Shopping and Looting in the Subcontinent

Ahh...shopping in India. What more needs to be said?? I love the picture at the top - it's a bangle bracelet store. You could buy 12 for 40 cents. The prices and the quality of products in India were incredible. First, let me start off with the food. Very spicy, but very tasty. My stomach rebelled, but the food tasted too good to pass up most of the time. Indian's don't use food utensils, so you eat with your hands. Here is a traditional south India dish called a Thali:

It's 12 small dishes and is served with bread and rice on top of a banana leaf. You could also get tea everywhere for a fraction of a dollar. South India tea is called Chai, or Masala Chai. It's mostly milk, maybe just a little bit of water and a very strong black tea with cardamon and masala spices mixed in. You sweeten it, and it's out of this world.

One of the best shopping experiences I had was shopping for saris. I love my sari. I feel like I did a pretty good job putting it on, but I'm sure it's not perfect. I went to the India town of Kancheepuram which is one of the silk weaving centers of India. One of the silk stores had a traditional silk loom set up to show the silk making process:

Here is a store that had walls lined with Saris, and the storelady was very helpful in showing off the beautiful silks!

I got one Sari to wear and one Sari that will be cut up and made into a Regency dress. I also bought silk material for a few upcoming costume projects. The prices were a steal. Here's a back view of my sari - I love the Palu (the shiny end piece of the sari). The blouse material comes attached to the Sari and I took it to a tailor and had it made into my blouse. I was really pleased with the fit.

Rugs from Kashmir are also an incredible buy if you find one you really like. I went to a recommended shop where other people from work had good experiences. They had a craftsman from Kashmir with a small dummy loom to show the rug making process. It was pretty cool.

Below is a picture of a rug I wound up purchasing. I learned a new bargaining technique while in India called "cell phone bartering." The store keeper and I each got out our phones and called friends - he pretended to call a tough boss that didn't want to lower the price, I called an Indian friend and pretended to be unconvinced by the price. Cell phone bartering seemed to be fairly successful...I knocked 15% off the original price.

Finally, I went a little 'native' while I was in India. My first folley was toe rings. I wore open toe shoes the entire time I was in India, so I liked showing off my toe rings and pedicured feet. I had several local ladies explain to me with deep concern in their voices that only married women wear toe rings in India. I patiently explained that it wasn't a problem since I'm married. Even though I'm way over the traditional age for Indian women to get married, it didn't seem to occur to many people that I might be married. Meh.

My last act in 'going native' was getting henna on my hands. I had a great time getting this done. People at work either loved it or hated it, although the Indian ladies universally seemed to love the henna (apparently fair skin is very popular in India so they thought the henna was especially nice on my pasty white skin). It took about two hours to finish, and the lady didn't use any pattern or stencil. It was all freehand. Here it was immediately after finishing:

And here it is the next day, after I had scraped the henna paste off and the henna color had darkened into a nice marroon. It certainly raised eyebrows and provoked a few grins at the holiday party once I got back to Poland.

There was so much more I would have loved to have purchased, but I was severly limited by the airline's 1 bag, 44lb weight limit. I think it's a good thing, because otherwise I might have also come home with curtains, a new bedcover, a bedskirt, and Lord knows what else. I'd love to do an India tour someday...if only to get to purchase some of the amazing wood furniture that I saw. Overall, a fabulous trip, and I highly recommend it to any and all!