I am finally catching up by sitting on the patio drinking the delicious sangria that the hotel makes. Below is what happened last weekend.
We took the weekend off, which was fabulous. It gave me a chance to catch up on my sleep and visit my regular haunts.
Saturday, I blissfully slept in and that was the official end of any jet lag. Since I was so energized, I strapped on my trusty Keen sandals and off I went to my local shopping street. To avoid the traffic I took a bit of a back road. I like it better as it is residential and has a couple of little parks along the way, which is quite a luxury in this city. Unfortunately, I did get lost, but in a good way.
When I reached the end of my back way and got to the next busy street, there was a coffee shop on the corner. Great, I thought, as a Costa Coffee shop is the entrance to my shopping street--except it wasn't. Costa Coffee is like Starbucks here in India and you see a lot of them around. So I breezed past and made it about a block or so in and realized that I was on the wrong street. What to do? I could be boring and turn around or I could just walk until I hit a cross street and then make my way over. Of course, I decided to walk. It was great, just local people and local vendors selling fruit and vegetables. At about the halfway point, when I could see a busy street in the distance, there was a giant "Road Closed" metal gate. Since a few other people were going in and out, I did too. This is where I made a neat discovery of sorts. There was some sort of road or sewer work happening, but it wasn't like anything I had ever seen. Yes, there were four guys standing around, watching the fifth guy shovel, but people had brought their kids to work with them, as well.
Tied to a bus stop were three naked little (maybe 2 or 3) kids, messing around in the dirt and happy as clams. Their parents were working and while the men did the shoveling/standing around, the women were filling baskets with dirt and carrying the baskets on their heads. There were two ancient looking generators running. The whole scene could have been 100 years ago. With the exception of the generators, that looked to be about 50 years old, I doubt that the method has changed much. It's times like that where I wish I was a bit more bold with the camera. I would have loved to take a picture, but didn't want to to disturb at the same time. Because I stick out in my neighbourhood, I'm more self conscious about it than usual. So I walked along and tried to memorize the picture in my head.
When I finally reached the end of the street, I had also reached the end of my shopping street. They both curved slightly and joined at the top which was a happy discovery.
It is fun just to look in the shops. You name it, you can get it in one mile strip. Each shop is tiny, though, and if you want something, you ask for it. A lot of the shops have their wares behind the counter and then have assistants to help you. It's kind of nice, but also kind of weird. The upside is that you don't buy more than you want because you don't browse. I need tissues, I buy my tissues and move on--there are no "how did I spend $40 at Shopper's when all I needed was a box of tissues?" moments.
My favourite shops are the one selling costume jewelry. It can be very cheap, and priced accordingly or quite nice and a little more expensive. For example, a set of two bangles, that are gold plated over a silver base and have semi-precious stones runs a little over 20 dollars, which is a great price, I think. They look much more expensive than they are. At the same time, you can get a dozen cheaper bangles for about four dollars. Great for kids, not quite "fancy" enough for me.
I treated myself to lunch at one of the local restaurants. It has sort of a patio and I'm spending as much time in the sunshine as I can. The weather has been wonderful. Lunch was delicious. I had palak paneer, which is the homemade soft cheese that I like in spinach with chapati. I love eating with my hands. I'm over feeling the need to eat with a fork and have embraced eating with my hands. It is just fun. It was only when I got back to the hotel again and saw the brown water running off my hands as I washed then that I paused for a second, but even then, it was just a pause. I'm here, I'm going to be dirty, so be it.
In the evening, I had what I have been dying to try--street food! It is a delicious as it looks and my favourite item deserves its own post. I am completely addicted.
Afterwards one of my colleagues and his wife took me out for Indian and we joined friends of theirs. Food was again delicious. Lamb kebabs, paneer, amazing breads, I could go on and on about how good the food was. One of the things that this restaurant is known for is its "roomali roti". It's a very, very thin dough, like pizza door that is baked very quickly on a dome shaped iron griddle. The result is a bowl shaped, gossamer thin bread that has a diameter of 18 or so inches. To eat it, you just break off piece and dip it. The restaurant has an open kitchen and before we left, we stopped so I could see it being made. Very cool!
