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.

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.

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!

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.

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!!

I may end up buying a Slingbox though

So, when someone at work recommended ‘The Fox’ in Gurgaon, I figured I’d give it a go. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it: a big open single-roomed restaurant with a lighted bar in back. When I got there, the place was pretty empty, with only a few couples seated. I sat at the bar and asked for a menu, which was pretty good and extensive. The bartender informed me that it was happy hour, and that most drinks were two-for-one. When I asked about snacks, he brought over a happy-hour menu and a full menu too.

The food selection was reasonably extensive (which is why I think it was recommended to me) – both Indian and non-Indian choices, including thai, chinese, american, and japanese. I ordered a calamari (squid) plate with peppers, and asked for it hot. It took awhile to prepare it, but it was definitely worth the wait – very spicy, but very good. I had to order some bottled water to stop my hiccups, but enjoyed every second of it.

By the time I was done with my meal and my second martini, the place had filled up a bit more, but it was still not at all crowded. It looked like a live band was getting set up, but I decided to head back to the apartment and get some sleep.

I frankly have no idea how to get back there if I need to (it’s something like the "Mega Mall", but there are tons of small malls scattered around), but the package I bought should last me until the end.

I am looking forward to shopping in Delhi this weekend, and plan on seeing if I can find a snake charmer to take my picture with. I think that’s the only thing that my kids would get a kick out of – pictures of their dad standing next to the Taj Mahal aren’t all that exciting (see that dot? That’s ME!). I’ve heard that Snake Charmers are against the law though now in India, so am unsure if I’ll be successful.

Anyway, I’ve settled into a pretty nice morning routine – I tune into the Sox game, if they’re playing, in the morning via GameDay, have breakfast, chat with my wife on google talk, watch a bit of a sci-fi movie on the DVD player, and then go to work.

Not sure what’s in store for tonight’s meal.. I think I might be on my own, which might actually be fun and relaxing.

Anyway, this was also my first real exposure to true Indian food. We ate at a company cafeteria and the food was… ok. The rice was done really nicely, but to be honest I’m not sure exactly what I had on top of it. It was curry-based, but not overdone, which was good (I’m not a huge curry fan), and the price was certainly right… R 50, or about $1.25 for all I could eat. That doesn’t include a drink, but most people I saw weren’t drinking anything with their meals at all. The few that were were drinking water, which was free. So, all-in-all, it was satisfactory, but nothing extraordinary.

I’m willing to try anything once (food- and drink-wise that is), so gave one of the desserts a go. It looked like a dumpling of sorts (about the size and shape of a munchkin) sitting in syrup, and I thought it was eaten in one bite, so I popped it in my mouth. My friend just said, "Oh God.." – it was sickeningly sweet and sopping wet. I finished it, but not without some difficulty. I’m glad I tried it (once), but won’t be sampling it again. We finished off our meal with a coffee at local cafe – the coffee is very good here, imho. I’ll probably try an iced coffee tomorrow, but thus far have just had hot black (strong) coffee.

Dinner was a bit of an adventure. Our driver dropped us off at a chinese restaurant at 6:20pm, but we realized too late that they didn’t open until 7pm. That’s not uncommon in India – most people eat much later than we do in America. We walked to another place close by, which looked like it had real promise, and had gotten great reviews in a tourist guide I’ve been using. Unfortunately, the guide failed to mention a key piece of information: Geoffrey’s is a members-only restaurant. I wonder if tipping the maître d’ would have worked – didn’t try it, since I only had a few thousand rupees and needed the cash for other things.

So, we walked to yet another restaurant, sat down in the bar area, and ordered a drink. By this time, it was 6:45pm, and we were very hungry. The buffet by the bar looked very good, so after our drinks were served, we ordered 3 buffets – the ever-polite waiter apologetically but firmly told us that we couldn’t eat in the bar, and must be seated in the restaurant area to dine. No problem, really: we moved over, he brought our drinks, and we were seated promptly. But even then, we were unable to eat, because the waiter in the dining area said that they didn’t start serving until-you guessed it-7PM. We could SEE the food we wanted, and the dishes were there (it was a buffet), but we had to wait. They did allow us to start in on the salad bar and assorted appetizers, which were admittedly very good. I’m just still amazed at how some things in Indian culture (like traffic) are so incredibly unorganized, while waiting for a clock to tick down a few minutes so you can dine at the appropriate time is acceptable. Ah well.

The food was very good – I had some nice lamb in a nice sauce (sorry for the vague description, but I have no clue on the actual details). I was excited to try a new dessert, which looked like a little lime gelato ball, but after my afternoon experience was also a bit more conservative in my approach. Alas, it was the same darn thing: a sickenly sweet, corn-syruppy concoction. I didn’t finish it.

 As we were leaving, I bought a cigar at the bar. My wife hates the smell of cigars, but seeing as how I won’t see her for another 10 days or so, I’m taking advantage of my very temporary bachelor-like status, and plan on having a nice cuban with a scotch on the terrace overlooking the city tonight.

I’m going to miss my friends, who left for America last night. From here on in, I’ll be relying upon some local work acquantances to keep me company.

I opined to my friends that this is part of the whole Indian experience – taking the bad with the good. They have to go home to the states tomorrow, so I’m going to be essentially on my own for two weeks. I’ll see how resourceful I can be in keeping myself amused

Work tomorrow!