Saree exhaustion
Trip Start
May 05, 2004
1
8
14
Trip End
Jun 30, 2004
Chennai (Madras),
India
Saturday, May 15, 2004
the afternoon going to Dr. Kumar's house for tea, and some sort of
snack. It was odd, and I have no idea what it was. Anyhow, we met his
mom and dad, I like his mom, she's cool. After tea, we headed out to
shop. Dr. Kumar came with us to the jewelry shoppe so we would get a
good deal. It was fun, but we spent forever there. Next
we headed off to shop for sarees. This was incredible. The store is
like a 5 level shoppe, with piles upon piles of fabric and people,
both. There are a million workers there, plus you could not imagine the
amount of people in that store. They were 4 deep at the counters. At
the counters, you look through the piles of sarees that the salespeople
are throwing onto the counter for you to see. It's quite an overload
for the senses, and we all were fried by the time we had each finally
picked out our saree. Then trying to pay for it was an ordeal. First
you take it to one person, who makes out the bill, then it's carried
across the store and wrapped for you, but you have to go somewhere else
to pay for it, then you bring the bill that's marked paid to the
counter where they have your saree and they'll wrap it ten more times
in different bags, and you can finally walk out the door with it. And,
the longer you spend in the store, the more free stuff the salespeople
give you. Although, that is only for us weirdos, (americans) who they
want to impress. So far we have received two small travel bags from the
jewelry store, and a fan and a snack thing from the saree shop. Yeah,
crazy. We went out to dinner after this whole thing, and it was
nice to just sit in the a/c and take a breather. Yes, shopping for
sarees is an adventure no one should miss. I got this great green one
that is light green at the top and it fades to a darker green at the
bottem, with gold colored designs on it. Hopefully it's cool by the
time I get the shirt and the skirt-thing that goes underneath it.
That's right, we're not anywhere near done yet. We have to go get
fitted so they can make our shirts, and buy the skirts. In all
our travels, we got to ride around in this great bus. It was carpeted
with vevet carpet on the sides and walls, and it had linoleum on the
floor. How cool is that? One of a kind for us!
