Wedding Crashing in India

In 2005, the movie Wedding Crashers was released and became an instant cult classic. The movie about two guys that attend weddings uninvited in an attempt to bed women.

The movie had some amazing scenes including this one:




Would you like to be a wedding crasher? There are tours that get you invited to amazing weddings that your were not invited too. The New York Times writes about tour companies that get you invited into a massive wedding in India. According to the article, weddings in India are huge lavish multiday affairs.

The author, Adam Graham, writes about his personal experience:

"We had been invited to an Indian wedding. As the hand-painted invitation put it: 'You’re cordially invited to the wedding of Sau. Kan. Hanupriya Jodha (daughter of Rani Kiran Hada and Darbar Mahendra Vikram Singh Thi. Para) and Chi Kr Navdeep Singh (son of Shri Th. Sh. Rajendra Singh Ji Shekhawat R.P.S. Thi Khachariawas — Adopted by late Shri Th. Sh. Surendra Singh Ji Chauhan Thi Sihali at Govind Villa in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.' 

The newlyweds-to-be were not old friends from college, family members or even friends of friends. Truth be told, we didn’t know the bride and groom or any of their 1,000 other guests. We had been invited thanks to a New York-based tour agency called Micato Safaris, one of a handful of tour agencies that provide access to Indian weddings. Weddings in this region, which are mostly arranged, are a big deal — and for a tidy price, crashing them can be a great way to poke one’s head into a rich cultural window that you won’t get from a guidebook."

Graham paid a company to get him invited to the wedding. The article mentions three companies that offer this type of service:

Micato (micato.com/india; five-night packages, including lodging, meals, activities, tips and flights within India, from $7,590) can help visitors experience an authentic Indian wedding by arranging invitations and fittings of saris and sherwanis.

Cox & Kings (coxandkingsusa.com; seven nights, including lodging, and some meals, from $4,395) arranges wedding encounters in their Jewels of India Tour.

London-based Mystic India (mysticindia.co.uk; eight-night home stays from $1,252) creates a range of tours to fit every budget; for wedding encounters, guests are required to bring a gift valued at £100, about $160, or more, to the wedding couple.

Don't feel like paying a company to help you get invited. Visit somewhere between October and February and you might stumble upon one. If that doesn't work, ask someone at the hotel.

Indian weddings are over the top affairs. Some weddings can have over 1,000+ attendees.

http://www.exoticindianweddings.com/indian-wedding

Graham writes that:

"All weddings are different, of course, but food almost always plays a central role. However elaborate the ceremonies, much of it is homemade and served communally. It’s vegetarian and delicious. Fragrant bowls of curries, stacks of nan atop silver plates, and savory biriyani in crockpots stretch over long tables. Bars are almost always free, and whiskey flows heavily. 

Men and women are separate for much of the ceremony. Women gather for ornate henna bodywork in one tent, while men exchange business tips and network over whiskey and cigarettes in another. Women may enter the men’s tent, but men are strictly forbidden from the women’s. I warily peeked into the women’s tent to check in on Dianne and witnessed women of all ages sitting in a circle painting one another with henna."

Overall, an Indian wedding is a celebration of community. A celebration of family.. A celebration of love. All tied up with elaborate clothing, food, and lots of dancing.

Would you pay to attend a stranger's wedding?

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What About The Power?

The FAA's decision to allow certain devices to be used throughout entire airlines flights is long over due. The reasons against tablets, eReaders and music players being used below 10,000 feet were antiquated and down-righted stupid. Unfortunately, the roll-out of this new rule will not be uniform, but rather require approval airline by airline.

New York Times

The New York Times' In-Transit Blog asked an interesting question: "where's the power outlet?"

By allowing devices throughout entire flights, the FAA has now put pressure on airlines to add power outlets on more flights. "The F.A.A.’s determination on portable devices makes the need for both Wi-Fi and the power to access it even more important. With more fliers than ever using tablets and smartphones in place of laptops, that could come out to more than an hour of extra connected time for passengers." 

