Of course no trip is complete without a bit of adventure. Kingsley decided to take adventure to a whole new level when he experienced his first kidney stone attack in rural India.  This required us to go to a small village hospital where he received interesting but adequate care. The stone was large enough to require surgery which we wisely chose to fly back to Singapore for.

The actual ceremony was simple but beautiful. Instead of exchanging rings they traded marigold flower wreaths. It was an arranged marriage by both sets of parents. The bride and groom had met only once about 6 months before the wedding at a 15 minute supervised visit with both parents in the room.  Other than that they had absolutely no contact with each other until the day of the wedding.  I remember how nervous I was on my wedding day, I can't even imagine what was going through her mind on her wedding day.  They were essentially strangers that were committing to spend the rest of their lives together.  It seems so foreign to me but they obviously are doing something right. The tradition of arranged marriages has been around for many generations and has been highly successful in India.

Evidently there was much chatter and excitement in the village as the bride received quite a large dowry of new saris.

We were each given a small amount of spicy, sweet and savory curries, dahls and vegetables.  I loved almost everything I tried.  While we ate the cook's helpers would come by with a large pot of each dish and the minute they noticed we were running low on a certain item they would scoop another spoonful onto our leaf. It was quite an experience!

Gateway of India - which was built to commemorate the 1911 visit of King George and Queen Mary.  Construction was competed December 4th, 1924.


From the Gateway we took a ride to Mnemba island on Tina and Sam's brand new toy a 36 foot power boat.



Upon arrival on Mnemba island we caught site/video of a very very near miss ferry accident. Let me tell you, after what we witnessed, I was incredibly thankful we did not have any plans to ride any ferrys in India.  That being said... it would have been icing on the cake for our crazy India transportation mishaps! (Still not worth it!)



Antilla - the 27 story - worlds most expensive house. The property has 3 helipads, 6 floors of parking, a series of floating gardens and certianly stands out in the downtown Mumbai Skyline.


Really enjoyed our time with Nilima and Sanjeev.  Even had a chance to help Nilima with her school project (she is currently taking classes to become a primary school teacher) by cutting out a bunch of letter  B's!

We spent New Years Eve at a beautiful lake in Pavna with Sanjeev and his family and Suhas and Medha.


First activity of the day was wind surfing which Sanjeev (an expert) made look SO easy.  Suhas was the first and pretty much last person to give it a try.  After watching him struggle so much to lift the sail out of the water AND feeling how cold the water actually was - the rest of us bowed out.  We had a great time staying nice and dry in the rescue dingy while heckling Suhas!





The view was just absolutely beautiful almost like one of the breathtaking scenes from the TV show Lost. Surprisingly the entire area around the lake is almost uninhabited. Just a few very fancy vacation homes and some scattered small farms.


Suhas getting ready to put our New Years eve dinner on the grill.  Nilima and Tina hard at work in the kitchen.  I offered to help but had no idea what spices to add to each dish so decided I was a better help to them if stayed out of the kitchen.
We had a quiet but memorable New Years Eve stuffing ourselves with amazing shrimp, paneer and chicken tikka fresh off the grill along with the best black lentil daal (Tina's special dish) in the world!