Desert Shopping: A How To Guide.

Hello. Well here we are back in Delhi. Sitting in a hotel lobby passing time before our train to Agra (home of the Taj Mahal). We arrived at 5:30 am, and we are very tired and grumpy. At least our impatience has been united against the touts. Man are they getting on my nerves. Just because we stop on the side of the street to look around does not mean we need ten people running up to us to offer their rickshaw services or hotel, and we shouldn't have to say 'no' more than once. Oh it's going to be one of those days.

Well Jaisalmer was great, hot(40+), but great. We definitely didn't need six days there though. We spent most days relaxing, but ventured out a few times to shop see the sights and ride a camel to the Samm sand dunes. One day while we were walking towards a restaurant, we were summonded to a man's textile store. This happens about 50 times a day(wherever we are at least). We politely declined but the man was friendly and insisted that he had 'fixed prices' (meaning they were fair, no haggling and the prices were listed). We said we would look. Well needless to say, after 2 HOURS there, and his lessons on good quality and bad quality and his verbalizations on his hatred towards people who cheated tourists, we decided to buy some good quality items. We loaded up on loads of stuff and had to return the next day for some stuff that needed to be repaired or altered. The next day we went back and the stuff was not ready. We returned an hour later and the stuff was not repaired properly - it was sewn together half assed, and the quality was simply crappy. The guy we bought it off of was not there, and we had to get back for our camel safari. We told the boy running the shop that we would return later. When we returned to our hotel Liza approached the Hotel manager and asked him what he would pay for the items we had bought. He was shocked at what we paid (six times the normal rate)and laughed at the quality. He told us that the man was selling crap and that the stuff we bought would be thrown out by the women who made it. He told us that that man was a liar, and that he always cheated tourists. Liza was angry and the man told her to return the stuff and he would take us to a government run shop. He said that she needed to make noise to get her money back. For continuity I will talk about the camel safari after. After the camel trip we returned at 8:30 that night and I began asking the man for our money back as we where not happy with the work he had done or the fact that we now knew he had ripped us off terribly. Liza did not want to speak as she was shaking with anger. The man made the terrible mistake of insisting that she rather than me explain why we were returning the items. I was cheering for Liza and yet at the same time couldn't help feel a little sorry for the greedy salesman. Liza let him have it. She vented anger that had been building against scammers from seven countries. I think he was shocked that this sweet, witty funny woman from the night before was capable of standing up for herself, so strongly. We got our money back. He had no other option. I hope that teaches the greedy bugger. The following day the hotel manager took us to a government funded shop (apparently) and we paid way more but for much better quality. They took us through all the varying qualities of work and showed us how to tell the difference. It was obvious the stuff the other guy was selling was not even 1/2 the quality of the the stuff there.

The camel Safari was incredible. Most places including our hotel were charging about 1000 Rupees each for a sunset tour. This means you take a jeep out to the desert and then ride a camel for 30 minutes to the Sam sand dunes. You then watch the sunset and return. We went through the Tourism department and did it for 500 Rupees in total. Yay. Our driver seemed to be the biggest nerd in India. He stopped at several places to show us various plants and rocks in the desert. He even had fossilized shells in his pocket to show us that the region had once been an ocean. Lucky for us there was a Hindi tourist with us, because understanding geology and paleontology in Hindi is quite difficult. We were taken to a tent were we had chai and hopped on our camel. We were supposed to get one each but ended up having to share one. It was better this way as riding a camel is less comfortable than it looks. We rode it out to the sand dunes and watched one of the most amazing sunsets ever. The only downside was watching a middle aged man on a camel chug back a beer and then throw the empty bottle on the ground, adding it to the rest of the garbage every where.

We spent a couple more days touring the city and the fort. The fort is really quite amazing. It's about 850 years old, and as there are still cows everywhere it still feels like the middle ages, as you walk through the narrow lanes. We were going to check out the Maharajahs Palace but it seemed quite over priced. I think the most interesting aspect of it is the hand prints around the doorway. After the Maharajah's Death his wives placed there hand prints on the door way and jumped into his funeral Pyre. Rather morbid, and creepy to look at.

The next day we went to Johpur. On the train we shared a berth with an Indian man named Samjay. He was a military man and told us of his family. We had a lovely conversation that encompassed a lot about the differences in our cultures and the pros and cons of each. The next day we tried to get spices, but everyone was charging what the Indians call the white skin tax (we get charged this everywhere). That's no joke. It's expected that we pay more than locals. Fine. We don't mind paying more but not 7-10 times more. We got loads of spices (paid more but know it's the real thing) and a big suitcase (that broke) and then returned to our guesthouse. We then asked the guest house staff what we could expect to pay for stainless steel dinnerware. They told us and then went further by sending their mother with us to ensure that we were not ripped off. This was her first time as a tour guide and although she couldn't speak a word of English we could tell that she was beaming with pride to be able to do us this favour. We bought loads of stuff and then offered to get her a gift to thank her. She declined but we insisted. Her eyes went wide and she immediately grabbed a spice box (which turned out to be the most expensive thing on our list [$5]). We put our stuff aside and Liza was given some really nice glass bangles from the mother and we were invited for lunch. Liza had a glass of chai with them while I did an online job interview. They were really welcoming people and had two pet calves that stayed in their foyer.

We then hopped on a train to Delhi, and here we are. Off to Agra and then Varanessi. Only 2 minutes left at this internet cafe, so bye for now!!