To continue the tale or our Wedding World Tour chronologically, I must continue onward from the post below, “Out of Asia…“. As I was writing, Lynn — a 15-year old female Rothschild giraffe – walked up to my spot on the lawn at Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Kenya, and was eating from my hand … and mouth! But since I’m now back to telling the story chronologically, I’ll leave the rest of this for a future post.

I left off last as we had visited the umbrella-making area of Chiang Mai (northern Thailand), and here are a few overdue photos from that journey, from our flight through the silk factory:

(Click-through if you can’t see the pictures below)

Read the rest of this entry »

We return to “civilization” today not as “April Malina Niedle and Jason Niedle,” but as “Saruni Ole Mpeti and Nasieku Nne Mpeti.” These are the names that have been given us by Kenya’s historic Maasai tribe in our unbelievable ceremony with them. They have adopted us into their culture, and so I return with a new brother and friend, and April with a new sister and friend, and all of us with new family, from a ceremony that was as traditional as it was deep. And while I would love now to tell the bittersweet tale of finding new family overnight, and departing from them just as quickly, I am severely lacking sleep and still needing to book a hotel in Athens, download 1000+ photos, and choose a few photos quickly to post below.

(I had this romantic notion of posting full updates and details on the blog as we went along. That, though, would have taken as much time as our experiences have, and so just these short updates for now, and longer updates with more pictures to follow.)

We are currently at Mara Serena for our last night in Kenya before heading out via Emirates to Dubai. We are safe. We are happy. We miss our new family, but they have also left us many things to think about with you, our existing family and community. For now, a couple of photos from our Maasai ceremony.

Surreal. It’s the word that comes to mind over and over again as we circle the globe on our Wedding World Tour — four weddings in four vastly different cultures.

At the moment I’m sitting outside an old colonial style mansion in Kenya. It’s Monday, presumably February 21, 2011. April is napping after our overnight journey from Bangkok, I’m drinking an ice-cold Tusker beer, there’s a slight breeze, the temperature is ideal, the dog is chasing the warthogs, and several giraffes are eating from the trees a few feet away. We’re at Giraffe Manor — former home of “Out of Africa” author Karen Blixen — and life is heavenly. (Cell phone picture of the closest living being to me is below.)

Neither of us can believe that we’ve only been gone 1 week, and the experiences have been so unreal that, sitting here with the giraffes, we look back on activities only a day old and wonder “Did that really happen? Is THIS really happening?” As unreal as it feels, though, we are enjoying every moment like a wonderful dream you don’t want to awaken from.

After about 30 hours of traveling, we arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday last, and immediately flew to Chiang Mai in the north. With our amazing Emirates flight, we were actually pretty well rested and feeling healthy, so we hired our airport taxi driver, Josh, for the rest of the day (800 baht, about $24). We first took a “nap” (finally!!), and then took the tourist’s tour of Chiang Mai: the umbrella-making shop (colorful and interesting, but not so culturally authentic), then a jewelry store (turns out the taxi drivers get free gas if they bring you there, we later discovered), and a silk store. The silk shop tripped is out: inside were covered baskets with, we figured, product in them. But lo and behold, when we opened one up it was a writhing mass of worms and their silk cocoons … they were actually making silk. The scarves were of the most beautiful fabric and colors I have ever seen, but were quite expensive (around $40/each) by Thai standards.

(At this point on my writing, Lynn came over. Lynn is a 15-year old female Rothschild giraffe, about 16 feet tall. She first ate from my hand. Then, her 16-inch long tongue reached out and took from my mouth –

(and at this point, we had even more activities, all good … to be continued…))

It’s now late night on the 17th of February, and not only is internet access sparse out here, but having time and electricity to sit at a computer is also nearly impossible.

Tomorrow is our Thai wedding (the second of 4 ceremonies in our Wedding World Tour), and we have to be up in 6 hours. I’m beyond exhausted, but I’m trying to somehow keep up on this. I know that when we go out into the Mara in Kenya we won’t have any internet, so there will be a big gap. I owe full explanations for everything — which I will do by separate posts — and lots of pictures. But for now, here’s a recap of where we’re at as well as a few unedited pictures.

Day 1 & 2: amazing flights on Emirates, blogged about earlier.

