12/2 - Mall Madness (Maria Speaks)

Well, here I am out at sigma mall about to try an Indian cuppaccino. It's about 12.11pm and the first time I've ventured out of the hotel since yesterday lunchtime. I haven't eaten anything since dinner last night (oh, except for a tiny ladyfinger banana which was included in our complementary bowl of fruit), and am hoping that my bowels have finally settled after ridding my body of whatever it was that I ate a couple of days ago, that was so poisonous to my system. I believe it was the lunch we had at the restaurant that our tuktuk driver 'recommended' to us a couple of days ago.

My immune system has finally cracked after what has been an amazing but stressful time here in many ways, and the crippling headache I suffered yesterday (lucky I was at the hotel cause I could barely walk up the stairs to the room), and the two huge coldsores I've developed on my lip, are proof of that. Part of the stress is caused by having to almost 'fight' off the constant assults on my conscience and purse. As an example, when I left the hotel at noon, I was immediately surrounded by 3-4 tuktuk drivers who park out the front of the hotel waiting for foreigners like me to walk out. These drivers all speak English pretty well and almost fight over your body to get a job for 3x the usual price. They then take you to where you want to go but on the way, happen to know a good place to shop and restaurant to eat at. Well, this morning I was determined to get a driver who knew no English and had no friends with businesses, so just a local driver rather than one looking for tourists. So I walked past the guys at the hotel, though they followed me for half a block and as soon as I was far enough away, I stopped a guy on the road, asked if he knew where I wanted to go, and then told him how much I would pay him. Of course he tried to up the price, but I knew the price was more than fair already, so he accepted. The funny thing was, after telling the drivers at the hotel I didn't need a tuktuk and I wanted to walk, I didn't realise that we'd have to drive right past the guys I'd walked away from in 60 seconds, to get to this mall. I looked the other way as we drove past them feeling guilty, but afterwards thought I should just let it go,

Anyway, I made it to the mall fine, but even at this most modern of places the guy at the coffee guru, tried to get me to pay 90 rupees for the coffee I ordered which was meant to be 65 rupees. When I questioned it, he gave me the menu and pointed to a coffee cake deal. When I said no, he was quite affronted. I don't know why I felt like I had to apologise and explain that I was gluten intolerant and so couldn't eat the cake, cause he didn't understand me anyway! I insisted only coffee and am hoping that's all it was! ;-)

Well, I think I've got the energy to go off and explore. We came to this mall the other night with Sameer, but the shops were all closed up so might have a wander. Like any mall anywhere in the world it has a food court, so might try to find some bland, ie non indian food to give my tummy a break. If I get a chance, I'll write a bit more when I sit and have my next coffee. Ciao
I just bought a pack of cornflakes at the small but familiar looking supermarket. I had half the pack which allowed me to take my doxicycline (malaria) tablets.

Ok, on to the small amount of shopping I got to do. There are very trendy shops in here, like all the brand clothing and accessorie stores that I'm not interested, but I fortunately found a DJ's lookalike store with a wide variety of goods which included a section of traditional style dresses. Up until now I haven't bought any clothes for myself cause I didn't think they would have my size. However, like most countries, the size of it's affluent population is increasing, so I was able to find clothes too big even for me! Luckily for me, all the stores are having end of season sales, as Hina had told me before, so everything is half price or 40% off the already low price. Yay!

I'm sure Spike has mentioned it before, but the security here at hotels, Aero India and this mall is amazing, I'm guessing since Mumbai. This mall has 4 floors, and at the entrance and at the top and bottom of every escalator and staircase, there are TWO guards and metal detectors you have to walk through. I don't know how effective they are, but they are definitely making a good show of protecting us all.

Well, it's nearly 5pm, and I've been dashing to the loo all day. I planned to go to the beautiful gardens here this afternoon, but I haven't been able to leave the 4 star loos here that I've been dashing to all day. Spike should be about to board the bus to get here and should be here in about an hour, hooray! I might take a quick break outside to escape this constant mall muzac. I'll also try to take a photo without arousing suspicion. Don't want to be hauled off by the guards for behaving suspiciously. They're probably already watching me carefully cause I've been loitering for 5 hours now! Well, battery on pda's about to die, so better go. Ciao!