We took the weekend off, which was fabulous. It gave me a chance to catch up on my sleep and visit my regular haunts.
Saturday, I blissfully slept in and that was the official end of any jet lag. Since I was so energized, I strapped on my trusty Keen sandals and off I went to my local shopping street. To avoid the traffic I took a bit of a back road. I like it better as it is residential and has a couple of little parks along the way, which is quite a luxury in this city. Unfortunately, I did get lost, but in a good way.
When I reached the end of my back way and got to the next busy street, there was a coffee shop on the corner. Great, I thought, as a Costa Coffee shop is the entrance to my shopping street--except it wasn't. Costa Coffee is like Starbucks here in India and you see a lot of them around. So I breezed past and made it about a block or so in and realized that I was on the wrong street. What to do? I could be boring and turn around or I could just walk until I hit a cross street and then make my way over. Of course, I decided to walk. It was great, just local people and local vendors selling fruit and vegetables. At about the halfway point, when I could see a busy street in the distance, there was a giant "Road Closed" metal gate. Since a few other people were going in and out, I did too. This is where I made a neat discovery of sorts. There was some sort of road or sewer work happening, but it wasn't like anything I had ever seen. Yes, there were four guys standing around, watching the fifth guy shovel, but people had brought their kids to work with them, as well.
Tied to a bus stop were three naked little (maybe 2 or 3) kids, messing around in the dirt and happy as clams. Their parents were working and while the men did the shoveling/standing around, the women were filling baskets with dirt and carrying the baskets on their heads. There were two ancient looking generators running. The whole scene could have been 100 years ago. With the exception of the generators, that looked to be about 50 years old, I doubt that the method has changed much. It's times like that where I wish I was a bit more bold with the camera. I would have loved to take a picture, but didn't want to to disturb at the same time. Because I stick out in my neighbourhood, I'm more self conscious about it than usual. So I walked along and tried to memorize the picture in my head.
When I finally reached the end of the street, I had also reached the end of my shopping street. They both curved slightly and joined at the top which was a happy discovery.
My favourite shops are the one selling costume jewelry. It can be very cheap, and priced accordingly or quite nice and a little more expensive. For example, a set of two bangles, that are gold plated over a silver base and have semi-precious stones runs a little over 20 dollars, which is a great price, I think. They look much more expensive than they are. At the same time, you can get a dozen cheaper bangles for about four dollars. Great for kids, not quite "fancy" enough for me.
I treated myself to lunch at one of the local restaurants. It has sort of a patio and I'm spending as much time in the sunshine as I can. The weather has been wonderful. Lunch was delicious. I had palak paneer, which is the homemade soft cheese that I like in spinach with chapati. I love eating with my hands. I'm over feeling the need to eat with a fork and have embraced eating with my hands. It is just fun. It was only when I got back to the hotel again and saw the brown water running off my hands as I washed then that I paused for a second, but even then, it was just a pause. I'm here, I'm going to be dirty, so be it.
In the evening, I had what I have been dying to try--street food! It is a delicious as it looks and my favourite item deserves its own post. I am completely addicted.
Afterwards one of my colleagues and his wife took me out for Indian and we joined friends of theirs. Food was again delicious. Lamb kebabs, paneer, amazing breads, I could go on and on about how good the food was. One of the things that this restaurant is known for is its "roomali roti". It's a very, very thin dough, like pizza door that is baked very quickly on a dome shaped iron griddle. The result is a bowl shaped, gossamer thin bread that has a diameter of 18 or so inches. To eat it, you just break off piece and dip it. The restaurant has an open kitchen and before we left, we stopped so I could see it being made. Very cool!
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