Shopping!

Finally, the post that shows you what we spent most of our days doing!

Poring over some wedding saris

Up close. This is the headpiece of the sari, the bit which hangs over the shoulder and therefore the most intricately decorated part of the sari.

An indication of the selection of different saris available. The glass cupboards behind the counter are full of saris - and this is just one side, of one floor, of one sari shop! As you can probably figure out, we had our work cut out for us!

A fair few saris in each of the cupboards too - some of which were gorgeous. The exchange rate was 30 rupees to 1NZD (or 80 rupees to 1GBP) so even the most expensive saris were definitely affordable. I think it's the only time I've been shopping with someone who said to the shop assistant "dont worry about the price, bring out your most expensive pieces"!

Checking out more saris. There are chairs/stools in front of the counters for people that are in it for the long haul. And once it seems like you'll be spending some money, you're offered a drink - often a soft drink or the Indian classic, sweet milky tea, yum!

Mirrors on the ceiling! This shop did this so that you can look at a sari from a distance to get a better idea of what it looks like from afar.

Saris need to be worn with a sari blouse - more expensive saris usually come with the blouse piece, but if you need to buy one, you try and match the blouse piece to the sari. You can usually get quite a good match - look at how many different shade of green there are!?!

Mum with her head in her hands - sometimes choice is a bad thing ;)

Most of the shops had airconditioning, but we had to walk between the shops, which was extremely, extremely hot!

This is in Chennai (Madras) at night. It's not as hot as in the day but it's still quite humid, and the crowds increase because at night you all the work crowd too!