Lori and Bobette, doing what we do best - hitting the markets!

Sarojini is my favorite market because it is big, there is a huge variety of stuff, and it is all pretty cheap. There are actual shops, but usually they have encroached so far out into the street you can't tell if there is a building back there somewhere or not! And in many areas, they just put the merchandise out on the wall, or pillars, or on the ground. This is actually an alley. Much of the clothing at Sarojini is seconds, or rejects, or stuff they made with the leftovers. But some is name-brand stuff. We usually wear something we can try things on overtop, or a skirt for trying pants, as there are never changing rooms. Or bathrooms. Or drinking water, or security, or anything else you might want.

This girl was asking Lori questions about being a tourist in Delhi - some survey for her school, I think. Then she wanted a photo.
These are the outfits for 75 rupees. Yep, less than 2 bucks for a salwaar kameez. Of course, the quality isn't great, and they tell you they fit all sizes (really, like me and that size 0 Indian lady are the same??), but if you are looking for cheap...
And this is at the back of the market, where everything is laid out on a tarp. If you have time, you can score some serious deals. These guys don't even have shop space, so their stuff is cheap. But you have to wade thru it, or know exactly what you want so they can look. Here Lori is shopping for the scarves that I have one-in-every-colour. :) I LOVE THEM! They are a cotton, and they are cheap!

Lunchtime!! I love Sarojini because I can get the fired potatoes there...mmmm. I carry my own ketchup packs because they want to put spicy stuff on it and I want ketchup! You can see the guy in the blue shirt is cooking chunks of potato in a shallow wok-type pan. There is a puddle of hot oil in the middle and when you order, they push some chunks down into it to crisp up, then they salt it and serve it to you in a bowl made out of banana leaves. I LOVE IT! Another food on that short list. You can see the other guy, in the pink shirt (BTW, pink is not a girl colour here - and all the mens clothes are...how to put it...a bit feminine. Randy would never wear 75% of what the men's departments sell) holding Indian dressed Flat Stanley. More on him later, but I needed the photo of the food.
About a week after the trip to Sarojini, we headed back into Delhi to my other favorite market, Janpath. This is more hand crafted stuff - and more souvenir type stuff. On this one street, hundreds of bed covers, wall hangings, paintings, shawls, dresses, purses, etc etc. We go there so much, they wave and call to us when they see us now! This shoe shop sells the traditional leather slip-on shoes and leather sandals, among other things. One thing I hate about shoe shopping here is that, lets face it, my feet are bigger than standard, but they will get you some shoes, and say, these are perfect, when you say they are too small, they say no madam, fitting, fitting. And you have 2 inches of heel hanging off the back! but I digress.
This is a little kid dressed up at the God Shiva. For money, of course. Christelle took a photo then had to put money is his pot. I would admire his parents ingenuity if it wasn't the middle of a school day.

Janpath is a long street, so for fun, and to save walking, when we were done we took an auto-rickshaw. It was a bit tight with 3 women and a 3 year old and bags and bags of shopping, but we did it. It usually costs 20 or 30 rupees for a ride.

This is the outside of our favorite purse place, run by our purse guy Bryan. The inside is not so big, but he has so much on display! That is cool. What I really love is when we say, ok, we want this shape, with a shorter handle, maybe in blue, how about stripes? And he disappears into the piles for a second and comes out with a blue striped short handled purse, and you go wow.
This is video of the inside of our favorite purse place - run by our purse guy, Bryan. On the video I say 12x10, but I have since decided 10x8 is more like it.

On the way home, we pass this statue of Ghandi leading the march to the salt. I know all about it, because I read the kid's histroy textbooks when we first got here. :) It was one of the first acts of rebellion, when the British were trying to tax the salt that the Indians were harvesting from the sea.

Here is Lori's plunder. Oh what fun this represents! and not really a lot of money. At the back are quilted patchwork wall hangings, then there is outfits for her kids, her 50 rupee shopping bag from Sarojini (we find if you have a big bag, even if it is full, they don't bother you. But if you have any plastic bags, they see that you have been shopping and that seems to be an invitation to harrass you no end. So, we save ourselves the headache, and take a fabric bag.) beaded mirrors for her primary class, her salwaar kameez, and knock-off DVDs. I have a DVD guy at Sarojini - he is pretty good - 100 rupees for DVDs with 4 movies, or 9, or 300 rupees for 64 movies. (yeah, not sure how that works...) Whenever I complain about quality, he lets me swap, no problem. I like him. We have been able to get DVDs of some of the movies we owned only on VHS, so that makes me happy. I tried another guy at another market, and that went badly. Christelle had to start yelling. We had both tried games, Xbox for her, Wii for me, and they didn't work. Or the movies. So there was trouble. Christelle is not afraid of a scene if it gets us what we want. That is a fine quality in a shopping partner!!

This pretty much sums up our market shopping, there will be more later, but this did it for Lori and I. Next up, the Taj Mahal!!