A fine wedding, with no elephants.

Tuesday 21^st August, 2018.

Ben is working in the Waterfront this morning when we went for breakfast, so we got some official goss from her about the Indian wedding. 
 

our darling waitress, Ben

Apparently they partied on till 4am this morning. Ben tells us that this is a small wedding, only 300 guests. Wow! There have been weddings here with 500! I feel sorry for anyone not involved who is staying over that side of the resort but it looks like it might be our turn tonight, they’re setting up on the Marquee Lawn today in preparation for tonight. Someone told us that a guest complained last night about the noise and asked to be moved somewhere quieter. I hope they didn’t get moved over this side!  

A lot of the Indian guests we’ve crossed paths with are so arrogant, expecting everyone to get out of their way. When we came back from our complimentary massages there were 3 of them walking along, taking up the whole path. I said to Trevor that I wasn’t going to move off my line. Anyway, I think they might have got the message and they moved over a bit, but I still (intentionally) bumped shoulders with one of them. Tough luck. 

We were going to complain that the beer promo had been stopped because of the wedding but it looks as though enough people have beaten us to it because it’s back on today. We thought we might score a free drink for our ‘inconvenience’.

Our massage was so relaxing, 45 minute orange aromatherapy. Trevor asked for light pressure and I asked for medium and we both thought that at times the pressure was a bit more than we asked for but it was still ok. Trevor is such a softy! We were sitting out in their garden courtyard after our massage to drink ginger tea and complete the feedback form when movement in the water caught my eye. The tiniest of frogs were hopping on the lily pads and we stood up to watch them better. Next thing, it was the Nat Geo and Animal Planet channels all rolled into one! There’ll be more frogs in that pond before long! 

Kat and Phil came into the Infinity Pool bar just as we’d finished lunch. They were going to eat at the Beach Bar but they got turned away because the staff said it was going to rain and the food had to come from the Waterfront kitchen and the waiters and food would get wet. They went for a bike ride today out to the local’s fresh food market where Pam will take us on Thursday. Then they went down to the beach huts for a foot massage. That sounds good, I think I’ll have to go and get one of those! We agreed on a few dishes for the cooking class and they’ll tell Pam tonight. They’re certainly covering some ground.

We’re going to leave our swim till a bit later today so we can coincide it with a visit to the swim-up bar at Happy Hour. I want to try a Banana Colada. When we get there, I find that it’s not on the Happy Hour list, so settle for a Pina Colada instead. 

The Bharat procession is supposed to commence at 5pm, but by 6pm it still hasn’t started and then the rain blows in, right on cue. Luckily we saw it coming in the distance and took our umbrellas. So we waited and waited with Kat and Phil and eventually they bailed because they had to be ready for a 7pm pick-up to go to Pam’s and we waited till nearly 6.45 and gave up and went to get ready for dinner. 

The Bridal Car

portable drinks bar

not sure about some of the decorations

It was about 5 to 7 and we could hear drumming so went back to the lawn to see what the progress was. Got talking to one of the staff and mentioned that we were going to be late for our 7pm booking. He offered to let them know we’d be late and was going to ask them to change it to 7.30. Thinking he had a radio communication we thanked him and agreed and off he went on foot to the restaurant to make the change! That’s service! And with a smile! Talking to this member of staff, we learned that the Bharat procession is taking the groom to the ceremony, everyone dancing all the way, although tonight is just the party and the procession was something to see. There were the drummers, of course, but also stilt walkers, fire twirlers, dancing girls in skimpy, sparkly outfits, and jugglers, along with the ute laden with big speakers pumping out the Bollywood music and towing the drinks Kombi. But no elephants! What’s an Indian celebration without decorated elephants??!! 

The procession was meant to happen in the daylight, but it started late, so not really any good photos, but got some good video. 

Trevor sees the couple from Wilson’s Prom this arvo and they’re all scrubbed up. They sat at breakfast today and chatted with an Indian man for some time and he turned out to be the father of the bride and he insisted that they attend the wedding. So we now refer to them as the wedding crashers, as do their family back home! They spent the day drinking French champagne and eating all sorts of seafood. Just as well it was them and not us, we certainly didn’t have the appropriate clothes in our bags and we’ve had enough lobster, thanks anyway! Karen had a lovely blue dress made in India last week which she was going to tuck away for some event back home, but she got to wear it sooner than planned. Kat and Phil said they saw a couple in the wedding group who didn’t look like they fitted in and we told them who they were. Phil tells me my attitude towards the Indians and crashing into them on the path is the reason we didn't get an invitation to the wedding! Hahahahaha!

outside Quan

courtyard in the Quan Spa

Dinner tonight is back at the Japanese restaurant, Sakura and Ben is working there tonight she tells us when she sees us at breakfast. Our dinner was another lovely meal, although Trevor ordered the soft shell crab, only for it to be served dressed as sushi. He’s not a fan of sushi, but he enjoyed it. And we had a couple of conversations with Ben because it wasn’t too busy there and she had time to chat. I’ll be interested to see how Kat and Phil enjoyed their meal at Pam’s. It poured with rain during our meal, so I’m guessing they would have copped it over there too. 

The Indian wedding schedule had 5 minutes of fireworks sometime between 8 and 9pm, but because everything kicked off late, the fireworks were delayed. We’d actually forgotten about them until we heard a bang at about 9.30, raced outside but couldn’t see them, so I scurried back to the lawn for a better look. They were very low and didn’t seem to last for 5 minutes, but I guess 5 minutes can go pretty quick. 

Just saw an ad on tv for a movie called ‘Dear Dictator’, starring Michael Caine. Looks good but it won’t be on here till after we leave. Will have to try and find it at home. 

Went to bed around 10-10.30 and the music from the wedding was pumping. The reverberations seemed to shake our walls! It must have been unbearably loud in the venue, and it wasn’t the sort of music I imagined when I thought ‘Indian wedding’. I must have seen too many Bollywood wedding movies! This music was modern, loud and a bit techno at times. I commented to Trevor that living next door to Sol had been good training for tonight. Many’s the night we have had to go to sleep with his shoot-em-up movies blasting the neighbourhood! It’s not so bad during school term as he’s a teacher (God help the students!) but we nearly dread the school holidays, and cross our fingers that he’ll go away on holiday. Anyway, we got to sleep with no problem and stayed that way.