Day 3 (Feb 15): First day in Chiang Mai … took a sightseeing tour, visited the most amazing, spiritual place either of us have ever been to, Doi Suthep.

Day 4 (Feb 16): Another experience-of-a-lifetime: getting to know an elephant, cleaning her (him in April’s case), riding him to a pool, swimming with elephants in the pool (absolutely amazing!), an incredible lunch, then riding back … plus spending time with a 5-day old baby elephant, born on our first wedding day.

Day 5 (Feb 17): Today was a Thai cooking class, very fun! Then the journey to Lampang, where we met up with Mom Marcia and Jack. We got fitted for Thai wedding outfits, which was outrageous. I felt like a King, and April a Thai Princess.

Here are a few unedited pix of above:

This was the pre-flight champagne. She was amazing, we got to talk a lot and will keep in touch I’m sure… fantastic Emirates service!

All I can say was that their food was great … yes, that’s seared ahi.

I think we were REALLY lucky to get in to this temple after dark. It was amazing, more later:

The elephants were like begging dogs after lunch, because they knew that they would get our sticky rice and bananas. It was pandemonium (in the best way) as they rushed our hut to get food:

The elephants playing in the water, just feet from where I was standing:

Baan Orapin, our hotel in Chiang Mai:

Us in our Thai cooking garb at the cooking school:

Yes, I look terrible after a long day’s journey … but the suit will be amazing for our wedding tomorrow… and you’ll just have to wait and see April’s!

More as I can, leave those comments!

This was one of those incredible moments that I’ll remember for the rest of my life … thank you, my love.

Life, it is often said, is about the journey and not the destination. I wouldn’t quite say that’s true, as I’m really looking forward to our destinations of Chiangmai and Lampang (Thailand), Nairobi and the Maasai Mara (Kenya), Dubai (UAE), and Athens and Santorini (Greece). But thus far, about 30 hours into our trip, the journey has been our only destination so far … and I can say it’s been made a million times easier by being on an amazing airline.

By several major strokes of good fortune, we ended up on Emirates — which we were excited about trying — and Business Class, at that … which we were VERY excited about. And I think April’s statement “Wow, this is the best coffee I’ve ever had!” sums up our experience: a mini spa-day in the air, with all details attended to perfectly.

We were picked up by their Mercedes and actually arrived at the airport with zero stress … I think a first for me. They were expecting us (that, or our Wedding World Tour t-shirts gave us away), and we did a couple of photos with the crew. Once onboard, April squealed with joy as she discovered that the seat went all the way flat, and again when opening the beautiful ‘comfort kit’ they provided.

We made friends with our primary flight attendant (she was so sweet … we will keep on touch!), had 5-course meals (I particularly loved the fantastic Port with cheese selection for dessert), and slept… a lot!! (which is why we called it ’spa day’ … we finally got to relax!)

My only small quibble with them: they shouldn’t call it ‘business class,’ because it’s better then the First Class I’ve experienced on other airlines. We’ve been soooo happy and comfortable on what’s normally a tough journey.

Anyway, Emirates made the 16 hour flight (plus 4 hours in the Dubai lounge) and the following 5 hour flight pass in an instant, and was the perfect way to start — and continue, as Emirates is how we will fly to all those crazy destinations — our Wedding World Tour!

(Note: There are a couple of other pictures from our journey on this update post here.)

So we landed in Bangkok a few hours ago and have just now made it to Baan Orapin guesthouse in Chiang Mai. It was very stressful … we made our connecting flight (local hop) on a terrible regional airline by literally one minute, and had to pay an extra $40 for luggage on top of the extra I prepaid. But that flight wasn’t a total loss … we met an American and two new French friends, and have invited them to our Thai ceremony in a few days — which it looks like they will all attend (along with 10 of our family and 100 villagers we’ve never met). We’re super excited, and I will add some photos and links to this post later when I’m not updating the blog via my cell phone.

(Post updated 4 March 2011)

We’re off! The fantabulous Emirates car is taking us to LAX and we finally — finally!! — feel like we can relax. The planning for 4 weddings and an around-the-world trip — on a very tight budget, mind you — was NOT at all easy. (I’ve slept about 7 hours in the past 2 days.) It took about 40 volunteers plus all the paid teams to make this happen … and although we have loved nearly every second of it, we’re truly happy to relax on our journey, starting with the ride to the airport (on which I’m able to update the blog!). We’ll check in as we can!