Allowing passengers to use devices during take-off and landing will add an additional hour of entertainment.
However, you better charge your device on the ground. Currently, "only about 1,200 of an average 22,000 domestic economy flights taking off in the United States Friday will offer A/C or USB outlets, Routehappy, the flight data Web site and search engine, said on Thursday. That’s little more than 5 percent of flights spanning only six airlines: American, Delta, Hawaiian, United, US Airways and Virgin America, according to recent data analyzed by the company."

Only 5% of domestic flights have power outlets is sad. Compare that to Amtrak and bus companies like Bolt and Megabus which offer outlets at most seats. If trains and buses can add power outlets, shouldn't airplanes have them. The need for power outlets has long time coming. Passengers have been using electronic devices on airplanes for years. The lack of outlets on airplanes is the result of years of miscues by airline executives.

Adding outlets to the airplanes may cost money, but will go a long way to improve the customer experience. Improved customer experience = happier customers= repeat customers = increased profits. Sometimes, its the little things that matter!
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Iran's New President Hopes for Increased Tourism

The New York Times reported earlier this week that Iran is looking at ways to increase tourism.

"At the top of the agenda of Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, is fixing the country’s crumbling economy, and promoting international tourism is part of his solution 

Mr. Rouhani wants the number of foreign visitors to more than double, to 10 million from 4 million, each year, according to a report last month in The Washington Post. Such an increase, The Post reported Mr. Rouhani as saying, would “create jobs for 4 million people, solving the problem of 3.5 million unemployed people in this country.”

http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/ir/

Sanctions placed by Western national have put pressure on Rouhani to bring foreign money into his country. Rouhani's efforts are applauded by Iranian tour operators. Hamid R. Tavassoli, founder of Iranian Tours, a Tehran-based agency that runs guided trips to cities like Yazd and Shiraz, believes “the Iranian culture, nature, hospitality and infrastructure very well deserves a much larger number of tourists to visit the country."

Iran is home to 16 UNESCO sites, which makes it a prime candidate for tourism.

From the UNESCO Site

Matthew from Live and Let's Fly visit the Iranian island of Kish in 2011. His trip can be read here, here, here, here, here, and here. From the pictures that he took of the his visit, Kish looks like an amazing to visit. The old school attractions transport you to a different time. However, Matthew's visit does not go smoothly. From getting airline tickets to Kish to immigration to trying to leave, the story is a great example of the dangers of traveling to a country with no American diplomatic relations.

The State Department still recommends Americans be cautious in traveling to Iran. The State Department Travel warning, dated May 24, 2013, states

"Some elements in Iran remain hostile to the United States. As a result, U.S. citizens may be subject to harassment or arrest while traveling or residing in Iran. Since 2009, Iranian authorities have prevented the departure, in some cases for several months, of a number of Iranian-American citizens, including journalists and academics, who traveled to Iran for personal or professional reasons. Iranian authorities also have unjustly detained or imprisoned U.S. citizens on various charges, including espionage and posing a threat to national security. U.S. citizens of Iranian origin should consider the risk of being targeted by authorities before planning travel to Iran"

If you decided to travel to Iran, you need to be prepared to fend for yourself if you get in trouble. The United States does not have a diplomatic mission in Iran; instead, the Swiss kindly step in to help out Americans in trouble. However, the Swiss 's support only goes so far.

Iran's new President's goal of increase international tourism is laudable. However, I won't be going to visit anytime soon. The dangers of traveling to Iran are to great for me, as a Jewish American. No amazing destination is worth me putting my life in danger.


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Global Entry Seeing Growth and Possible Expansion of Reciprocal Benefits In Other Countries

A great article in today's New York Times  featured the growing popularity of the Global Entry program which allows quick entry through an automated kiosk at selected customs locations at United States airports. The first part of the article featured an account of the New York Times author going through the interview stage of the application process and featured a very funny story of how his fingerprints wouldn't register so he had to wipe his fingers, first, on his forehead and later on the Customs and Border Protection agent's forehead to get moisture enough to register his fingerprints.

