I woke up early on Sunday to meet up with my friend Vipul, to join him on a company outing to a place called Dreamland. I had no idea what was in store for the day.

We all took a bus to the Rajasthani countryside and arrived at a resort/amusement park/retreat called Dreamland. Here’s a photo with the guys from the group

Everybody broke off into two teams and I got my first chance to play some cricket, which is a hugely popular sport in India.

There was a couple random cultural performances on the grounds and we all sat together for a delicious buffet lunch.

In the afternoon was the most fun part of the day – the rain dance. Throughout the park, there were water fountain features over dance floors and huge speaker pumping out the latest Bollywood hits. Everybody got on the dance floor as water rained down all around.

Keep in mind this is the middle of the day, but I’ve noticed that most Indians will dance anywhere and anytime. The bus ride home was filled with more singing and everybody had to sing a song of their choice. I chose the song below which was a huge hit at the time.

Here’s a movie poster of one of India’s most famous actors, Shah Rukh Khan.

On another day, Vipul took me to the Ganesh Mandir गणेशय मंदिर (Temple devoted to the Indian God Ganesh). Ganesh has an elephant head and is the god of wisdom and auspicious beginnings (he’s routinely featured at the very top of wedding invitations and the first invitation sent out goes to his temple)

Outside on the street, we had a delicious meal afterwards. I met Vipul in 2010 when I stayed in Jaipur and kept in contact through Facebook. It was a wonderful reunion with my friend.