Enroute to Mysore, we saw a wedding procession following behind us. It was centered around a well-dressed groom on a white horse heading to the marriage gardens. In front of him was a huge group of his friends and relatives, all dressed to party and carrying the wedding essentials - flowers, small dishes of food, fruit, betelnut, herbs, etc. 

The procession was led by a group of musicians in full band uniforms -- decoratvie red jackets and special hats -- beating drums and playing brass instruments. They were surrounded by a jubilant dancing and singing crowd all decked out for the wedding celebration.  . . . right behind our bus. When the crowd of celebrants saw some of us taking photos out the rear window of the bus, they beckoned like crazy for us to join them, so our bus driver stopped, and we all dashed out to join in the dancing. 

They were SO welcoming and Bill was right in there with the musicians and both of us danced up a storm. As we walked back to the bus, street kids all gathered wanting to have their picture taken. This started of with three kids, then more and more photo bombed . . . LOL!

We finally made it  back onto the bus and let the groom continue. During our visit to India we came across such wedding ceremonies almost daily. Previously, we had a birds eye view of one of these elaborate events. From our hotel room up in Agrea which overlooked wedding garden we watched and listened to the festivites until midnight one evening. We were tempted to join in, but the festivities described on this page were the closest we ever got although we had been invited numerous times. If our bus hadn't had a schedule to meet we might even have followed the parade to the gardens where the bride was waiting in her full nuptial regalia.

We stopped for lunch at a unique restaurant, They don't use plates but everything was eaten off fresh banana leaves. It was great and most of us ate with our fingers. The server waited to see how we'd manage (probably had cutlery in his pocket ready to whip them out for these foreigners), and he was smiling with approval. 

We had our second Rasmalai smoothie today at a toilet break stop: Cafe Day Coffee - a chain eatery. It was so good that Sue-On decided to search out the recipe after we returned home.