Hi Mum!

I've been back in Aomori for more than a week, so it is high time I got my A into G and put up some photos.

Shilpa and I spent one day in Hyderabad. We visited Charminar and the old part of Hyderabad. We went bangle shopping and I had my arse grabbed by a dodgy north Indian man. It was an eventful day.

This is Charminar:
And this is the view:
We had some lunch, and the first of many Thums Ups:
That night Shilp and I took the train (11 hours or so) to Tirupati, where we indulged in some coconuts:
And some vegetable shopping:
While shopping for veges, my camera and I caught the attention of these two:
Or as Shilp described it "what is this black magic the white witch has?"

In our travels we took many auto rides. Here, we are waiting while the driver fills the auto with petrol, while the engine was still running. Saftey first!

The two days we had in Tirupati involved lots of visiting Shilpa's friends and relatives (and another marathon gossip session...). Early on Wednesday morning Shilpa, her mum and I caught a bus to Chennai (formerly known as Madras).

Tamil Nadu is very pretty. This is the rest stop halfway between Tirupati and Chennai:
I think the bus ride was about 4 hours. I we had Indian junk food to keep us fed.

I told Shilpa she was trying to make me fat. She said "You won't get fat. Only people who don't eat anything get fat in India." I swear, this girl has a sixth sense!

In Chennai we took a 45 minute bus ride across town. It was a local bus. It wasn't fun. We went and visited one of Shilp's mum's cousins, had lunch there, and then took a 45 minute auto ride back across town. We had all sorts of adventures trying to find Shilp's uncle's house. We visited them, then headed back to the bus terminal.

There, we took a 5 hour bus to Nellore, Shilp's mum's hometown. We stayed with another uncle. By this stage I was exhausted, overwhelmed by too many Indians, and over fed (again!). I had my wee culture shock/breakdown and had an early night.

After a couple of hours sleep I was all genki again, and ready to visit the temple with Shilp, her mum and Pratima (who had arrived early that morning).
After visiting the temple we headed out to Kovur, the village where Shilpa's grandmother lives. We hung out for the afternoon, and played with the little cousins.

This is Shilpa and Pratima:

And Pratima with her cousins:
That night we moved from Shilp's uncle's to the house the family had rented for the wedding. It was HUGE! I made Shilp's aunt crack up laughing when I walked in - I couldn't believe the size of it. I am used to Japanese houses, and this could fit at least 4 of my apartment in it!

Here is a random photo of some buffalo. There are lots of buffalo in Nellore. There are also lots of mozzies. They seem to like me a lot. Not so spicy I guess. A little bit of ethnic food in the diet.

The next day I went with Shilp and her mum to talk about the wedding photos, then we went to see Dave and his friends and sister. They had arrived early that morning and were staying in a hotel. We went and had lunch with them, then rescued Dave's sister (she'd spent two weeks travelling with boys...) and went to the beauty salon to get Shilp all beautiful. We all got mehindi (henna) on our hands as well.

The next day the wedding events started and I have lots of photos of Shilp looking gorgeous. You are going to have to wait for another day though!