Shopping and generally taking it easy

  Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
Saturday, October 11, 2008

Woke up 6:30am and went on a boat ride down the Ganges. Very nice, saw the burning Ghat and got a close up look at the Ganges. Slightly freaky was that we saw what looked liek a still born baby at the waters edge near our Ghat, freaked the hell out of me. Interesting boat guy, who seemed to be very well groomed and dressed in smart casuals for this place. Still werent going to complain commen, although couldnt resist asking where he got his Salamon hiking boots from. His reply was an Australian tourist gave him them as a pressy, 8 years ago! Either Salamon are that damn good, or he treasures them greatly (think its a bit of both really hehe).

Came back and slept till 2pm then had lunch where these Kiwis sitting across from us were complaining that they had been waiting for 1.5 hours for a cheese burger. Was a tad embarrasing, but kind of understandable.

Decided to go slik shopping, and the chap in the hotel from last night (Sanjay) recommended a local place which will give lowe prices as he is a good friend of the hotel owner. So he waked us up to there, a mere 2 mins walk, which I cross checked with him was not the Indian 2 mins aka multiply by 3 for everyone else.
He took us roudnd the back to his private stash, and proceeded to throw out every piece of silk who could. From scarfs, table cloths, bed spreads. As can be expected Amanda was in heaven hehe.

Silk Shopping Shop Keeper

Silk Shopping Child

Intention was to get one scarf each, but this soon went out of the window and actual purchases turned out to be:
6 x scarfs, 3 x table runners, 1 x bed spread with pillow cases
Grand total was 10,500 rupees (approx £120), but got a bit more reduced (1000) after a bit of haggling.
He also showed us some export only silk of his which are huge single pieces with intricate patterns that take 3 people a full year to make! Not to mention his baby daughter which Amanda found cute but Ben named 'Satans Child'.

Silk Shopping Amanda

Left there after paying and the owners son promissing to drop by at noon tommorow to give me a ride on his bike to the DHL office which is about 15 mins away by bike.

Later that night, we decided to stay in and eat because no one was particularly keen to go wandering around here especially late at night. Just didnt feel good.
That evening Ben discovered Veggies Kofta and gorged himself on it. Sayign it was one of the best he had ever tasted. Lets just say that later he will wish he never had lol. Or more precisely his tummy, bottom and consequently wish so.