Shopping and banking

No great sight seeing adventures to report today -- we've spent the last couple of days doing a little Christmas shopping and attempting to get access to our money. (Iy yi yi sometimes what seems so simple becomes a four-step process.)

Regarding shopping, Roop took us to the "best" market -- best quality, best prices -- on Friday. I was truly looking for only a few items but as soon as we entered Delhi Haat the buzzards were circling.

Out of every corner was a sales person and they were all talking at once. Bangles, carpets from Kashmir, handiwork, bangles for the "babies" (that's the term of reference for all children), traditional dresses for the babies, saris for the madam...etc.).

We managed to extricate ourselves from the first sales demonstration (textiles -- lovely things, they started w/ the synthetic blends and finished with pure silk and pashmina).

We skipped the rug room altogether, had to move pretty quickly on that one.

On the way up to jewelry I was accosted by an eager sari salesman -- "oh you must have sari, madam." Wherein I pointed to my jeans and said "I'm good in these, thanks." (That got a few laughs; I love the Indians for their sense of humor.)

Surprisingly, we managed to leave with the few items on my list, and I was quite pleased with prices and quality, just as Roop recommended. He came along to bargain, which I think made his day, so we got "discounts" on everything, even though signs said "fixed price only." What isn't negotiable here???

From there we went to a bigger supermarket with numerous western products. Couldn't pass up chocolate milk (for Claire), salami (which Roop thoroughly enjoyed on the way back to the hotel), oreos, etc.

Yesterday we were on a mission to get cash. We even resorted to looking for an ATM in one of the malls -- mind you it has everything, from Benetton to Sbarro, a big department store, Bath & Bodyworks, Pizza Hut... -- but no cash machine. Anyway, after finding 4 cash machines, we finally found one that would burp out some money.

I was also successful in posting a package to the U.S. I felt like I had to beat back everyone in line to let me have my turn at the postal counter, though. Mom, I'd say keep an eye out for said package, but I really don't have a good grip on when it will arrive...we received something a friend sent from Calif. weeks ago; it was late as it went first to Indonesia. (Mind you it was clearly marked India.)

Later in the day the hotel set up a movie night: a showing of The Bourne Ultimatum (which I ended up choosing, not sure how I got that honor). The DVD list here isn't terribly lengthy, though more than adequate, most films on the list are well known and have been out for a bit.

Anyway, I joined the group in the presidential suite for a movie hotel style -- straight-backed chairs, nuts and tall glasses of Fanta for snacks. The power went off twice (we have outages every day in the hotel but in seconds the electricity comes back).

Each time it went out during the movie, though, we had to go back to the beginning and fast forward through...first time the ladies running the show (literally I guess) called engineering. Thankfully an audience member grabbed the remote and we were up and running in short order.

The 2nd blink was at the height of action: Bourne jumping from the top of a building. What timing...