I know I am writing this post about a week and a half late but the birthday weekend was pretty jammed packed that it required its own post.
Since everyone was at work on Saturday I decided not to sit around the hotel all day and venture out on my own (yes, shocking I am at the point of leaving the hotel by myself). I was in desperate need of eyebrow threading and a haircut so naturally I headed to the mall. India is filled will malls and everything you ever need is in a mall. What we think of as a strip mall is called a mall and the actual mall is called a mall. Saturday afternoon I headed to the largest mall in Gurgaon, Ambience Mall. This mall has 4 floors and I would estimate it is 1.5 football fields long. You can pretty much get anything that you want here and the mall is organized by store type. For example, all woman’s clothing stores are on floor 1, electronics floor 2, etc. Security is also tight at the mall. The car gets checked before you enter the drop off or parking area and when you enter the mall you go through a metal detector and get wanded. Nothing too eventful to report at the mall I got a haircut which doesn’t look great (I already have an appointment with my normal guy back in Atlanta – thanks Alli) and got some gelato…nothing too crazy but a good first alone adventure.
Once the team got off work we headed into Delhi to do some scarf shopping. I bought a few scarves at a place called Shaw’s and Sons the week before and I really like what I got and decided that we should go back and buy more. The actual store is like a tiny hallway and the upstairs of the store is filled with scarves. It reminded me of being in China town and buying knock off handbags. I got a few good scarves and helped the guys pick a few out. Since everyone was buying a few items we used the power of negotiation to get 60% off the sticker price…don’t get too excited in our negotiation skills the sign on the wall gave everyone 50% we only managed to squeeze 10% more out of these guys.
Since everyone was at work on Saturday I decided not to sit around the hotel all day and venture out on my own (yes, shocking I am at the point of leaving the hotel by myself). I was in desperate need of eyebrow threading and a haircut so naturally I headed to the mall. India is filled will malls and everything you ever need is in a mall. What we think of as a strip mall is called a mall and the actual mall is called a mall. Saturday afternoon I headed to the largest mall in Gurgaon, Ambience Mall. This mall has 4 floors and I would estimate it is 1.5 football fields long. You can pretty much get anything that you want here and the mall is organized by store type. For example, all woman’s clothing stores are on floor 1, electronics floor 2, etc. Security is also tight at the mall. The car gets checked before you enter the drop off or parking area and when you enter the mall you go through a metal detector and get wanded. Nothing too eventful to report at the mall I got a haircut which doesn’t look great (I already have an appointment with my normal guy back in Atlanta – thanks Alli) and got some gelato…nothing too crazy but a good first alone adventure.
Once the team got off work we headed into Delhi to do some scarf shopping. I bought a few scarves at a place called Shaw’s and Sons the week before and I really like what I got and decided that we should go back and buy more. The actual store is like a tiny hallway and the upstairs of the store is filled with scarves. It reminded me of being in China town and buying knock off handbags. I got a few good scarves and helped the guys pick a few out. Since everyone was buying a few items we used the power of negotiation to get 60% off the sticker price…don’t get too excited in our negotiation skills the sign on the wall gave everyone 50% we only managed to squeeze 10% more out of these guys.
Once we made our purchases it as off to dinner at Zook which has become our favorite local hang out. This place has the best food I’ve had in India and the music is pretty clutch. Ferhardkit, the band we went and saw at the Hard Rock who was launching their new album was having another launch party and we decided to see them again. The show was at the mall (note that even bars and clubs are in malls) that is less than 1 kilometer from the hotel (1km = .62 miles). I was really excited that it was so close because I didn’t want to stay out late since we were leaving for Agra at 5 am in the next day! I stayed at the club for a few songs but it was already almost midnight and a few of us headed back to the hotel early.
So the plan was to meet in the lobby at 5 am for the 4.5 hour car ride. I of course arrive in the lobby at 5 am to find no one from the group there. Steven comes down at 5:15, Brett at 5:20, and Anh rolls in at 5:30...these guys can't show up on time for anything. For the trip we didn't have Manmohan (our normal driver) who takes us to/from work everyday and into Delhi on the weekends. We had Dharmender who turned out the be the worse driver in India. Here is a little comparison and contrast between Manmohan and Dharmender.
So the plan was to meet in the lobby at 5 am for the 4.5 hour car ride. I of course arrive in the lobby at 5 am to find no one from the group there. Steven comes down at 5:15, Brett at 5:20, and Anh rolls in at 5:30...these guys can't show up on time for anything. For the trip we didn't have Manmohan (our normal driver) who takes us to/from work everyday and into Delhi on the weekends. We had Dharmender who turned out the be the worse driver in India. Here is a little comparison and contrast between Manmohan and Dharmender.
Manmohan | Dharmender |
Speaks English | Does not speak English |
Does not honk horn | Honks horn at every moving and non-moving object |
Drives at a reasonable speed and does not slam on breaks | Drives into oncoming traffic. Hits every pot hole and speed bump at about 60 km (40 mph) |
No accidents | About ended a guy’s life on a bike. Accident avoided but it was a close call. |
Does not pick up strangers off the side of the road | Read down a bit |
About half way through the drive Dharmender decided to pull over and jump out of the car without saying a word. It turns out that we were at the Uttar Pradesh border and had to show paperwork before getting on another highway. The cool thing about this border stop was that there were several guys walking around with monkeys. This was to be the first of many monkeys on the road to Agra. The last hour and a half of the ride was much more uneventful than the first...until we arrive in Agra.
Dharmender pulls over once more and a stranger hops into the car. There were several thoughts going through my mind but before I could react the stranger asks us is if we want breakfast. We say yes as we don't know what this guys is all about. The stranger takes us to this fine establishment below.
It turns out that the stranger is Asef and was hired by the company to be our tour guide. The company had already paid for his services and only if we felt it necessary we should tip him at the end of the day. After hearing this, I was okay with letting Asef back into the car and it was Taj Mahal time!
We were only a short distance from the Taj and I was surprised that I couldn't see this massive building from the road way. Here is a shot of what the outside of the gate looked liked.
I have to cut the post short...I can't load photos right now. Stayed tuned for part 2!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment