Trip to India - Entry 19 - Arrival in the Silicon Valley of India

Bangalore’s airport is significantly nicer than New Delhi’s airport. I believe we also got our bags the fastest here. However, any time made up for at the airport was long in Bangalore traffic. We heard this saying here, “In India, people drive on the left of the road. In Bangalore, people drive on what’s left of the road.” I definitely can see this.

After arriving and checking in and drinking a red drink that tasted like jello, Madhu suggested walking to Brigade Road. He said it was within walking distance. Finally, on this fourth leg of the trip, I understand what “walking distance” means to Madhu – it means that if he says five minutes, it will take fifteen, and if he says fifteen, it will be more than a half hour. The sidewalks in Bangalore are really horrible, worse than New Delhi. It appears that half the city is in a state of construction.

At Brigade road, we all separated to go shopping. I chose to go with Sarah and Carlos and we went to Cauvery Emporium to look at various items. Some of the little carved statues were truly ridiculously expensive, and I had no idea why we should be induced to pay so much for the statues, but Kyle said that, according to Madhu, some families have been in that particular business for generations, and thus charge more. Me being an ignorant Westerner, all I know is that this elephant is three times the price of that elephant, for no apparent reason.

I have decided that bargaining is very stressful. When I went to buy some shawls from one of the stores on Brigade road, I accepted the price quoted to me without any complaint (which you should NEVER do, especially on Brigade Road), and the guy said, “No no! You offer me price, I offer you, you walk out the door, that’s the way.” So yeah, I got schooled. Sarah, however, is an excellent bargainer, so I got the overall price down by including a beautiful black paisley shawl along with the plain shawls I had already chosen. I probably still paid too much.

Our dinner choice for the evening was Pizza Hut. Again – no judging until you eat spicy Indian food for almost two weeks straight. I am definitely very careful around Indian food, and don’t eat more than one meal per day now. Otherwise, I am just asking for stomach upset.

Our last stop on the shopping expedition was a Kashmiri handcrafts shop. It had the normal carved items, inlaid marblework, etc., but I’d seen some crochet crewel work at a previous shop on one of the seat covers, and was trying to find it. I saw some crewel work on one of their shawls, and asked if they had any wall hangings in that style, and one of the guys (who had apparently lived in Canada), came over and said he would bring the wall hangings from upstairs.

These crochet crewel work hangings were seriously one of the most beautiful items I have ever seen. As an avid crocheter who knows quite well just how much time it takes to make something like that by hand, I was so excited to have the opportunity to buy an item like this. When Kyle bought his beautiful marble inlay plates in New Delhi, he said that the only reason he bought them was because they really grabbed his attention, and he had to have them. I definitely felt that way about these beautiful wall hangings. The one I bought was listed at 6800 INR, and I paid 6000. Clearly, I did not do a particularly good job of haggling. In my defense, though… it is quite possible one of the most beautiful pieces of hand crafted crochet work I’ve seen in a very long time.

Sarah, Carlos and I took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel, me with my giant bag of stuff in my lap which Sarah called my “shopping baby.” My original goal was to do nearly all or all of my shopping in Bangalore, so I appear to have gotten on a successful start for this endeavor.