Moving to the new room was a good move. Whilst the bed is
still very firm . . it was a tad softer which made for a much improved sleep. Also, having pillows with something in them aside from cotton wool is much better . . .
We meet our taxi driver at 10:30am as arranged. We had 3
main destinations in mind . . . 2 Markets and then the New Deli Television
Studio to drop off some blankets for their Blanket Appeal.
Note: The link is FYI
only. We DO NOT suggest you make a donation as they cannot guarantee the money
will get to the intended recipient as stated on the website. That’s why we
bought the blankets ourselves and delivered them to the TV station in person.
Our driver suggests we stop at a few ‘emporiums’ on the way
which was sort of expected. The first one was called ‘Cheap Tony’ which sounded
dodgy from the outset. It was however quite nice and not like the tacky name .
. . No introduction of the staff but ‘Tony’ introduced himself and said he
won’t hassle us like other sellers and that “money is nothing” and “relationships
are everything” and “that is how he does business”. He then proceeded to hassle us like every
other seller we have met. After checking
prices against a few items we had already purchased, we deemed that his prices
were not cheap at all. Funny thing is that we have what some economists call
the ‘Big Mac Index’ . . and that is, how much a common/standard item is in
different countries across the world. We have a few items we check and that
gives us a feel as to where the other items will sit price wise.
So after determining this, we start referring to him as “Not
So” . . . meaning “Not So Cheap
Tony”. Our amusement kept us going as we
are continually tailed and shown everything that is “hand made” and “best
price” and “special gift” and every other term imaginable.
Our second Emporium is very dodge. Total rip off with some very sleazy guys following us
around. It’s one thing to eye off a
white woman . . . but do you need to get very close physically?
We end up back at Central Market to check out our ‘wish
list’ from the other day.
The traffic is more chaotic than usual as the driver must
have decided to take a different route in. When we arrived he said ‘we are here’
and we had NFI as to where we were . . .we asked and he simply stated the
market is ‘around’ us . ..
We took deep breaths and forged on and decided to move quickly
and efficiently whilst remembering where the car and driver was. The thinking
was that that we will hopefully see something or a landmark to give us some
idea . . . and it did.
We re-orientated ourselves and decided to buy the blankets
first. We checked out a few places and decided on the last as the bulk buy got
the price down . . .and they at least were pleasant.
Dashed the blankets back to the car and went back to buy
some stuff for us.
The store where we bought some outdoor stuff was headed up
by the biggest Douche Bag ever. He was nibbling away on a plate of rice and
refused to look or acknowledge us when discussing prices. He just looked so
dodge . The next store was not much
better and we were obviously interrupting the Indian equivalent of ‘Days Of Our
Lives’. There was a particularly
engrossing court room scene going on, and the gents were not impressed by our interruption. We left empty handed.
We then head to a new store where we grab an awesome painting for Wendy. Tough part was that it could not be rolled,
but overnight Jase being the cardboard engineer, builds the most amazing ‘box’
for transportation. Jase's 'Leatherman' has again come to the rescue . . . Never travel without one!
We head back to the hotel, deal with admin and preparation for the next day and then spend the rest of the night building the aforementioned box (pic below)
We head back to the hotel, deal with admin and preparation for the next day and then spend the rest of the night building the aforementioned box (pic below)
A late dinner and then to bed. For a while anyway. About an hour after lights out the hotel alarms go off. (12.30am) It has happened a few times since we have been here but this time it does not stop and some extra alarms went off . . not the usual power outage stuff . . . We quickly dress and grab our passports and then head into the hallway to check on what is going on. No one seems to know, but we can’t smell smoke and we haven’t heard anything outside that would cause alarm. Not sure what caused it but we suspect is has something to do with the drunk Canadians staying across the hall. Crisis averted we head back to bed ( 2am).
