Honeymoon

After all the guests had gone home, Amrit and I planned our honeymoon. The destination chosen was the beautiful desert kingdom of Rajasthan, with its beautiful cities Jaipur the pink city, Ajmer the holy city, Udaipur the city of lakes (made famous by James Bond's Octopussy).

So with my honey in the passenger seat of the car we went looking for the MOON. It was to be a road trip. If one is a positive thinker then the hail storm, thunder and lightning at the start of the trip would be taken as blessing, God is blessing the car with holy water for a safe trip for the newly weds. Half way to Delhi we started to look for hotels to stay in Delhi. We decided to take a chance by just driving into Delhi and find a hotel since the gods were already on our side. We did find the hotel in the end and went out to dinner in a Japanese restaurant recommended by the traveller's holy bible, the Lonely Planet . The restaurant was called Zen in Connaught Place, New Delhi. The thing we will remember about this restaurant is not its good food but its staff holding us hostage until we gave them a suitable tip; a great recommendation, Lonely Planet. Anyway on the way back to the hotel, the gods decided to cleanse our car with holy water once more, it was like an express wash, not lasting very long.
Next day our drive to Jaipur was not that eventful. My honey was sleeping and I, driving and navigating through the maze of killer highways, which will make the makers of the game "need for speed" think about changing the name of their game. But we reached the pink city safely and rested a bit before the shopping craze came over Amrit. Advice to men is never take women shopping on empty stomach. Fill their tummies and half the shopping crave is gone. So a lunch in a revolving restaurant overlooking the city of Jaipur did the trick for me: not much shopping after that.

By this time my love had started to feel little sick, guess it was all the different food stuff we had been eating which had caused the problem. So we called in an early night.
Next on the road trip was Udaipur but on the way to the Udaipur we had a short stop at the holy city of Ajmer. Its famous for the tomb of a Muslim saint.

In my opinion it should also be put on the map for its beggars. There beggars are not your usual ones. They have done their homework and, have plans and strategies. We realised they had areas divided amongst themselves so no one could beg in another's area. The beggars patiently waited for the target to wonder into their area before starting their begging. Amrit and I had encountered some of the most talented ones, but once you show weakness to one of them you are marked, tagged, labelled, flagged (what other word can I use) for slaughter.

We did our bit at the tomb and were back on the road to Udaipur, where our hotel room awaited us. By the time we were at the hotel Amrit's condition had worsened and she was in real pain. I wont go into the detail of it but she was in a bad way and needed a doctor. She was in bed for the next three days.

Over the three days we stayed at the hotel the staff of the Hilton-Trident were just great. From the managers to the head chef to the waiters to the door men - they were just great.

We managed to cut our little cake which our hotel had presented to us with a bottle of wine (just for me).

So after three days in the hotel room and my wife feeling better, we were on our way back to Jaipur. With sunny weather and cool winds we were cruising our way to Jaipur, when BANG! We were hit by a truck head - on the national highway. Shocked, we just sat in the car for sometime not knowing what to do, glass all over me holding the wheel, not knowing what to do, till my Amrit asked me if I was ok and I said "I am, are you ?" She was ok too. With a crowd gathering around the car we got out from Amrit 's side since mine was totally jammed by the truck impact. Lucky we didn't have a scratch on us: the car took it all.

Then started the police investigation. We were helped to the police station which was just 500 metres from the site and the report was written. If you really want to know they were all hand written and if they wanted to make a copy you had to wait for them to hand write that too. So you see everything had to be in triplicate, hand written in triplicate. But still I would say our case was dealt with the utmost urgency. It was high on the priority list, second to a group of people who had stolen 5 goats in an SUV, for which the police had set up a check point on the national highway causing a traffic jam. If you ask for service from the police they provide you with just that, even if it means causing a taffice jam and a queue of trucks for a mile on both sides of the road. Just for some kidnapped goats which might well be kebabs by then. Well anyway I thanked them for the help the gave us. The even called us a taxi, which is unheard of.

By this time we had decided that the honeymoon was over and we just wanted to go home. So another taxi was arranged for us by my friend Sumit and his wife from Jaipur to Chandigarh.

I would say the honeymoon was a memorable one, we certainly would never forget it.