Kate and Bryn

We met Kate and Bryn in Bangalore and threw them in the deep end with an invite to a Muslim pre-wedding ceremony.  Muslim weddings can last up to 6 days apparently with different rituals leading up to the actual marriage.  We went to the Haldi day which was the third day where you are supposed to dress in yellow and cover the bridegroom with a Turmeric and Sandalwood paste, then cover everyone else in the same paste and eat Biryani.  We all got haldied but had, naturally, been in the pub since we got back from the airport and so skipped the Biryani to go and drink a bit more Kingfisher.

Our major road trip was to Goa and Hampi, luckily we found a solitary bar open in Benaulim, our first destination in Goa and spent a couple of hours sheltering from the wind, rain and sea spray, looking out over a stormy, cloudy sea.  Not dissimilar to any of our weekend trips to Western Super-Mare.  The second night we stayed in Colva, which had a bit more life before another day on the train to Hampi.

 Hampi Hampi, a historic Hindu temple site was fantastic, very peaceful and scenic and we saw plenty of monkeys and the sun for a couple of days of which I can remember very little for one reason and another, (apart from it being the home to the newly created game Ganeshi!) but suffice to say, none of us wanted to leave. 

 

 

 
  

 

Posing about town, on the houseboat and the one and only Ganeshi!

In Mangalore, Kate and Bryn doubled the white population and we did typical Mangalorean things like bombing around in rickshaws, getting clothes tailored, eating raja special, playing badminton, falling over and drinking Kingfisher.
 
Of course they had to earn their keep

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Jadugar Anand the Magician

The initial finale to our holiday was supposed to be a Magnificent Magic Show, the likes of which Mangalore had never before seen, about which probably the less said the better, (you can ask us in an isolated place in private) but after being released for the interval, we all agreed to boycott the second act. 

So the actual finale became a spectacular 24 hour trip on a traditional bamboo houseboat, complete with personal chef.  Kate and Bryn won a recordbreaking game of Ganeshi to bag the only bedroom (Dave got the consolation prize of a clean towel).  A final curry in Mangalore and we saw them off on their epic return to western civilization.  Strangely, we had been a little bit poorly throughout their visit, (highly unusual), but were miraculously cured the minute they got on the bus, which allowed us to spend the next couple of days sadly drowning our sorrows at our loss.