I Connaught Believe My Eyes
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2006
1
6
7
Trip End
Oct 05, 2006
Delhi,
India
Monday, October 23, 2006
By the time we were finished, got back upstairs (washed the third-eye-oil off), and had breaky, it was about noon time. Always thinking ahead, Beth managed to make arrangements for the next day so we could hang out with Anuj's (the groom) family and do some shopping with his mom which was thoughtful of her
Fashion Show
. We were both looking forward to shopping with someone from the area! In the meantime, I made arrangements for a car and driver so we could do a little shopping of our own today. Off to Connaught Place.Our driver, Santosh from the previous day, looked at us skeptically when we asked to go to Connaught. Apparently he had formed some opinions of us (based on what, Im not sure!) and thought Connaught was not the place for us. After some insisting, which annoyed me, he finally took us.
Connaught is a strange set up. I hadnt done much reading about it beforehand so I didnt know what to expect. It's actually two concentric circles, the inner having the newer shops, the outer one having older shops. At least that's how it seemed to me as we wandered around. There are a couple of "open lots" where all the drivers had parked their cars. Unfortunately, a lot of the cars look exactly the same so Santosh gave us his cell phone number so we could call him when we were ready to leave. I HIGHLY recommend doing this if you hire a driver in India. It can be a real life saver given the high volume of traffic and cars.
Our mission: jewelry. I mean we were hunting big game here. After meandering in a few jewelry stores, we were wildly disappointed. Most of the stores seem to be a combination of silver jewelry and knicknacks and the shopkeepers were less than friendly. Moreover, Connaught was a bit of a culture shock for both of us but I think moreso for Beth since this was her first time seeing India and people were staring at her (Beth is blond blond blond). We were about to call it quits when we spied one more store and decided to make a last ditch effort
God Sightings
. Somehow last ditch efforts always turn out well in India. I think you have to be completely beat, run down, and discouraged before you get what you want. The store was called Ivory Mart Jewelers.Ivory Mart Jewelers is the ONLY jewelry place worth visiting in Connaught. Luckily, we headed to the back of the store where I happened to turn around and spy this "other room." All the best shinies were in this back room so that's where we needed to be! There was a long 8 foot table where a bunch of men sat around repairing all sorts of gold jewelry. And I mean ALL SORTS. I just couldnt believe my eyes, there was so much gold. Gold shinies were spread all over the table. Did I mention the gold?? It made me a little weak in the knees, let's be honest. Two minutes later, the table was swept clean and Beth and I were seated at it sipping tea and talking to the son of the store owner- Ashutosh Gupta. Mr. Gupta is the best of the best when it came to salesmanship. He was very friendly, did not push his wares on us, and was glad to show us whatever we asked for regardless of the price tag (fyi- there is ALWAYS room for negotiation). After about two hours of sorting through rubies, diamonds, and sapphires (oh my!), Beth and I had found a couple of peices we both coveted...but decided not to buy them right away. It was our second day in India and we didnt want to make rash and expensive decisions which is verrry tempting when someone is opening velvet box after velvet box of precious gems for you. Unbelievably professional, Mr. Gupta completely understood, was not annoyed that we may have wasted his time, and gave us his business card in case we came back. It was a fantastic way to end our day in Connaught.
From talking with Mr.
Whizzing by
Gupta and later experiences in less worthy jewelry shops, I realized that the best stuff is kept in the back of a shops. So be dismissive and act less than impressed with the goods on display; it's part of the game that gets the staff to bring out the good stuff! Offering an unreasonably low price might get you nothing but disdain from the store owners, but starting the bargaining at the low end of a reasonable range gets te bargaining off to a good start. Since Mr. Gupta was willing to build a customer relationship instead of giving us the hard sell, he cared about about hooking repeat customers which meant he was less likely to rip me off. If you're trying to buy anything of value (beyond the usual silver pieces) then I would say these are qualities to look for in a shop. Granted, I could have gotten rock bottom bargains had I gone elsewhere, but I knew I could trust the quality of what Mr. Gupta was selling me and his prices were still far better than U.S. prices for comparable pieces. To me, trust and quality was a good trade-off for a fair bargain. Finally, be prepared to spend a few HOURS in such a shop. I ended up buying something from Mr. Gupta at the end of my trip, but I'll write about that later...Shopping onwards. After telling Beth about my experience at Saga the day before, she agreed to go again with me and be the sacrificial lamb. It wasnt too bad this time, actually. We avoided the carpet nazis downstairs and went upstairs to the clothing area. A lovely woman helped us as we looked around and Beth ended up finding a BEAUTIFUL sari to wear to the wedding. I mean gorgeous. I didnt see anything for the wedding that caught my eye, but I did pick up a few items of clothing so I didnt look like a complete westerner. All in all it was a pretty successful day!
Back at the hotel, we were hot, dusty, hungry and all around worn out. So we showered up and headed downstairs for dinner. The Taj Palace has the most amazing dinner places. We decided on the Indian restaurant, of course, Masala Art. The food was phenomenal and I discovered a dish that I cant live without- green lentils. Im sure its commonplace fare, but I had only eaten black lentils before this so it was a great little discovery for me. However they prepared them, they were good enough to make this American midwestern meat eating gal consider vegetarianism. On a more amusing note, Beth ordered a "cosmopolitan." It was actually pretty good but instead of cranberry juice, they used a punch I think. Wasnt bad though! The maitre d' came by and bought us a drink that was called something like "One and Done." It was basically a blue version of a Long Island Iced Tea. And it was completely gross. Our maitre d' was so enthusiastic about it we didnt want to hurt his feelings so we smiled and managed to sip some down. There was a large (15 ppl or so) Indian family next to us who were celebrating the father's birthday. At the end of our meal, we joined them in singing Happy Birthday. We thought it was a sign of a good restaurant that so many locals were eating and having their celebrations there. Being a hotel, we assumed it would mostly be foreigners around us. I was glad that it wasn't so and would highly recommend Masala to anyone visiting.
Tomorrow: Hanging out at Haldiram's, sporting uncomfortable wedding wear, and The Chinese Chow Down of 2006
