For our first outting in the City, we hired a driver from our hotel to take us to india Gate, the preisdent's Palace and for a short stop at a local shopping mart.
I completely understand why Bravish (our employee for whose wedding provided the imputus for us coming to India) told us not to drive here as there seems to be little compliance with traffic laws. I had to shut my eyes as we forged our way through narrow roads and laneless roundabout intersections. The flurry of drivers barely seemed to skim cars, motocycles, vans and buses while horns blared and our jitters rose. This frentic pace must be how it works for people to navigate in this city of 15 million. Our calm driver explained that you need 4 attributes while driving in India: strong brakes, loud horn, much patience and good luck!
Our first site was India Gate, a memorial built to honor the soldiers who died in WWI. While we posed for this picture, we were bombarded with locals urging us to buy their trinkets and souvenirs. The smoke and incense dominated the air so we jumped back into our car to see the President's Palace a few miles down the hectic road. This site was much calmer as we took photos and then drove to a local shopping area selling jewelry and fabrics. We soon learned from Lauren that the only way to shop here in bazaars was to haggle. Stan and I are clearly not good with this concept and would have paid 3 times what she got a scarf for. She still surmized that we paid too much. We decided to let Lauren do the bargaining from here on in.
I completely understand why Bravish (our employee for whose wedding provided the imputus for us coming to India) told us not to drive here as there seems to be little compliance with traffic laws. I had to shut my eyes as we forged our way through narrow roads and laneless roundabout intersections. The flurry of drivers barely seemed to skim cars, motocycles, vans and buses while horns blared and our jitters rose. This frentic pace must be how it works for people to navigate in this city of 15 million. Our calm driver explained that you need 4 attributes while driving in India: strong brakes, loud horn, much patience and good luck!
Our first site was India Gate, a memorial built to honor the soldiers who died in WWI. While we posed for this picture, we were bombarded with locals urging us to buy their trinkets and souvenirs. The smoke and incense dominated the air so we jumped back into our car to see the President's Palace a few miles down the hectic road. This site was much calmer as we took photos and then drove to a local shopping area selling jewelry and fabrics. We soon learned from Lauren that the only way to shop here in bazaars was to haggle. Stan and I are clearly not good with this concept and would have paid 3 times what she got a scarf for. She still surmized that we paid too much. We decided to let Lauren do the bargaining from here on in.
No comments:
Post a Comment