First Weekend in India

India was not how I expected it to be. But then again, as Dagan has said, I haven't really experienced India yet. So to be more precise; my first weekend in India was not how I expected it to be.

I went to a mall that was built by one of the wealthiest families in India, if not the wealthiest. It has stores like Tag Heuer, Diesel, Lui Vuitton and other crazy expensive stores. It was nicer than any mall I have been to in LA.




I went to a restaurant called Sunny's which I think it is one of the nicer restaurants in India. For 3 people with drinks and appetizers our bill was about 100 bucks. The food was really good, I would say it was a medium level restaurant in comparison to food in LA. This is a very expensive bill for food in India though.

Then I hung out at Dagan and Bree's place. It is a very nice 2 story house in a gated community that does not look like India at all. They have a maid, a cook, a driver, green grass, flowers, etc. It looks like a community you would expect to see in Orange County.




I also went to this place called "HyperCity" which is like a target/cosco type place for India. They have pretty much everything from local food, imported food, electronics, furniture, movies, etc. We even found blueberries from Oregon there.

There is a place called Sorbet, which Bree accurately described as the whole foods of India. This place has lots of imported food like Jiffy peanut butter, pretzels, chocolates, juices, nuts, etc. You will pay some steep prices for some of the imports though, like $7 for a bag of pretzels.

Sunday I got to have a more legitimate India experience at the food market. I have lots of pictures from the market on my facebook album here. We were the only white people there and prices here are very cheap, even though we get charged 2-10x more because we are white. I didn't buy anything there but I think Dagan and Bree came away with a few baskets full of fruit and vegetables for a couple of bucks.

India is a very interesting place. There are lots of interesting things about the way things are run which make no sense. Lots of light switches in the rooms which will turn on lights in other rooms. Security checks everywhere that aren't actually doing anything. Electricity going in and out. Driving with no traffic rules but one (don't hit anyone else). One of the most interesting things to me is the divide between the rich and the poor. People can come here from the states and live without really experiencing India at all. There are the super fancy restaurants, malls, hotels, private schools, etc that are all tailored to be non-Indian. A lot of these places are way more expensive than anything else in India, but that brings them up to about the price you would pay in the states or a bit more. For an example: It is my understanding that if you go eat at a typical Indian restaurant the meal would cost around a dollar. But a meal at the restaurant in the fancy hotel that I am staying at is more around 5-10 bucks.
So it is an interesting dynamic. There are people living in slums with who don't have access to many of the things we take for granted and then there are people like me, staying in the nicest places with people driving them around and taking care of their laundry etc. It seems that for the same money I spend in the states I can live like a Hollywood celeb here, except that it is still India with all its idiosyncrasies.

An example of how 'interesting' India can be: Security

A lot of the fancier places of metal detectors and luggage scanners. Now this would make you feel safe and cozy if they actually used them correctly, but instead it is just a pointless annoyance. They insist on scanning any bags, even grocery sacks, but no one looks at the monitor of the luggage scanner. They just put that bag through and then hand it to you. Then they ask you to put your cell and metal stuff in the box and walk through the metal detector. Most times I walk through the metal detector, it goes off and they don't do anything. Walk through it with your cell phone or without, it doesn't matter. They don't actually do anything about it, they just want you do go through the steps.