An Afternoon In CP
This is my report on last Sunday's adventure, delayed due to work, someone else using my computer in the evening , and laziness :)
It was decided to go shopping in Connaught Place, the shopping centre of Delhi, known locally as "CP".
But seraphs_folly didn't like the way the hotel's Travel Manager kept wanting to sell us a "package", and she didn't want to wait 45 minutes for a taxi to arrive, so she, Nick and I embarked on an adventure of sorts, trying to find a taxi in Gurgaon. We walked down litter and rubble strewn streets. The rubble and makeshift construction gave the impression of a city that had been in a war. Only it hadn't.
Dodging cars, trucks, motorbikes, and rickshaws both motorized and not, as well as the odd cow or street toilet, we made our way into a more populated area. We didn't see any taxis, just rickshaws. And one of those probably wouldn't be able to take us all the way to Delhi.
After standing in the street for a bit and drawing the attention of some old guy in a car with a few others who wanted money for something, whom we ignored even when he tried to touch us, the decision was finally made to take a rickshaw to the nearest mall.
When there the driver stopped us right in front of food stall (friends of his, I suppose), but ignoring that we made to make our way past the begging children and old ladies to the mall where it turned out there weren't any taxis. Round the back of the mall there weren't any taxis again. But there was a lady who told us where there were some taxis.
So we crossed the road and braved yet more beggars. Looking for the taxi company in the place specified. Someone got the idea it was at the next building. Asked around and stood around, until finally a nice guy in that building showed us that it was at the building we first went to. Walked back to that building and couldn't see it. asked the guard there, and he pointed behind us. We'd walked right in front if twice without noticing it. Even though there was a big sign saying "Taxi Company". Talk about great observational skills.
So in the end, it took us close to two hours to get to the point we were actually travelling toward CP. The 45 minute wait seems a better option!
Once we arrived at CP, people decide to walk away from it. No idea why. But they sorted themselves out in the end and we went across the park to some of the supposedly famous "colonnaded shops".
What followed was looking at shops. I did buy some underwear and socks, because they were cheaper than getting my existing ones washed at the hotel, and I needed some anyway. Everything else wasn't cheap enough to tempt me. Only thing I really liked was a light tan chinese-style suit, straight out of Equilibrium. Too expensive for whims though.
Once we had traversed a mere half or so of the periphery of the square, we decided to go underground. There the sales pressure really went on, I found it easy to ignore attempts to sell me anything, as concentrating on security meant I didn't have much chance to actually look at anything. From what I did see there wasn't much of any real interest unless you wanted bootleg media largely in Hindi (CDs, DVDs, console games, etc) , belts, wallets, cheap shirts, or Indian native dress. seraphs_folly got a couple of saris for what seems to be a good price by being a very hard bargainer. Nick got convinced to buy a hand tooled leather bag.
Place is pretty much a waste of time unless you are after something in particular and can be bothered going through the bargaining pantomime. I prefer shopping in surroundings where you don't have half a dozen people trying to sell you crap you don't want, and where you have some idea of what a good price is. Especially seeing as there's no comeback if you get something dud.
We emerged from the Underworld to the beginnings of dusk, so employed a motorized rickshaw to take us to the Olive Bar, a place that sounded worth visiting in Lonely Planet. Have to say that driver was the best one I've had so far. Not in terms of being good driver, but in terms of getting us to a location he didn't know and not being too expensive.
The Olive Bar was certainly worth visiting, and sitting in it's beautiful gravel and flagstone courtyard, with lit water feature and musical entertainment, 'neath the spreading banyan tree, eating a first class twelve course meal, I finally started enjoying the day. The meal was something called "degastation", I think it was misspelt from "devastation" (and so does my spell-checker), because that's what it did to you. It was a shame that by this time Nick was looking extremely pale, and ended up leaving us early. Also the meal cost in the region of $200 for the pair of us, so while it was probably cheaper than a similar meal in New Zealand, it wasn't significantly so. Beware the addition of tax and "service" charges, while in India. There's no law requiring vendors to display VAT inclusive prices.
To sum up, I found the whole day pretty boring, it was a lot of time waiting around while people shopped and made up their minds what to do. while putting up with uncomfortable heat, pollution, and bad smells. Like going shopping with mum when I was a teenager. The best bit was the meal.
Still, I'm a guy, and one who doesn't enjoy shopping unless its for specific things that I'm interested in, and clothes and accoutrements don't fall into that category. Or at least not the sort you're likely to find in your average shop or bazaar in India. It seemed like seraphs_folly enjoyed herself, so there's that at least.
I have to add a few general observations :
It was decided to go shopping in Connaught Place, the shopping centre of Delhi, known locally as "CP".
