On my way back to the ship I asked the driver if he knew of any stores that had upper end clothing. He took me back to the store with the super friendly ladies that were in the pic. from the previous post. Since I had been there I indicated that so we drove on. He indicated about 4 more stores, all of which I said OK to but he kept driving. I decided I had to change my answer to get him to stop so when we pulled up in front of Goenka Sarees I said "yes". So we stopped. I got to try on some wonderful outfits and selected one. Curiously it came with sleeves sewn to the inside that need to be attached. They all came with pants (no drawstrings but a place for one, also curious) and a scarf. If it had not been broiling hot I may have bought more than one outfit because so many were beautiful, bejeweled, sequined and bright colors. What fun!
Port Blair was an interesting stop and I had a ball there. It was definitely a set of strong contrasts. The streets were filthy and the women were dressed spectacularly. The fabric shops were amazing. The others, not so amazing. The museums were super cheap, $1-$2 to get in and would have been cheaper if I had gotten Rupees. I'm sure they have tourists coming through but they really aren't set up for it. Some of the shop keepers were friendly, smiling and helpful. Some rolled their eyes. No maps were available to indicated where the sights were. As a result a tuk-tuk must be hired to get to them. I suspect they weren't all that far from each other as I crossed the bazar 3 or 4 times in my tuk-tuk. The end result was a very authentic feeling experience. I loved it!
6 comments:
You look so beautiful. Those colours are perfect for you. I am absolutely loving your blog. Thanks so much for sharing your trip. Regards, Chrissy
Thanks Chrissy! I has so much fun shopping for it.
I wonder what the eye-rolls meant. Perhaps just, "I wish we had a clerk who could speak English."
It's fun to guess at the meanings behind the curious things one encounters "on the road." My guess about the sleeves attached to the inside of the garments, is that there it is customary to have the sleeves tailored to proper fit the buyer after the sale. Perhaps the store even offers that service, or one has to either visit a separate tailor shop or have someone at home do the job.
I think the eye-rolls meant there are a lot of women from the cruise ship coming into my shop and looking at fabric and then not buying any. We tended to have 6 or 8 in a shop at a time. But your suggestion could have been the case also.
I agree it is probably customary to have the sleeves fitted. Another potential reason to not have them pre-sewn is that it costs more to sew them on.
Stunning picture! I can hardly wait to see you in it in person the next time we get together for Indian food for lunch :)
Christie
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