May 31- June 1, 2011

On Tuesday I took a bus to Pune’s great bazaar on Lakshmi Road which is pretty close to the center of the city. First I got off at the university since almost every single bus stops at the university and took an auto-rickshaw to Lakshmi Rd. I’m thankful that I heeded the guidebook's advice on bringing ear plugs to a country like India. The traffic is very loud with ppl honking every five seconds, the noise can blow an eardrum. Then again, wearing ear plugs can be a double-edged sword b/c honking is to make sure that you are not in their path. There is no rule about yielding to pedestrian, instead pedestrians must yield to motorbikes and cars. Crossing the streets in India is like putting your life in someone else's hands.

Local bus lines are kinda confusing. Vikas warned me not to ride the bus when it gets really crowded because there is always a chance of getting pick-pocketed. He said that they are really good at what they do...they even have razor sharp tools on their fingers to slash pockets. When anyone hop on the bus there's a conductor who seems to know who just hopped on whether it's a crowd of one or twenty. I actually didn't expect a white guy at all working here in India. Not sure what country his parents were from...maybe Russia? He spoke fluent Hindi.

Lakshmi road is indeed a shopper’s delight; I will be coming back for sure. There I saw so many beautiful things. India has a lot of beautiful clothing for women but somewhat limited selections for men if you wanted dhotis and kurtas. Nonetheless I was able to find a store that sold dhotis at a really good price and the quality feels pretty darn good. I paid 190 rupees for each...and so I bought four. I also bought a long kurta which goes really well with the dhoti. The kurta set me back to 400 rupees but still a bargain.

I will definitely be back for more!

I spent about an hour in Lakshmi Bazaar before I headed home so that I could go to the Bhandarkar. This time finding Bhandarkar was still a pain. I took a bus that actually took me about a mile away from Bhandarkar, and thanks to a lame auto-rickshaw driver who gave me the wrong directions probably out of sheer malice and spite it almost took me an hour to find Bhandarkar in the hot sun.

There are roosters and hens in the courtyard of Bhandarkar!