Himalaya the fourth

DAY SEVEN - ONTO OKKIMOT FOR A RUSSIAN / INDIAN WEDDING!

As planned, we rose at 6... or at least some of us did. But I must say that most of the hold-up today was caused by the usual time it took to load the bags onto the roof racks, wait for our chai to arrive and eat cold chapatis - we'd breakfast properly a couple of hours down the track.

We drove... and drove... and drove.... today was the longest drive yet, as we were on a mission to reach Okkimot by 6 pm so the wedding celebrations could begin. Zuhara and Gari had decided to tie the knot Indian style and our organisers Mahesh and Chandan were bending over backwards trying to make it the best day possible for them. I shared a car with Chandan, and I don't think he spent more than a few minutes off his phone that day, in between organising wedding food in advance and checking the beauty parlour booking. Unfortunately for him and the rest of us, Indian roads aren't the most predictable things to navigate and time correctly...

Breakfast was supposed to be a rushed affair, but somehow when there were 16 of us things always took longer than expected! My paratha was particularly good that morning I remember, and accompanied by others mango and banana offerings. Back in the car, it was HOT HOT HOT and Irina and I squirmed at the lack of air-con unlike the other cars, but I suppose that was a perk they had pre-paid for and we, joining at the last minute, didn't have much choice or right to complain. Nothing of interest happened until we stopped for lunch at around 2 in 'Srinagar', not the capital of Kashmir obviously but a town with the same name. We had begun to split up into smaller groups to ease the burden on the restaurateurs, and I ate with Ksenia, Dima #2 (two Dimas, two Vitalys) and Julia in a quiet, clean family restaurant in which they were pleased to have their best meal in the north of India yet. Used to clean, fresh, unspicy food these three were struggling a bit, but here with boiled eggs, plain white bread, white rice, fresh salad and paneer, they were in lunch heaven.

Then we drove... and drove.. and drove again... stopping to pick up vegetables for the evening's feast, the back of our car quickly becoming heavy with cucumbers and tomatoes as well as fresh flowers. Irina and I stopped to buy some pretty bangles and rose water, having heard the rumour that all women would be in full sari and excited, being quite feminine creatures and keen to dress up later on...

We FINALLY reached our Okkimot hotel and checked in, Irina and I sharing what turned out to be a shockingly dirty ashram room across the road as prices were too high for us in the hotel of the others. Here we showered with hot buckets ('real' showers a complete luxury in these parts...) and awaited more instructions of the evening. As we had arrived two hours late, things were a bit ad-hoc and there was no time to find saris for all of us (except the blushing bride of course, who looked amazing in a rusty orange shimmering number and full bridal makeup). The groom, Gari was waiting smilingly in his glittering raiment of wedding attire - seemingly unphased by all the excitement. As soon as Irina and I had crossed the road pretty much, we were all taken downstairs again to dance with the wedding band as the horse showed up to walk Gari a few hundred metres down the road in wedding procession. A few of us were coerced into dancing with the band, and I wrapped my shawl protectively around myself, aware of the local eyes boring into these strange white faces. But they were friendly, and loving it! It wasn't every day after all that they were able to witness an Indian marriage between two foreigners! Most of them I knew just thought all the Hindu rites were normal for us - not having left their village, they assumed that everyone would either be Muslim, Hindu or Christian and it wouldn't have occured to them that this was not normal wedding procedure for us...

As the temple was further away than just a few hundred metres, Gari soon got off the horse and we were all bundled into our cars to reach the sacred temple. Instructed not to take photos of the lingam itself, we didn't need to be convinced - this night was about Zuhara and Gari, who were both glowing and beautiful, and shimmering in all their Indian glitter.

I've been to a few Indian weddings before, but never one as beautiful as this - this was the first one I'd been to in a proper temple as well. Conducted all in Sanskrit besides each participant being asked for their name, it wouldn't have made a difference to Zuhara who knew but a few words of English and was just beaming and glowing. I gave up trying to capture their beauty in photographs, especially due to the low light, and contented myself with just watching the ceremony. They garlanded each other with flowers (we had all been garlanded earlier also...), threw rice, touched sandalwood paste to their foreheads and walked traditionally around the sacred fire seven times. This moment made me laugh inside as it was so typically Indian! Such a beautiful moment you'd want to savour, you'd think? But the priest was like " walk faster.. faster..." and the couple were somewhat herded around and around the small fire that had been lit a few minutes earlier by a man that shimmied down to the hollow below and got thrown a lighter from someone in order to do the honours. As usual, locals were talking loudly, not so much oblivious to the sacredness of the moment but rather accepting that in India everything is sacred and thinking that talking loudly wouldn't take anything away from the experience...

When it was all over we ventured outside to dance around the happy couple once more, who were stealing a few kisses here and there - all closed mouth, as it was a temple after all!! Everyone around us was so happy and supportive, and I soon forgot my frustration with being elbowed earlier. After half an hour or dancing and waving money above the heads of the musicians for good luck, we went back to our hotel and were served an incredible feast which had been cooked by our drivers over the past two hours. We were honoured - piles of beautiful pulao, palak paneer, a beautiful potato curry for the Russians... and a delicious rice pudding. We were all happy for the couple, who had been taken to their honeymoon suite all adorned in multicoloured streamers, but also exhausted and aware that tomorrow we were to embark on a 14 km trek up to Kedarnath and its sacred Shiva temple. My ankle was hurting and I wasn't sure if I could hack the pace to be honest, but I did my best to put all thoughts aside and enjoy the moment.

Back in the dirty ashram cell, I curled up on my bed covered in my own shawls, trying not to think about potential bedbugs and managed to get a few hours sleep before my dawn decision of whether or not to walk...