Siamese Saga

The wife and I packed up our bags and left for Krabi via Bangkok on the 12th of December. I was only too happy to leave - there were too many people all over the place and she was also the centre of all attention, which is bearable only for about 5 minutes in real life.
Our flights ensued that we stayed awake for about 36 straight hours, so by the time we were on our last leg, she was nodding off constantly. Krabi airport reminded me instantly of Mohanbari airport (Dibrugarh) - the single runway and the greenery all around, but the airport itself was a miniature version of Mumbai airport - spanking clean and modern. Krabi is one of the lesser developed provinces in Thailand for this part of Thailand, but the roads were smooth and undulating. (I will rattle off facts thanks to the 900 page lonely planet which I bought). As a normal red-blooded north Indian, I was not very happy to note that even countries so close to home and so looked-down upon in India (development is supposed to have happened only in the US, UK, Western Europe, Australia) are better off than us.

(Mr and Mrs and our shiny black SUV in the corner)

Our itinerary for Thailand was as follows: 

Ko Lanta (6 days), Ko Phi Phi Don (2 days) and then Bangkok (2 days). 

Ko Lanta was exactly as isolated as I had wanted it to be - a private beach for the resort but not isolated enough to compromise on any of the comforts. 

Phi Phi has been made famous by 'The Beach' - a movie which is about a secret beach. The beach in 'The Beach' is Maya beach on Ko Phi Phi Leh, a smaller island close to Phi Phi Don.

(approaching Maya Beach (above) in a long tail (see below))

The coolest parts of the trip: 

3) View point #2, Ko Phi Phi Don - This was a 45 minute staircase trek to the topmost point of the island. The island, which is actually a paid of islands joined by an isthmus, with giant limestone rocks, was quite imposing. We timed it well so that we were there as the sun began to set. Also, we could not find the camera and used the mobile instead, only to realise later that we were in fact carrying in the camera. 

2) Snorkeling aoff the island of Ko Rok - We snorkeled at 4-5 different places but the best by far was the first one which took us to Ko Rok. There were no jellyfish, the coral was colourful, the water was clean and most of all, there were plenty of fish of lots of different colours. The best by far, for sure. We had lunch and got to laze around on Ko Rok for a couple of hours - we took pics during that but not of the snorkeling as we did not have a waterproof camera. 

1) Emerald cove, which was an enclosed beach which could only be reached after swimming through a tunnel of water for about 80 meters.

(The mouth of the tunnel and the inland beach at the Emerald Cove)

A parked long tail below

Sugandh and I

I have the wedding pics finally. I also have a macbook  which is brand new. I have gotten it for envigo, where we are going to be building facebook applications now.  

Below is what happens when I get a Mac. 

A few pics from the Baraat

and then the wedding itself... 

and then the reception ...

As I wait for the rather large baraat video to load on youtube, I will record my thoughts on my wedding for posterity. I think that it was a lot of fun, important things to note were as follows: 

1. The disappointment of not too many of my friends making it ... which was made up quite quickly by those who did. 

2. A series of four top secret get-togethers, which happened every night from the 4th till the 7th were an excellent buildup for the functions. 

3. Family gathered from all over and every breakfast, lunch and dinner was an event in itself for 3-4 days. 

4. The bigness of the deal that a wedding is was driven home when I looked up after exchanging garlands - an entire field of people were looking at the two of us. 

5. Bihari weddings are torturous for the couple, especially the bride, who gets to sleep only for about 5-6 hours in two days (and nights). 

6. The sheer delight felt by close family, especially parents, at this occasion and being getting reminded all over again about how much I get pampered by my parents and my sister. 

At the end of it,  everyone who came left 1-2 days after the wedding. The kitchen, which was feeding around 70 people a day for 3-4 days was disbanded. Even Sugandh and I left for our honeymoon (yes, thats the next post!) by the 12th. (The wedding took place on the 9th).  Both my parents and my sister had a very bad throat and a cold. My mother in law fell ill soon after for 2-3 days.

What is left with us - apart from each other - is a smorgasboard of memories - extending far beyond the  few days of the wedding itself - an entire memory map of relatives and friends and how long and how well we know and how much they mean to us (and we to them). 

It is quite incredible and humbling to have so many people pause their lives for a few days and come to be a part of this celebration called a marriage.