More fun stories....

July 9, 2007

On Sunday night Nick and I went with Tasnim, Mukesh and Byson to a small little restaurant for dinner that was not too far away from where we live. To get there we took a regular city bus... our first experience with Indian public transport. It was not too bad at all. A man even came by and sold us some peanut on our way for 5 rupees! Of course as we got off the bus Mukesh said, "Public transportation is the worst!" When I asked why he said that just last week ten people were killed in a bus crash and that similar things happen all the time because the drivers are not certified to drive. Eeeek!

Before we ate Nick and I went with Tasnim to a near by market and bought some pasta for the following nights dinner. Then we went and sat down. Mukesh and Byson had already finished eating so they left. So Nick and I had a really nice dinner with Tasnim. We had beef curry and prawns. It was all very Yummy! On our way back home we got on the wrong bus so we got off and decided to walk home instead. On our way I noticed that every hundred feet or so the overwhelming smell of urine would overcome your senses.... Tasnim joked that whenever she travelled she would get off the plane to this smell and know she had made it home. It was kinda gross... but when you gotta go... you gotta go!

(as a side note... with all this talk of pee... I just went to the bathroom at Navdanya and a rat ran across my feet! The bathroom is filled with all sorts of papers, stacked from floor to ceiling all around. It's not the cleanest bathroom in the world... actually it is kinda gross... but it still surprised the hell out of me!)

As we walked we talked about all sorts of things and had a good time. When we got outside of Greenpark Village Tasnim stopped to buy some flowers. When she did Nick whispered to me that he shouldn't have eaten the food and that his stomach was messed up. I believed him because his face was all contorted with pain. Tasnim bargained for the flowers and we moved on. There was a little Mother Dairy ice cream cart on the side of the road. Mother Dairy is, at least this is what Manu says, run by the government. It is pretty much the only place we have found dairy products. Well, lots of shops sell ice cream... but other than that... not much. Tasnim wanted to treat us to good Indian ice cream. I think it is called Kulfie but I am not sure. So we stopped and she got us some. It was fantastic... Nick ate some too even though his stomach was giving him pains. We continued through Green Park and I asked Nick if he wanted to stop, he said no, his stomach was doing better! So we walked on. When we were about half a mile away from home nick handed me the bag of pasta and said he would meet us there and took off running toward home and the bathroom. Hahaha... poor guy! He is feeling much better now. Later the food messed my stomach up as well but not nearly as badly as it did Nick's.

July 12, 2007

Yesterday Nick and I were at work with very little to do so we left and headed over to Tasnim's house. She fed us lunch and took good care of us (as always) and then we headed out to go shopping because I really needed pants. The mosquito's are biting like crazy lately so my legs are paying the price. I must thank Sergei for the Malaria pills... they have been a real life saver!;o) We walked out of our village and most of the auto drivers already had passengers, but there was one that did not. He was sleeping in the back of his auto. So Tasnim went over and woke him up and scolded him for being lazy. Nick and I found this very amusing! After a few groggy complaints he realized she was right, splashed some water on his face and off we went.

As soon as we came to the first shop Tasnim put on her bargaining face. She bargained for a pair of pants that I liked. We got them for 100 rupees (2.50)... not a bad price at all. From there it was a whirl wind of shopping... with Nick wondering around behind us. Nicks disgruntled quote of the day, "it feels like we are right back at home shopping with your friends." Hahaha... but I think he ended up having fun.

After about an hour and a half of running in and out of small street shops we decided we had enough and went to look for shoes that Nick could wear with his suit. These were not so cheap. The most inexpensive ones he looked at were the equivalent of a little over 50 bucks so we decided to wait. We also saw some shoes for 250 rupees on the street but Tasnim said they were not of a very good quality and would fall apart quickly. So we didn't get any.

As we were walking around, Tasnim treated us to a yummy little treat called Momo's. It was a mixture of chicken and other stuff inside of a thin bread on the outside. They were kind of like won tons only they tasted way different.

On the way out of the market we were accosted by 4 or 5 children who wanted to sell us various items. Though I have to say that was mostly my fault. I was looking at the pretty necklaces and it made one of the children think that I was interested. After that... it was all over! The children are so desperate to sell you something that they will follow you around until you break. It makes me really sad and sometimes I'm tempted to just hand a little money over to each of them. Sometimes I do, but this time there were way to many of them all tugging on us to listen to their offers.

We then realized that we had not been to the shop where Tasnim needed to go to get the key to her locked cabinet (she lost her copy). She was not sure what shop she bought it in so we walked around for another 45 minutes before we found the right shop. I think Nick was now very tired but I was still having fun. Then we headed out of the market to look for a ride.

When were looking for an auto Tasnim had to make us stay far behind her so she did not get ripped of by the drivers. Even when she had bargained for a price she liked they would change their price as soon as we walked up.

Nick and Tasnim... coming home from shopping

We drove back home and took a shower before heading back down to Tasnim's for dinner. On our behalf she cooked us a pasta dinner. It was (like all of her cooking) AMAZING! Nick could not stop eating it! Manu and Mukesh were a little skeptical at first because pasta is not very common in India but by the end Mukesh was saying that we needed to meet a nice Italian girl and send her his way when we left (he has a girl friend... so he was only kidding:o).

After dinner we once again had ice cream and mangos and then called it a night. We have been eating LOTS of mangos because it is the end of the season and they tell us they will not be around for much longer.:o(

Tomorrow we will be leaving for Dehradun so don't expect any posts for several days! We will update you on how the trip went as soon as we return to Delhi!