Closing in on my return to the U.S., and seeing as how the flight is tomorrow night, this will probably be my last entry for a bit.

I like India. I don’t think I was prepared for the traffic, and frankly am not sure how anyone could be, but with all of its quirks and idiosyncrasies, it’s a really nice place, with some really nice people.

I never did find a tiger for my son, Jacob, and hope he’ll make do with some elephant figurines. If I had more time, I’d head back to the bronze-ware shop by Chandi Chowk, but I don’t.. maybe next time. I was also intrigued by a recommendation of someone at work that I buy a Carrom board; apparently, this is a very popular game in India (there are professional leagues), and is suitable for children and adults. The boards I saw for sale were all too big for my luggage, though.

So, all-in-all, I am looking forward to seeing my family again, having a hamburger (heck.. a bloody rare steak), night-time snacks of cheese and crackers, and not having to explain what I mean by a "martini.. dry, up, extra olives" drink order; but I am also going to miss the extremely nice people I’ve met, and their very friendly nature.

Seeya in the States.

A work friend named Karan and I went into Delhi yesterday to do some shopping for souvenirs, and see the Lotus temple, which was our first stop. It was a pretty nice building, and I was impressed by the architecture and design – it stays cool in the summer months without any Air Conditioning or fans. Very beautiful building.

After the temple, we visited a very nice local arts and crafts market. I saw a number of different things for sale: Stone carving, wood carving, leather goods, Indian-style clothing, wooden toys, stone (camel) stuff, brass wire statues, metal items (vases, etc.), pashmina cloth, pearls, and probably a few other things I’m forgetting.

The language barrier, plus the fact that I’m obviously not Indian, resulted in my companion, Karan, doing most of the actual bartering. I’d let him know I was interested in it, and approximately what price I was willing to pay, and more often than not he was able to strike a deal. I messed up a couple of deals inadvertently, when the merchants were speaking directly to me, but the price difference ended up being only a couple of dollars or so.

I ended up buying some trinkets for the kids – dresses for the girls, a brass horn for Jacob, and a nice marble chess-set for everyone. I grabbed some tops and fans for them too. I was hopeful that I could pick up some perfume for Mary Lou, but no one was selling it, or incense, which I was surprised at. A nice elephant statue and a small camel-bone chest made their way into my bags, too.

We ended up having a snack of pork “momo’s” for lunch, which are just meat dumplings. Think Peking Ravioli’s and you’re close. They were very good, especially considering the price: R 30 or $.75.

After that, we went to another open market, but this one was a traditional street-market, and was very busy compared to the crafts market. I didn’t end up buying anything here, but it was pretty fun to see the stuff for sale, and to be hawked at by street vendors. Almost everything for sale was brand-name knock-off’s. “Designer Jeans” from a brand you’ve never heard of could be had for R 150 ($3.75), but actual electronics items were very expensive compared to the States.

I might try Old Delhi today. I decided to pass on Jaipur (it would have been a VERY long day for all of us), and instead got the best night of rest I’ve had in India: I slept from 6:30pm all the way through to 6am, and got up just in time to watch the Sox win.

Nothing too exciting to report over the last couple of days, especially after the experience that was Old Delhi. I have continued to shop for a few last remaining gifts, most notably a tiger for my son, Jacob. It’s amazing that you can get elephants in all shapes and sizes (wood, sandalwood, bronze, "wire"), cows, and Hindu deities, but no cobras or tigers.

One more piece of culture-shock to report: people run across the highway at night, dodging traffic. My driver almost hit someone last night on a 5-lane (really..) highway when the guy was just trotting along. He said that a lot of people die that way.. it boggles the mind.

I’ll be headed to Akshardham tonight to check out the musical fountains, and hope to be able to get one last bit of shopping in. Some guys at work are taking me out on Thursday night, and Friday night I leave for home. I’m hoping everything fits in my luggage nicely, because I have to bring some items back for people who’ve visited the office, but have not been able to get some items back.

Go Sox!

Ignoring the advise of most everyone I’ve talked with, I decided to head into Old Delhi’s street market area called Chandni Chowk. Cars are not allowed in this streets (well.. they just don’t fit!). It’s a real maze of streets and dark alleys. It was the first time on my trip to India how intensely aware I was that I was NOT from around here, and how painfully obvious it was to everyone else, too.

My steadfast driver, Suresh, dropped me off in front of a mosque outside of Chandi Chowk. As best he could in halting English, he gave me very precise directions on where we’d be meeting after I was done in shopping, and then visiting the Red Fort. I could tell he was concerned.

