Bouncing and Shopping

Kerri and I completed 26 hours of travel by Jeep and train this afternoon, and then jumped right into a long shopping spree. We left Darjeeling yesterday morning in a Jeep with 11 adults and two children -- one of them carsick. Kerri felt it was the worst ride of her life, but due to very heavy rains the night before, we could finally see four snow-capped Himalayan peaks -- so I was transfixed. But she's probably right, it wasn't the world's most comfortable ride! We arrived in New Jalpaiguri (sights: none. internet access: broken. inhabitants: all very pushy rickshaw drivers. Apparently.) in time for our 1:15 train. We thought we would arrive in Delhi in a mere 17 hours, at 6 AM -- but the train got in at 11:45!!!!!! This seriously cramped our style.

For the rest of the day today, we ran all over Delhi, buying saris, bangles, sandals, inexpensive jewelry, and bindis. Or at least trying to. Shopping in the developing world takes time, both for bargaining (all the while feeling that, no matter how low the price, you're being had) and for scanning the vast panoply of merchandise secreted away in small bins and attics all over the marketplace. Andy, who is in Bangkok, was kind enough to give us a list of good shopping locations, so we were definitely in the right places. But the sheer size of it! Wow. We could have shopped for a week. (Please don't get excited about souvenirs -- we found remarkably few things that were on our list, and we're having a tad of buyers' remorse over what we DID find. Luckily, I have two more countries to shop through before I see my friends and loved ones! Kerri is not so lucky...)

We had intended to have one last, grand dinner before leaving for the airport, but Kerri somehow hurt her foot in our last two hours of shopping, so she's resting in the hotel. I plan to bring up some delicious street food (mmmm, grilled chicken and chapati) to the room and that will have to do as a final feast. I'll write you from Florence tomorrow!