Pati and Beebee are going around the world

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Dilli Haat

Dilli Haat Package

The package from our shopping excursions to Dilli Haat arrived at home this morning. It weighed 15.7 kg (34.54 pounds). As a "priority overnight" package delivered by FedEx, it was much more economical than luggage for transporting purchases home. It left India on 3 December (probably 2 December EST) and arrived on the morning of 6 December. We were extremely happy to see it, since it contained souvenirs and Christmas presents for our family!

Wallhanging made from 95-year-old Wedding Saris

Shopping at Dilli Haat is not for the faint of heart. While prices are fixed (reducing the need to bargain), the pressure to buy is just as strong as anywhere in India. Knowledgeable salesmen serve Indian chi (a black tea with milk, sugar, cardamom, and other spices) with their patter to sweeten the sale; Dilli Haat's chi was the best we had in India.  General categories of items for sale include bed linens, ready-made and bespoke (tailored) clothing and accessories (including a wide range of pashminas), jewelry, shoes, carved objects (especially from sandalwood), artwork, and miscellaneous souvenirs.

We visited the indoor Dilli Haat twice, once on the evening before leaving for the Golden Triangle Tour, and once after we returned. This market features one-of-a-kind handicrafts from Indian villages: if you see something you like, you should buy it because the same thing may not be there again.

Bespoke Shirt

Shawl

  

Location:New Delhi

Delhi Fog

As we left the Arrivals Hall in Indira Gandhi International Airport, and even before we left the building, we became aware of the sight and smell of smoke.  When we asked the driver whether it was always so smoky, he said "It's fog." 

Blue Skies!

With the "fog" and generally overcast skies, even after we left Delhi for the Golden Triangle Tour, we did not see blue sky until Friday (November 12) as we traveled from Agra to Jaipur.

Back in Delhi, we asked our travel coordinator about the smoke.  She said that it was probably the result of all of the fireworks and burning of incense used to celebrate the five-day Dewali, or "Festival of Lights," that had just completed on November 9, the evening before we arrived.  The air did become less smoky over the next few days, even though we saw trash being burned in the streets.

Then we entered the wedding season.  Every night until well past midnight the fireworks boomed like artillery around our Guest House. The next morning we would see the "fog" again and smell the smoke.  

In the future, the smell of wood smoke will always trigger memories of Delhi.

Electronics

It is impossible to travel these days without sufficient electronic support:  for us, this included a computer, a camera, and everything necessary in interface them together and to recharge their batteries.  We took 834 still pictures and video clips; these fit easily on one 8GB Kingston Class 6 SDHC flash memory card.  We did not use the two backup memory cards (same type) that we took with us, since we were easily able to upload the pictures to the computer.

We brought an interface between the camera and computer for uploading pictures; unfortunately, we could not find software to allow us to then upload the pictures to the blog.

"Electronics" also included power converters and adapters.  Just for this trip, we bought a Travel Smart By Conair Adapter/Converter Combo with Surge Protection ($26.48 from amazon.com).  It refused to stay plugged into any outlet we tried in India and will be returned to the seller.  Luckily, we had thrown our old Norelco Model TC160 voltage converter into the luggage at the last minute as a backup.

Two other (both dual-voltage) electric appliances we took were a hair dryer and a curling iron, but we did not use either.

We also brought along a small pair of (non-electronic) binoculars, but never used them.

How do people stay so clean?

Beautiful Saris: A Common Sight

One thing we've noticed is that, despite the environment, most people seem very clean and neatly dressed. This is a difficult environment to thrive in -- let alone survive -- and they seem to do it well.

Last Day in India

Wednesday, November 24.

Today is our last day in India. Our flight is scheduled to leave at 11:35 pm from Indira Gandhi International Airport. Even though the Guest House is literally under the arrival path to the airport, we must allow 1 hour to get there so that we will be 3 hours early for our flight. So we will bid farewell to our hosts here at 7:30, missing our 8:30 dinner. But if the flight out is anything like the one in, we will be stuffed with food shortly after departure! Our driver will get us safely inside the airport as far as he can take us; then we will really say goodbye to the good people who have done so much to make our stay easy and happy.

Our Room 1st Floor Main House

Today is a lazy day. We have seen and done about everything we can in such a short visit. We will go out for a short time this afternoon, but otherwise we are just taking it easy. We are all packed up and Pati is napping. The Wifi is down, due to a short rain shower this morning. If it doesn't come back, then this will be posted tomorrow.

We are the only guests here today. The guests in the next room left for the airport at 5 am this morning for Kerala in the south of India, to spend 2 weeks on the beach. Tomorrow and the next day they will have a full house, renting all their rooms to a local wedding party.

Our Room Behind Main House and Steps to Room Above

Library

The Guest House has 5 rooms they rent in addition to their private rooms on the second floor. Each rented room has 2 single or full size beds. One of the rooms is on the first floor of the main house; we stayed there our first night before going on the Golden Triangle tour. There is another building behind the main house, with two large rooms and a library on the lower floor and a small charming room reached by outside stairs up above. For the last week, we have been in one of the downstairs rooms. Before that, we spent one night in the upstairs room when we got back from the Triangle Tour. (The couple that was booked into the upstairs room couldn't navigate the stairs, so we traded rooms for a night.) The 5th room, we are told, is just inside the front gate, but we really can't figure out where it is, since there doesn't seem to be enough room from the outside for a room to be on the inside!

We are fed three delicious meals a day, at 8:30am, 1:30pm, and 7:30 pm. We guests take our meals together family style in a large dining room in the main house. From the windows of our current room, we can watch the cook work all day in the large kitchen.

The house has a staff of 10. In addition to the 4 drivers, there is a guard always at the gate, the cook, a nanny for the 2 children, a gardener (who sweeps the yard), a young woman who cleans and does laundry, and a woman who cleans the bathrooms.

The family that lives here includes the owner and his wife, their son and his wife, and 2 grandchildren (8.5 year-old boy and 5 year-old girl). We have seen the father once to say hello and the son once to present our passports and sign the guest register. The children play in the yard sometimes but spend their evenings in the family quarters. The boy is very proud of his razor scooter. The women really run the house and make all the arrangements for their guests.

This Guest House will be our first choice of a place to stay if (when!) we return to India. When Pati awoke from his nap, he started reading planning guides for trips to India!

Location:New Delhi, India

Malls

"The Largest Silver Ganesha in the World"
at Select Citywalk Mall

Tuesday (November 23) we went to a modern shopping mall in South Delhi; well, three of them, actually. From the outside, they look like one large mall, but each has its own security system: guards, scanners, barriers. To go between malls, you first leave the one you are in through its security exit, and then enter the next mall through its security entrance. Men and women have separate queues; bags are searched; bodies are wanded. At least Beebee wasn't patted down again!

The three malls are called Select Citywalk, MGF and DLF Place Saket.
These malls have many of the same store you see at home: Levi's, Marks & Spencer (British), DKNY Jeans, in addition to a few Indian stores (labeled "ethnic wear") such as Fabindia.

While so very very modern, these malls miss in trying to be hip hop Western. As we entered the first mall, we heard (and reheard many times as the set repeated) "You took a fine time ... to leeeeave me ... Lucillllle ... four hungry chill'rin ... and the crops inn ... th' fieeeeeeld."

We were probably the only people in the whole mall(s) to appreciate that tune! Or, we could be the only ones who don't appreciate it!!

Location:South Delhi, India