And Again

.Well, we did it again. We ventured out into the real world that is New Delhi.
Sarah's mum wants some more saris. Yes I know. I've just learned to go with it.
Took a cab to another shopping area Sarah had read about.
It's supposed to open about 1000-1030, and we arrived at 1050.

And it's closed. The driver says it might be open by 1130. Might? Oh, goodie. Now what?

Sarah suggests to fill in time, the driver could take us to a few touristy spots. So off we go.
Tourists. In a taxi. In Indian traffic. In New Delhi. Second day in a row. Holy crap!

The driver also says that, while we are at it, he can take us to a good place to buy saris, without having to come back over this part of town. Sure, lets do that.

So we check out a monument or two. The first one of interest was the Baha'i temple. I couldn't help but notice the similarity with the Sydney Opera House, built about 13 years earlier.

Then off to the shopping. Three saris later and we were back on the road again.

Seeing we had swallowed up half a day for our driver, he needed to pop in for fuel. Over here, all commercial vehicles, buses, cabs, small delivery vehicles, even the little baby taxis, all are compelled to run on CNG, rather than petrol. Trying to keep pollution at bay, not a bad initiative.

We also saw India Gate, a monument kind of like the Bridge of Remembrance in Christchurch, or the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. This is in the absolute centre of a wheel and spoke arrangement of roads, that house all of the offices and homes of parliament. A beautifully laid out and maintained part of town.

At the other end of one spoke are the Government Buildings.

I don't know if I have mentioned this before. The stuff we are buying in these markets are very nice quality. You'd be hard pressed to find this quality elsewhere in the world.

But. And it's a big butt! Looking back to those shops the tour took us to, the ones that ABBA whined about? The quality of THOSE shops was head and shoulders above what is in these markets. You just need to feel the fabric in what you are told is a pashmina. Then feel the fabric of one of the pashminas that Sarah bought in one of those exclusive shops. No comparison. Oh sure, they all pass the pashmina test. Thread it through a wedding ring and its a pashmina. But the softness of those good ones.  

Sorry if this sounds a little, shall we say "Metrosexual".