But seraphs_folly didn't like the way the hotel's Travel Manager kept wanting to sell us a "package", and she didn't want to wait 45 minutes for a taxi to arrive, so she, Nick and I embarked on an adventure of sorts, trying to find a taxi in Gurgaon. We walked down litter and rubble strewn streets. The rubble and makeshift construction gave the impression of a city that had been in a war. Only it hadn't.
Dodging cars, trucks, motorbikes, and rickshaws both motorized and not, as well as the odd cow or street toilet, we made our way into a more populated area. We didn't see any taxis, just rickshaws. And one of those probably wouldn't be able to take us all the way to Delhi.
After standing in the street for a bit and drawing the attention of some old guy in a car with a few others who wanted money for something, whom we ignored even when he tried to touch us, the decision was finally made to take a rickshaw to the nearest mall.
When there the driver stopped us right in front of food stall (friends of his, I suppose), but ignoring that we made to make our way past the begging children and old ladies to the mall where it turned out there weren't any taxis. Round the back of the mall there weren't any taxis again. But there was a lady who told us where there were some taxis.
So we crossed the road and braved yet more beggars. Looking for the taxi company in the place specified. Someone got the idea it was at the next building. Asked around and stood around, until finally a nice guy in that building showed us that it was at the building we first went to. Walked back to that building and couldn't see it. asked the guard there, and he pointed behind us. We'd walked right in front if twice without noticing it. Even though there was a big sign saying "Taxi Company". Talk about great observational skills.
So in the end, it took us close to two hours to get to the point we were actually travelling toward CP. The 45 minute wait seems a better option!
Once we arrived at CP, people decide to walk away from it. No idea why. But they sorted themselves out in the end and we went across the park to some of the supposedly famous "colonnaded shops".
What followed was looking at shops. I did buy some underwear and socks, because they were cheaper than getting my existing ones washed at the hotel, and I needed some anyway. Everything else wasn't cheap enough to tempt me. Only thing I really liked was a light tan chinese-style suit, straight out of Equilibrium. Too expensive for whims though.
Once we had traversed a mere half or so of the periphery of the square, we decided to go underground. There the sales pressure really went on, I found it easy to ignore attempts to sell me anything, as concentrating on security meant I didn't have much chance to actually look at anything. From what I did see there wasn't much of any real interest unless you wanted bootleg media largely in Hindi (CDs, DVDs, console games, etc) , belts, wallets, cheap shirts, or Indian native dress. seraphs_folly got a couple of saris for what seems to be a good price by being a very hard bargainer. Nick got convinced to buy a hand tooled leather bag.
Place is pretty much a waste of time unless you are after something in particular and can be bothered going through the bargaining pantomime. I prefer shopping in surroundings where you don't have half a dozen people trying to sell you crap you don't want, and where you have some idea of what a good price is. Especially seeing as there's no comeback if you get something dud.
We emerged from the Underworld to the beginnings of dusk, so employed a motorized rickshaw to take us to the Olive Bar, a place that sounded worth visiting in Lonely Planet. Have to say that driver was the best one I've had so far. Not in terms of being good driver, but in terms of getting us to a location he didn't know and not being too expensive.
The Olive Bar was certainly worth visiting, and sitting in it's beautiful gravel and flagstone courtyard, with lit water feature and musical entertainment, 'neath the spreading banyan tree, eating a first class twelve course meal, I finally started enjoying the day. The meal was something called "degastation", I think it was misspelt from "devastation" (and so does my spell-checker), because that's what it did to you. It was a shame that by this time Nick was looking extremely pale, and ended up leaving us early. Also the meal cost in the region of $200 for the pair of us, so while it was probably cheaper than a similar meal in New Zealand, it wasn't significantly so. Beware the addition of tax and "service" charges, while in India. There's no law requiring vendors to display VAT inclusive prices.
To sum up, I found the whole day pretty boring, it was a lot of time waiting around while people shopped and made up their minds what to do. while putting up with uncomfortable heat, pollution, and bad smells. Like going shopping with mum when I was a teenager. The best bit was the meal.
Still, I'm a guy, and one who doesn't enjoy shopping unless its for specific things that I'm interested in, and clothes and accoutrements don't fall into that category. Or at least not the sort you're likely to find in your average shop or bazaar in India. It seemed like seraphs_folly enjoyed herself, so there's that at least.
I have to add a few general observations :
- I like the pure white with blue flashing light 1960's Humber British-style police cars. Very retro!.
- It's far too easy to ignore beggars.
- Nonchalant cattle in rush hour traffic is still funny
- As is driving the wrong way up a road toward a wall of oncoming vehicles most of which are larger than yours
- Would you buy a magazine off of someone at a set of traffic lights?
- Why do they think you want a wallet or a belt all the time?
- "Can't lose the last customer of the day!" said the stall-holder after dropping to almost a third of his starting price
- Pollution is worse when you're in a rickshaw
- Having a 'boy' help you wash your hands in the bathroom is disturbing.
- People always being on the make is just annoying.