Indulging in all the free things

As we bid goodbye to Delhi I can't say that I am sorry to leave. Simply because I cannot handle any more free things. Yes I wrote that correctly. As probably all of the hotel staff knew we were on honeymoon (mainly because Ronan tells EVERYONE!!) We have gotten more free desserts and cake than I care to remember - we had to be polite and eat it, good manners ya know! We even think the chefs began to play 'lets see what we can make the pale white people eat'...

It started with dinner on the first night, after we were stuffed (from fabulous biriyani) and couldn't face dessert, the waiter landed down with a traditional indian dessert, not sure of name but it consisted of cottage cheese done 3 different ways, bleurgh!! We then went back to the room extra full to find a bottle of wine, flowers and the most chocolately cake ever seen. This trend continued with breakfast, lunch and dinner the following day. Nice and all a touch it was, the massive slab of chocolate cake each in 44 degrees heat after our outdoor lunch by the pool was not what too appealing!!

At least they began to realise they were over feeding us and provided free transport around Delhi for us - but of course that wouldn't do Ronan, who insisted we go back to the hotel by autorickshaw

So onto Jaipur and here's hoping they aren't as generous or there isn't a hope of me fitting into my wedding dress for the Trash the Dress shoot (sorry Mam I mean Rock the Frock) when we get home!!

N

Love marriage or arranged marriage??

So its just hit me - we are actually in India and just walking down the street is a life experience in this wonderfully crazy country!! I write this while we are on the 5hr drive from Delhi to Jaipur so its very easy to take some time to record some of the random things that we have experienced since we landed in India. This is our only method of recording our memories and in a few weeks time I am afraid of forgetting the small things.

When we told our waiter at breakfast (or should I say Ronan said it with me kicking him under the table thinking I cant face any more chocolate cake) that we were on honeymoon, he asked was it a Love marriage or Arranged marriage - maybe i should be angry with how long it took Ronan to reply!!! Ronan has been slagging me that the Indians have been struggling with my Leitrim accent as it took a few attempts at the word butter before it arrived for my toast - apparently it's not pronounced 'busher'



The sound of horns beeping is now the backdrop to everything. All the trucks have signs saying 'blow horn' while the traffic light poles have signs saying don't honk horn - guess it's just easier to make noise than have someone crash into you!

I am exhausted from just assuring workers in the hotel that everything is good and we are fine, we are asked at least 7 times during each meal and had 2 callers to our room in the evening literally just to ask are we ok. As we're still getting the 5* treatment thank God all was perfect as I can't imagine how exhausting lying that number of times would be.

We have encountered some 'rascism' where people didn't want to sit beside us in the bus even where there were no other seats available. The ones that did sit beside us got their friends to take photos which coincidentally myself and Ronan are also in!!

You can make a child's day by waving to them!

Every building is famous and every house for sale is affordable - the building boom is massive we feel we should warn them how that one pans out!

That we should have taken the train in this journey. As someone conditioned to wear a seatbelt to drive from the front door to the gate I am not coping well with the lax-a-daisy approach to safety and driving. It's not a coincidence that they have signs saying 'Accident prone area' and 90% of cars have dents and scrapes. Just look at this crashed lorry (sorry pictures wont load today)

Although we can't complain as our driver is acting as if he is transporting very precious cargo - either that or it's frowned upon to kill a tourist in a traffic accident??

N

Delhi - 1st stop

So we left Carrick at 9.30am on Friday 25th May having done dinner with my family on Wednesday evening and Ronan's on Thursday. Did most of our goodbyes to friends in the pub on Thursday night! The two mammies decided to bring us to the airport after an emotional goodbye to the dog - well emotional on my side she just hopped outta the car and sniffed Dixie's (mam's dog) butt and ran off!!
Another emotional goodbye at the airport on all our parts except Ronan as apparently we're just going on holidays so why would you be crying!!!!

We flew Dublin to Heathrow then onto Delhi (8 hours). Flight was uneventful apart from some scary turbulence and an Indian student warning Ronan to trust no one during our stay in India! Landed in Delhi to 33 degrees at 6am!! We were met by a car from the hotel. As we climbed into the beautifully air-conditioned BMW 3 series with fab leather interior and were handed cold water and towels to cool off Ronan declared 'I love backpacking, I do'. hmmm think I am going to have to show him what real backpacking is and hammer home we cant just go from one 5 star hotel to another!!!

Neither of us have ever experienced anything like this heat before - 44 degrees and feels like you are walking around in front of a hair dryer, even standing still is sweaty work.
On our first foray outside our hotel this afternoon I ended up getting hit by a motorbike - who knew we were standing on a roundabout chatting to the taxi driver!! Nasty bruise on the back of my leg and ego a bit dented but otherwise I'm ok! Back in the safety of the hotel now chilling by the pool, will definitely be more aware of taxi drivers that stop in the midde of a roundabout in future!!

In other news I have cankles. That is all.

The reason this trip is possible

Of course this blog is being dedicated to our fantastic upcoming trip - but lets not forget what's made it all possible... and that's the beautiful Nicole and myself getting married!!

Here is a quick glimpse of a few of the shots from our very very special day:

 BIG thanks to Deryck Tormey http://www.derycktormeyphotography.com for the excellent shots - we had great craic out and about getting these taken!

So now we're married and that means Mr & Mrs Harney are heading off in a couple of days to experience all Asia and South America has to offer. All that's left is pack my bag - but sure how hard can it be? Nicole is packed and quite proud of herself for getting all the essentials (and a few non-essentials) neatly into a 12kg backpack - although looking at the weather for New Delhi on Saturday Hot hot "hazy sun" of 44 degrees celsius (link) that may prove to be a few kg's (and a hair straightener) too much??

So we're out and about for the next two evenings to say our last goodbyes to the families before we head off to begin our epic honeymoon from Terminal 1 Dublin Airport on Friday afternoon

Next stop India... Stay tuned

R