Breakfast at the hotel restaurant which is quite schmick. Small dense croissants, mini muffins, toast, pranthas, pawpaw, honey dew and chai. Unpack the bikes from their bike bags and start the reconstruction. Handlebars, derailleurs, wheels and pedals all back on. Some hassle with Soph's dérailleur as the Rocky Mountain doesn't have a hanger, so a little adjustment required and use the quick release chain to assist the process. Put the wheels in and the disks on both bikes look like they have been bent slightly in transit. Start sweating at this point. A little manual flex though and rescrewing the housing whilst clamping the brake levers achieves a workable solution. Bob fine. The rear light housing on Soph's bike has broken but hopefully we won't be cycling at night anyway.
Soph does the stairs a couple of times to check to see whether the wedding she has been invited to has started yet or not. We are on the fourth floor and the wedding on the first so a few flights gets the heart pumping. Soph has spent since breakfast trying to work out what she will wear. It was definitely not something that we packed for. Soph ends up tying a green pashmina (lent by a friend at the last minute before leaving Aus) around as a skirt, Thai style, together with her icebreaker top. We cackle a few times about the possibility of it all coming undone, but there are no other obvious options.
Soph is gone most of the morning bar to identify that her flash has died after less then five minutes of non continuous use... Batteries aren't what they used to be. I quite happily potter with the bikes, getting gradually greasier from chains etc.
Soph pops up and identifies that I too have been invited to the wedding and that we should go down as they are just about to have a meal. I am just as stumped as Soph with what to wear but we head down anyway.
Once in the venue immediately taken in post a few quick introductions to where the banquet is being served. Huge range of all veg options. Back into the crowd for introductions and photos whilst eating. Between the flood light attached to the video camera, the curries and what I believe is a cold post the flight, I am struggling not to sweat profusely. These lights would make a mossad interrogator feel right at home, and they have been pointing these at the bride and groom for most of the time that we have been eating. If I was the bride, and lucky for the groom I am not my henna tattoos would be mush by now.
Really interesting range of people and the older generations are extremely welcoming. The wedding itself is casual but formal, following a traditional format but with plenty of casualness shown by the crowd. Then the dj breaks out some tunes and dancing starts up with hindi classics overladen with dance/trance. The extended family all appears to be very comfortable with each other. Soph and i get dragged up, but cannot hope to match it with some obviously well practiced bollywood and dance floor moves. Some of the crowd are also fantastic singers as one or two take the mic.
Quite a long ceremony with the involvement of blessed sweets, seven circuits of a flame on the main stage and even the hiding of the grooms shoes which is apparently tradition. The throwing of flower petals, the giving of gifts. Then the bride departs with the groom which is an emotional time for the brides family as she moves from her birth home to that of the grooms. So all in all many similarities just performed in alternate way.
We are even given gifts for attending the ceremony. Mainly for Soph and her time as unofficial photographer.
Following the bride and grooms departure we make for the room, which is windowless and quite claustrophobic as a result, though large. Beautiful marble floor and bathroom, even the fire stairs are marble, which we see quite a bit of because the elevator is quite pokey. We also have been unable to get the wifi to work which is a shame.
Head out into the back streets to grab some fruit, and fruit juice in preparation for the commencement of our cycling tomorrow. Amazed by just how busy it is at 8.30 on a Sunday evening, downtown, it seems to if anything gotten busier but it is probably just the lights, everything is lit up, if in some cases only by the whizzing bikes and cars in the streets.
Back to the hotel to fight off what ever I have and with anticipation building of the commencement of the ride tomorrow.