Brilliant Treat Week!

India has always been one of my favourite countries. Although I have really only spent three weeks here for any significant chunk of time, Mandi and I have visited for the odd day or two at the beginning and end of previous trips to Nepal and there is always a welcoming feeling in its colourful, chaotic streets. Until the discoveries we made on this trip (really didn’t expect to like Chile as much as we did) I would have previously always said that, taking Nepal out of the equation, India was my favourite country in the world. Although there may be one or two places that could now challenge it, it is still a wonderful place that Mandi and I both love, and it made sense to plan our final week here as a kind of honeymoon (taking the last five and three quarter months as one long wedding). And as it was our honeymoon, it didn’t take much to convince ourselves that after five and three quarter months of backpacking, (including six weeks of trekking), it should be a treat before facing the end of our journey!

When Mandi and I visited India in 2004, we found a deal on the internet for the Imperial Hotel on Janpath in New Delhi – it was a wonderful surprise. The hotel is an old colonial building where, it is rumoured, Ghandi once sat down with Lord Mountbatten and future Prime Minister Nehru to discuss the thorny issue of India’s partition. It doesn’t look like it has changed much since. The walls are lined with works of art, all hundreds of years old, each depicting moments and places from India’s history during the time of British occupation. The rooms still have wonderful high ceilings, the furniture has an early 20th century feel and the swimming pool and spa – well OK, they aren’t a left over from this building’s colonial history, but are a very welcome modern addition! In fact, that blend of old and new is one of the things that makes the Imperial so special. It was always a hotel that Mandi and I said was probably our favourite and so we decided our time in New Delhi should be spent staying there once more. It was just as good as we remembered, a perfect base for exploring Delhi, complete comfort, and we even got a free upgrade to a suite because we were on Honeymoon!

After three nights in Delhi, we then moved on to Agra for one night and a visit to the Taj Mahal. The beautiful white building with its teardrop dome sitting against the sky of the setting sun is a sight that is hard to beat. It is certainly one that is hard to catch on camera. There had been many times in the past when I have seen pictures of the Taj Mahal, and although it always looked an impressive building, I didn’t expect to have my breath taken away quite as much as I did when stood at the end of the long carpet of water that extends from its door. Although I have been to man made structures that I still find more impressive and, overall, prefer to the Taj Mahal (Petra and Angkor Wat to name two), there are few, if any buildings that can match it for aesthetic perfection. The Taj was built by Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal Emperor as a tomb for his wife who died in childbirth. Shah Jahan was so distraught at losing the love of his life that he dedicated over 22 years creating a tomb of such perfection and beauty that it reflected all that his wife was in life. The construction of the tomb, in today’s terms, would cost US$70 Billion, and it was seen as the final straw by his son who used its construction as an excuse to take his fathers throne and imprison him for the rest of his days in a cell that looked over the Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan never managed to step foot in the immaculate building he had constructed as his wife’s final resting place.

Our next stop (and last stop before returning to Delhi on our whistle-stop tour) was the pink city of Jaipur. This capital of the desert state of Rajhastan was painted pink in celebration of the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1853 and has retained this appearance ever since. It is home to some of the magnificent old buildings from the time of the Raj, including the Rambagh Palace which is now a five star hotel and the place that Mandi has always said possibly challenges the Imperial as her favourite hotel (she was lucky enough to stay here ten years ago when, along with five friends, they were able to get Indian national rate for a room that they could all share) – after now staying there myself, I have to agree with her. Before becoming a hotel, the palace was the home of Rajmata Gayatri Devi who was the wife of the last King of Jaipur (Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II) and was once one of the most famous people in the world. After independence, the building was eventually converted into a hotel but it still has the feel of a palace, and as a place to stay, there can be few to rival it for luxury, service, but most of all, its charm and romantic atmosphere. Outside the hotel gates, the city of Jaipur provides a number of places to explore. Hawa Mahal (palace of winds) is a thin façade that provided a gallery from which the Royal women could look down over the streets of Jaipur without being seen by the public. Jantar Mantar (the observatory) houses a number of constructions for astronomy, but most impressive houses one of the largest sundials in the world that is accurate to within 2 seconds. Finally, the Royal palace houses the possessions and memories of the Kings and Queens that ruled this city before independence made them almost obsolete. But most impressive of all is the Amer Fort (sometimes called Amber Fort). This huge construction actually sits 20 mins drive from Jaipur high on the slopes of the surrounding sandstone mountains. It was the home of the Royal family before they were forced to move their capital to the new city of Jaipur due to overcrowding and paucity of water in Amer. The fort was originally built in 1592 and has never had much in the way of restoration, and yet it is still wonderfully preserved and a great insight into the way of life in this country before the British arrived. We spent a day exploring the Amer Fort and Jaipur’s other sites before returning dirty and tired to our hotel – the perfect excuse (along with the rigours of a six week trek) to treat ourselves to a relaxing massage before settling down with a glass of wine on the penultimate evening of our week of treats and the penultimate evening of our round the world trip.

