Day 8 (cont.)
Our rickshaw drivers dropped us off by the Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds), which is unexpectedly parked in the middle of a row of tourist tat shops on the main road, but is beautiful nonetheless, and then we were free! Finally, our first opportunity to run off on our own and immerse ourselves in all that India out there! Carol and I were fairly wetting ourselves with excitement.
The main street near the Hawa Mahal is crawling with hawkers trying to drag you into their dodgy shops, but as we walked on further down the road the hassling stopped and we came upon one of the city's bazaars where the local people shop. Fantastic! We were in our element. We wandered along gazing at the gorgeous saris spread out on the floor of the little shops, as families sat cross-legged to examine them. Most that we saw were red - I guess for weddings. Our senses were overcome with alley upon alley of fabrics, street food, shoes, cooking pots, henna, bangles, sweets... but all the goldsmiths were shut because they were on strike to protest against a proposed tax hike! So I failed in my quest for some Indian-style gold earrings.
We popped into a small sweet shop selling barfi and the like to investigate, and were offered a terracotta pot of thick lassi. We sat on a bench in the shop feeling for all the world like locals, and shared the creamiest, most delicious lassi I have ever tasted. When we had finished I tried to return the pot, but was told to throw it away! Such a shame. It seems they make new ones every day.
Unable to find any gold earrings, I found a pair of 'gold' earrings, a bargain at R100, but Carol wanted to look at silver, so we wandered back to the touristy area and allowed ourselves to be drawn into a silver shop. Carol found some things she liked, and I got a silver and emerald tennis bracelet and a silver and chalcedony bracelet at a pretty good price.
Walking back from the shop Carol, who lives in Brighton, bought a couple of dolls and got talking with the shopkeeper. It turned out that his cousin lives in Hove! Amazing. We jumped into a tuc-tuc to take us back to our hotel and as we were navigating the traffic, said shopkeeper suddenly appeared alongside us on his scooter to invite us to his sister's wedding that evening! We politely declined, fearing it would be an intrusion.
We finally arrived at the hotel around 6.30pm and got ready for a dinner of chicken tikka, raita, naan and tonic water (which, at R130 was exactly twice the price of the previous hotel). Pudding was delicious flat cardamom pancakes in syrup, and some melon.
After dinner I went to visit the hotel astrologer. He took my date of birth and looked closely at the lines on both of my palms, and prodded at my hands. He told me that I will live to be 91 and still healthy, I will meet and fall in love with a man in the next six months, and we will be married in June 2013. We shall see. He also said I will have some sort of trouble with someone at work - but whether this will be at this job or the next I don't know as I was only allowed to ask a limited number of questions in the allotted time. He said I will change jobs in the next two years, which seems likely, and also that I will move house in two years, which I really don't want to do but I suppose would fit with getting married. So many questions left unanswered - I hoped to be able to find another astrologer later in the tour.
And so to bed.
The main street near the Hawa Mahal is crawling with hawkers trying to drag you into their dodgy shops, but as we walked on further down the road the hassling stopped and we came upon one of the city's bazaars where the local people shop. Fantastic! We were in our element. We wandered along gazing at the gorgeous saris spread out on the floor of the little shops, as families sat cross-legged to examine them. Most that we saw were red - I guess for weddings. Our senses were overcome with alley upon alley of fabrics, street food, shoes, cooking pots, henna, bangles, sweets... but all the goldsmiths were shut because they were on strike to protest against a proposed tax hike! So I failed in my quest for some Indian-style gold earrings.
We popped into a small sweet shop selling barfi and the like to investigate, and were offered a terracotta pot of thick lassi. We sat on a bench in the shop feeling for all the world like locals, and shared the creamiest, most delicious lassi I have ever tasted. When we had finished I tried to return the pot, but was told to throw it away! Such a shame. It seems they make new ones every day.
Unable to find any gold earrings, I found a pair of 'gold' earrings, a bargain at R100, but Carol wanted to look at silver, so we wandered back to the touristy area and allowed ourselves to be drawn into a silver shop. Carol found some things she liked, and I got a silver and emerald tennis bracelet and a silver and chalcedony bracelet at a pretty good price.
Walking back from the shop Carol, who lives in Brighton, bought a couple of dolls and got talking with the shopkeeper. It turned out that his cousin lives in Hove! Amazing. We jumped into a tuc-tuc to take us back to our hotel and as we were navigating the traffic, said shopkeeper suddenly appeared alongside us on his scooter to invite us to his sister's wedding that evening! We politely declined, fearing it would be an intrusion.
We finally arrived at the hotel around 6.30pm and got ready for a dinner of chicken tikka, raita, naan and tonic water (which, at R130 was exactly twice the price of the previous hotel). Pudding was delicious flat cardamom pancakes in syrup, and some melon.
After dinner I went to visit the hotel astrologer. He took my date of birth and looked closely at the lines on both of my palms, and prodded at my hands. He told me that I will live to be 91 and still healthy, I will meet and fall in love with a man in the next six months, and we will be married in June 2013. We shall see. He also said I will have some sort of trouble with someone at work - but whether this will be at this job or the next I don't know as I was only allowed to ask a limited number of questions in the allotted time. He said I will change jobs in the next two years, which seems likely, and also that I will move house in two years, which I really don't want to do but I suppose would fit with getting married. So many questions left unanswered - I hoped to be able to find another astrologer later in the tour.
And so to bed.