness a most incredible feat that would put all good catering businesses to shame. Some of the women and men of the family began the cooking process - meat, veggies, bananas, potatoes, rice etc were all being cut, chopped and seasoned. The cooking was carried out in the largest pots I have ever seen. The meat was cooked in about 4 different ways and accompanied with spicy vegetables, salad, pilau and biryani. It was such a smooth process and looked much easier than it was. Everything was spiced and cooked to perfection, using oversized spoons (the size of shovels) to stir the food. The smells were divine!

From the slaughter to having an incredible amount of food on the table, only took about 3 or 4 hours. The food was served piping hot, a complete mountain on each plate, for several hundred people!! We had never witnessed anything like this!

We parted ways (with very very full stomachs) and Loveness' mum had saved a mango for us from her farm, and she insisted we take it for dinner. Hands down, this was the best mango we have ever eaten.

Thanks to Loveness and her family for restoring our faith in humankind (- Nathan and I were becoming cynics after being ripped off, cheated and lied to so many times through Africa.

Happy New Year!!