More Shopping and Back to Commercial Street

The next day began with me taking Sherrie to the ATM so that we could get some more cash – many of the places we have been prefer cash over card payments, so we needed to stock up. Asking for 10,000 of something from an ATM was a unique experience for me!

To get to the ATM we had to pass a fruit shop, and Sherrie and I couldn’t resist buying some things to take back to the house:

Bananas

Custard Apples

Rambutans

Mangos

Chikus (Sapota)

Pomegranates

Dates (undried)

We had a bit of a fruit feast back at the house.

Augustine was there when Sherrie and I got back, and after talking for a while he took Alex to help him take something to the post office, Augustine also bought us a Jack Fruit to add to our fruit collection, and after talking a bit more we headed back to Commercial Street to collect the Punjabi dress sets that we had ordered yesterday.

Unfortunately the shop we needed was closed, but it was still interesting to walk around the little streets of shops, kiosks and barrows. I saw one barrow loaded with Indian sweets like barfi, which I really love, so I bought a few pieces to share with Alex and Sherrie (who hadn’t tried it before) and with Baba and Mudasir at the shop.

The sweets barrow

At Baba’s shop they seemed really happy with the barfi and some biscuits we had also bought earlier. Baba took only a little of the sweets because he is unable to eat too much sugar for health reasons, but Mudasir has a sweet tooth and was very happy to have some extra barfi to enjoy!

We continued talking and drinking tea, but as we had been with Augustine until early afternoon it was getting late by this point. We decided to eat dinner in the Commercial Street area rather than waiting until we got back, so Baba showed us a different restaurant to try, Konark. It was very dark inside with candles on the tables, so we inadvertently had a very romantic dinner for 3 including fresh rotis, mushroom butter massala and mushroom paneer massala which were delicious. I can also now recommend lime juice, mint and soda as a wonderfully refreshing drink.

My final purchase of the day was at a kiosk selling bangles which we passed on our way to the tuk tuks. I bought some bangle sets to go with the Punjabi dress sets I had chosen at the fabric shop earlier, this time for a much less inflated price. I also learned a neat trick of using a plastic bag to help slip tighter bangles on and off, this way you can wear a size that doesn't fall down over your hands, which is much more comfortable!

Photo by Alex