The last six months have been unbelievable. When starting out on something like this there is always a bit of trepidation about the upheaval of basically suspending ‘normal’ life and setting of an a nomadic six months of exploring a pathetically small sample of all the wonders and diversity that the world has to offer. As we now sit on the brink of our return home, there are a number of things to feel depressed about, but most of these can be offset by the thought of seeing family and friends again – the one thing we have missed since we left the UK. The one thing that can’t be offset, however, is time together. Travelling means Mandi and I exploring new countries and new places together, waking up together in new cities and walking together through new streets and around (or over) new mountains. Normal life means being at work for nine or ten hours in the day and then having extra time taken up sorting things at home, it means ten or more hours apart every day, and despite all the new places we won’t be seeing when at home, or new experiences we won’t get to share, that time apart is going to be the hardest thing about returning to normal life. We’ve had many people tell us that spending money on a six month long ‘wedding’ rather than one day at home is a great idea, others sometimes seem to look as us with a large amount of confusion when we tell them, but one thing that I can say for certain about the last six months is that it has proved how much Mandi and I love each other and how much we are meant to be together – to steal a line from Hollywood, we complete each other. It is that commitment that a wedding is supposed to demonstrate, that is the promise that people make, and so despite the various opinions we have encountered to our approach, one thing that is undeniable is that over the last six months, without a shadow of a doubt, every day has only re-enforced how much Mandi and I love each other and how much we are meant to be together. Oh, and giving us an excuse for one last week of luxury wasn’t a bad added bonus!

Steve

Better Than (a) Wedding – the facts

There is a lot to be said for doing something your own way. Although both Mandi and I are aware of how much family and friends wanted to be with us on our wedding day and we regret disappointing them in any way, it is also supposed to be our day, and it was exactly what we wanted – it couldn’t have been more perfect.

We had a blessing from an old monk who meditated on our future and predicted that we would live past 108 and have three boys and two girls. We had the most breathtaking backdrop that anyone could ever imagine. We had each other in the country we love the most. We were able to share our love without worrying if others were having a good time, if the caterers had remembered the special food requests, if the DJ was going to show up and if the guests were getting bored while we had photographs taken! Although we were accompanied by all the boys from our trek (whose genuine happiness for us helped to make it extra special) in effect, it was just the two of us – and isn’t that what it is supposed to be about anyway?

Unfortunately, the one downside to all this is that it meant navigating Nepal’s infuriating bureaucracy and infrastructure – a real challenge. So for anyone who is thinking of getting married over there, here is a guide to what we had to go through….!

It started off simply enough. We had to fulfil a requirement of being resident somewhere in the last three months, for more than 21 days. Wherever that was, we needed to display notice of our intent to marry for a further 21 days. If we had gone to Nepal straight from home, we could easily have done this at the local registry office, but as we had been travelling we needed to find somewhere else. Luckily, our trip to Thailand was easily extendable to 21 days and so on the day we left Bangkok for Laos, we paid a visit to the British Embassy there and gave our notice. They then displayed this for 21 days in the embassy and after they received no objections from anyone, faxed the details through to the British Embassy in Kathmandu, which takes us on to the next step….

After arriving in Kathmandu, we visited the embassy and they used the information from Bangkok to issue a ‘letter of no impediment to marriage’. They also gave us copies of our declaration, affidavit and information that had been displayed in Bangkok. We would need copies of all of these for the process.

So far so good, but then we had to go to the CDO in Kathmandu and that was where the real fun began. The next two days involved a tortuous process of getting paperwork checked and rechecked in the various rooms of the CDO, then things being stamped, and then as we thought we were getting somewhere, being told we now needed to take everything and go to another place in Kathmandu to get further documentation. Unfortunately they don’t give you a list at the start of what you need so you end up just going back and forth in a seemingly endless loop. If anyone reading this is thinking of doing the same thing, it can be done, but allow 5 days of running around to be safe, and for the record, the following is what you’ll need to obtains:

• A letter from your hotel stating that you are staying there between certain dates (make sure it states that you will still be there 16 days after the initial date as this is when the registration should be completed).




• A letter from the Hanumandhoka police station in Kathmandu (near Durbar Sq) that will then need to be taken to the local police station near where you are staying and then back to Hanumandhoka for verification! This is just to confirm you don’t have a criminal record in Nepal,




• A completed registration from (you get this from room 11 in the CDO but will need help filling it in unless you can read Nepalese)




• A witness form (again get from CDO) signed by three witnesses who must then also be willing to go with you to the CDO later on to sign the register




• Your original passports with Nepalese visas




• At least 10 passport sized photos each

Once you have all of those items, take a lot of photocopies as you’ll have to give copies of everything to at least 5 separate rooms in the CDO. You will then have the fun process of running between the different departments (mainly rooms 11, 9, and 15) in the CDO, often having to come back the next day as the person you want to see isn’t there.

Contrary to information we read on the internet, once you have started this process and given in all the paperwork, you don’t have to stay in Kathmandu for the next 16 days and can go off trekking in that time. You’ll need the break after all that! However, when you do finally complete the process, you get to be legally married in the most stunning scenery on the planet and get a certificate in Nepalese and English to prove it (complete with an Everest stamp). Perfect.

Steve