Unbelievable! That’s the only word that comes to mind when I conjure images of yesterday, wedding number one of our Wedding World Tour, held at The Mission Inn in Riverside. The day “started” (for me) by going to bed at 6am as I was finishing modifications to the ceremony after a VERY rough rehearsal. My normal grumpiness after about 3.5 hours of sleep never appeared, as Feb 11, 2011 was my wedding day, and I was excited! I also knew things would go “wrong” at times, but it was mostly out of my control at that point. (That whole point, though, depends on your definition of “wrong” … we loved every moment, whether it was planned or unplanned.)

With a pickup by groosman Mark, lunch with all the boys, getting ready in the “grooms room”, preliminary photos … it seemed no time at all that it was time to head to the chapel. I had just one moment of “OMG” before the ceremony … and then it was gone, and I was ready to stand in front of my family and friends and make the largest public commitment of my life.

What do I remember? Standing outside the doors with my mom, ready to walk her down the aisle; slowing walking down that aisle and looking in the eyes of the most important people in my life, one-by-one; standing at that altar waiting for the huge double-doors to open and instantly tearing up when I saw how amazing and beautiful of a bride April is (she was a blur coming down the aisle, I couldn’t help it!); having her sit down beside me up there and seeing the majesty of the dress she hand bejeweled; and the amazing moments of our ceremony: Dani just killing (in a good way) the incredibly difficult song that she had never heard one hour earlier; the look in the bridal party’s eyes at many of the special moments; our crying officiant; the meddling mom’s and storytelling friends; seeing an audience full of amazing, wonderful people … and most importantly those moment with April: the door opening mentioned; bringing her up to the altar; looking her in the eye and feeling her love and joy as we stood there; hearing her sing “Finally” (so amazing!); the incredible moment of walking from the back of the aisle lighting candles as everyone sang “Sunrise, Sunset,”  feeling the love of the entire cathedral as THEY said their “I DOs” to us; and the three separate, heartfelt, distinct vows that April and I said to each other … and yes, of course the “I Do!”s and walking down the aisle to Star Wars … memories that are 24-hours new, and yet will be with me for 50+ years.

Following that, a heavenly reception. April and a massive team of help planned and decorated with flowers, lighting, linens, t-shirt gifts, and even items from our home on each table … plus a cake that had been made for us that was out-of-this-world: red velvet on the inside, and levels of amazing on the outside that I cannot even begin to describe here. Imagine nearly life-size suitcases coated in a pearlescent coating, with books on top, and an entire “wedding cake” on top of all that … decorated with edible sheet music, fabrics from the wedding, and ornamented with edible flowers and pearls, our initials engraved in “leather”, photos of us and our destinations, and more. Simply incredible.

Michael stood up and announced that February 11, 2011, was officially proclaimed “Wedding World Tour Day” in Riverside … wow, thank you Riverside! And the speeches by many people … touching and “real” … also a highlight of the night.

And if that wasn’t enough … there was the music. With 3 fabulous bands — and a bride who we couldn’t seem to get off the microphone — I felt that I was treated to the best private concert of my life, attended by all my friends, in a beautiful environment, with the most amazing wife I could ever imagine. I so loved to watch her “rock out” on the mic!

I’ve heard many people say that they didn’t remember their wedding, or that it was just “nice” … but I can tell you, I loved every single minute of our day, felt more love than I have ever experienced, and am so pleased that I had the opportunity to create something so wonderful with my soulmate. We are truly, truly blessed. We both feel extremely grateful to everyone who helped make yesterday (and the upcoming days!) happen … thank you!

Tomorrow starts the “travel portion” of the Wedding World Tour! We’re so excited that we get to try Emirates Airline! After hearing so much about them, we will of course give the full review after landing in Thailand in just a few days …

Next up on jasontopia… The Wedding World Tour! (unless, of course, I can find time to post some of those Richard Branson photos along with an exclusive interview transcription from my interview of him!)

Starting Feb 12, 2011, please keep your interweb tuned to this URL for regular updates on our round-the-world quest for the meaning of marriage!