LIFE & TRAVEL | Mumbai, A different way to spend Christmas PART 1

A month ago, most of you celebrated Christmas eve and Christmas day with your friends and family. I used to do this myself for 19 years but this year, Christmas was a tiny bit different.

I was invited to an Indian wedding by a classmate. I've always been interested in other cultures so my sister and I told ourselves, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see and experience the traditions of an Indian wedding. We convinced our parents we really wanted to be part of this, instantly bought tickets to Mumbai and arranged everything for our visa and international passports. (well actually my mom arranged everything, thank you mom :D)

After a wonderful flight with Etihad airways to Abu Dhabi, we took off to Mumbai, an hour too late. 

Once in Mumbai, a taxidriver was already waiting for us outside the airport. First thing you see when driving through Mumbai is the combination of plants, trees, people (living) on the streets, garbage, weird architecture, abandoned apartments, improvised homes, way too much taxis and riksja's, street dogs all covered with a tiny layer of dust and a lot of smog. But like every big city, beside the non pleasant things, there are parts of Mumbai with cosy streets, wonderful architecture and buildings, homes, exotic plants and fruit. And I must admit, during our stay in India we mostly got to see the marvolous and joyful part of India, and by that I mean the tradition of celebrating a wedding four days long.

Mumbai Central Station, which is listed as UNESCO World Heritage.

 Mumbai's open air laudry where only men work. The taxi driver told us, all the hotel laundry in Mumbai is done here.

Three people in silent protest, near the Gateway of India, against the gang-rape in Delhi.

My sister and me in our fashionable clothes. People in India don't really appreciate tourist being half naked so we always wore trousers and a scarf wrapped around our shoulders.

The harbor near the Gateway

The Mumbai Museum Gallery, unfortunatly we were not allowed to take photos inside. But I can tell you, almost half of the museum was purchased by gifts by Ratan Tata, an important Indian businessman.

Besides these small taxi trips we made during the day, we enjoyed five days of the festivities. It was like a big dream. Imagine a fairytale wedding... Well an Indian wedding is just like one. The colourful clothes, the sparkling jewelery, hundreds of people, buffets with a lot of different kinds of food, fruit and desserts. I'll show you these pictures next time!

Ciao!

All pictures are taken by me, my sister and Alisa!