After visiting the mosque, I hopped on a rickshaw. The driver didn’t speak a word of English, nor did it seem like he had any teeth, but he seemed friendly enough. I said "Chandi Chowk", and he just nodded and took off. I got a pretty good and complete tour. At one alleyway, I gestured that I wanted to get out and have a look, but he just shook his head and kept going. I think we were in the heart of the maze.

The looks I got ranged from slightly bemused to slightly annoyed. Please note that I never actually felt like I was in danger, but I was far, far from my element. I could see through my Revo’s that a lot of people were looking at me, but there were quite a lot of families around, with children, so I didn’t expect there to be trouble.

At the end of one of the alleys, towards the mosque where we started (aha! familiar territory), I told him I wanted to get off, and he was fine with it this time. He asked for R 200, I countered with R 100 (still far too much, I’m sure) and we settled on R 140. By the time we were done with this process, four or five "guides" had gathered, all clamoring for my business. Once of them said "I have a friend in San Fransisco, I know the U.S.!". I just chuckled and walked into a little statues shop that I’d spotted.

Far from an open market, this was a dark, dusty, and murky shop. I was a tad bit concerned at first when one of the proprietors situated himself close to the door, but he was just getting some fresh air, I think. There were three men in the shop, two of whom were chatting when I walked in, and one sleeping in a chair. The one who decided to assist me knew nothing of ‘personal space’ – he was basically on top of me the whole time.

I ended up buying another little camel-bone chest thing for R 150. There were a lot of other nick-nacks for sale: bronze elephants, daggers, wooden mirrors, etc. In hindsight, this is the one store where I saw a nice bronze tiger sculpture. I may end up having to go back if I don’t find anything this week.

Edit: I forgot to mention the wiring. Holy &^#. The entire neighborhood is wires upon wires upon wires, and there’s no way that all are operational. It looks like a telephone maintenance worker’s worst nightmare. I should really have taken a picture of this, but imagine 50+ wires running through the system, many of them tapped into haphazardly, and some hanging down into mid-air. How the entire complex doesn’t go up in flames due to wire shorts is anyone’s guess.. I can’t imagine that fire engines would be able to get close enough to do anything useful.

After the shop, I hopped on another rickshaw to get me to the Red Fort. I got out on the "main drag" leading to the fort, and decided to walk the last half-mile or so. I stopped in a couple of stores along the way, one of them selling scimitars and curved swords. I was tempted to buy one for Jacob, but unlike the ones you buy in the U.S., these were all sharpened, and that’s not the kind of thing I want my kids playing with… yet.

I had lunch at McDonald’s. Normally, I don’t even do this in the States, but I wanted to see how they dealt with such a red-meat-focused menu. The only things that were the same, as far as I could tell, were the "Fillet o’ Fish", the Fries, and the drinks. Their answer to the Big Mac was a "Veggy Burger", which I didn’t sample. No public restrooms either. I ate my Fillet o’ Fish, and headed out again to the Red Fort.

The Red Fort was pretty cool, but I was surprised to see it was home to another set of merchant-stalls. Having looked around at a whole bunch of other shops, this collection of stores is, to me, the best bet for buying souvenirs in India. They had everything I’d seen elsewhere, in abundance, and stuff I hadn’t seen yet, too. I bought a "meditation bowl" for fun – it’s a bronze bowl that you run a wooden handle over the rim to produce a harmonic.

After checking out the attractions of the Red Fort (Indian Army museum, etc.), I got a slightly panicky call from my driver, Suresh. He wanted to make sure I was OK – I told him I was, and that I’d meet him in 10 minutes. I have a feeling he had wanted to meet earlier, but language was, again, an issue.

Anyway, I didn’t get to hang around for the Red Fort light show, but will probably do that some night this week – it’s supposed to be pretty good.

Work this week, and home on the weekend.

Well, nothing too exciting today, other than discovering that the office has free coffee (I’ve been paying for mine at a cafe). I’m sticking mostly with Pizza Hut for lunch. A pepperoni, mushroom, onion and capsicum (green pepper) pizza is fine, but I’m hankering for some sausage. I’m looking forward to trying a Brazilian place that supposedly has unlimited "cow on a stick" meals. We’ll see.

I have gotten used to the random electricity blackouts… every once in awhile, all power in the building drops. Every desk in the place has a UPS, but it’s still fun to hear all the notebooks send out their "I’ve lost power!" panicky beeps, and then 10 seconds later give the "ah!! AC has returned!" beeps. During these outages, everyone keeps working as if nothing has happened at all.

Delhi tomorrow for some more sightseeing and shopping, and then Jaipur on Sunday.

Go Sox!!