But outside of that funny anicdote I was struck by a set of quotes from John Wagner, who is the acting deputy assistant commissioner for field operations for the Customs and Boarder Patrol. He says that the Global Entry program has seen amazing levels of growth in the last couple of months.

"We're seeing applications in record-breaking numbers," said Wagner. "We were doing about 15,000 applications a month for Global Entry, but the last couple of months we've done 50,000."

Even more interesting was the revelation that more agreements with foreign countries are in the works that would allow for expedited customs and immigration processes for US based Global Entry members when they travel to those countries and foreign citizens who are members of their countries program would be able to use Global Entry when they come to the United States.

"We've reached agreements with a lot of different countries on reciprocal arrangements where they'll be able to conduct the vetting and qualify their citizens fro Global Entry, and they'll take the U.S> citizen who has Global Entry and all them to apply for the program they have to enter their country," said Wagner. "For instance, in the Netherlands, Korea, Germany, the U.K., we're in the different phases of doing this."

About 1.5 million citizens are a part of the Global Entry program and in the next five years Wagner has indicated they want to see the overall traffic from Global Entry represent 15-20 percent of all arriving air passengers clearing customs and immigration.

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NYT: 46 Places to Go In 2013

I was having a hard time sleeping earlier this week, so I started browsing the internet. It was 2am and the troubles of the week were keeping me up. (You know the basic problems for a mortgage officer: Did I get the paystub for the X loan or what will I do if the appraisal for the W loan comes in low - Yes, we worry about your loans, morning, noon and late at night) Well, I started browsing my normal sites (ESPN, CNN, CNBC, Washinton Post), but I was still wide awake. This led me to a New York Times and travel sections, where the article "46 Places to Go In 2013" which caught my attention.
Produced by Matt Bloch, Alicia DeSantis, Matt Ericson, Ben Koski, Josh Robinson and Josh Williams,all of the New York Times helps travelers of all levels, sometimes we need these type of lists to push our travel boundaries to the next level.

Before going over the list, the article is a must read for no other point of looking at the beautiful photos of each place. In addition to the photos, the NYT provides commentary of each of the 46 Places to Go.

The list of 46 places breaks down as the followed:

US - 7 Places

• Houston
• White Salmon River, Washington
• The Big Island, Hawaii
• The Adirondacks, New York
• Puerto Rico
• Jackson Hole, Wyoming
• Washington, DC

Canada - 2 Places

• Rossland, British Columbia
• Charlevoix, Quebec

Latin America - 4 Places

• Rio de Janeiro
• Nicaragua
• Yucatan, Mexico
• The Falkland Islands

Europe - 16 Places

• Marseille
• Amsterdam
• Istanbul
• Montenegro
• Hvar, Croatia
• Vernazza, Italy
• Oslo, Norway
• Lithuania
• Burgos, Spain
• Lens, France
• Porto, Portugal
• The Jeseniky, Czech Republic
• Pecs, Hungary
• Ireland
• Getaria, Spain
• Paris

Africa - 4 Places

• Accra, Ghana
• Constantia, South Africa
• Republic of Congo
• Casablanca, Morocco

Asia and Pacific: 13 Places

• Bhutan
• New Delhi
• Singapore
• Mongolia
• Philippines
• The Kimberly Island, Australia
• Ningxia, China
• Changbaishan, China
• Koh Phangan, Thailand
• Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka'
• Bangkok
• Waiheke, New Zealand
• Mergui Islands, Myanmar

The result of reading the article was not good; I could not fall to sleep any faster. I stayed up 45 additional minutes more thinking about which places I need to visit in 2013. Not WANT, but NEED. By the next morning, I had made up my mind.

All I am going to mention is that I am going to visit at least two of these places on the list: one in the US and at least one outside. Here is a hint for the one outside of the US: the easiest airport to fly into is also one of the hottest places now to vacation, but where the airport is located isn't where I want to visit. Any guesses?

Are there places on this list that you want to visit?