We went to a temple and did the whole praying bit as we scoped it out. I was really bummed there were no cameras allowed, there was a really neat circle of men who were chanting around a fire and throwing something in it (here's where I feel silly for not being educated on religious customs.)
**DISCLAIMER: I'm not trying to flood this blog (sorry but that word makes me cringe..documentation?) with photos. That's what my photo albums on Facebook will be for. However, I just so happen to be a visual learner I'm sure it must be better to see it rather than have to guess what Pune is like.
Here's the temple from the outside:
Inside the smaller part:
And a vendor:
We walked around a bit more and finally found some promising shops with Indian clothing. You'll have to pardon these crappy pictures from PhotoBooth, but I haven't taken better quality photos yet. Here's what I managed to find for myself! Three shops, total.
First shop yielded this:
The gold pants are pretty wild but I dig 'em.
Second shop yield:
Sorry, kind of hard to see. Black leggings, blue shirt with gold trim at the top and on the sides
Third shop yield:
I need to figure out the real name for that "scarf"
Here are five photos that I took while walking around:
Probably the worst part about the day was when these young girls were literally touching us and hanging on to Sham begging for money. I know it's what they've been "trained" to do and obviously social norms are different..but it was super annoying and kind of freaky. I was scared one of them would try to get into my [very heavily zipped and protected] bag. Eventually after saying "no" about a million times in Hindi and walking faster and faster, they left us alone. In general, I also don't like how people (drivers, bellboy type figures) will help you out and then straight-up ask for a tip. Again, culture clash but I just personally find it rude. It's a tip because you deserve it, not because you ask for it. They'll even name their own prices. I think it's especially uncomfortable for me because I have a hard time asking for money even when someone owes me for real.
Anyway, after our adventures I was ready to just sit and relax for a little bit. Ate some noodles. But I know by now that no vacation of mine is complete without some sort of medical issue. This time it was my damn kidney stones. A few Aleve, two Hydrocodones, one Naproxen, and one lie down later--I finally feel better. I probably was in significant pain for 2+ hours. Stupid inefficient painkillers...the doctors keep prescribing the same crap no matter how many times I tell my doctors it doesn't work.
So from then on out I just kind of stayed in bed and watched movies. I skipped going out to dinner because even though the pain was gone, I was left feeling nauseous and loopy. I'm none too pleased to say that I haven't had Indian food since being here. Awful! Okay, tomorrow's the day.
I was almost forcing myself to stay awake for the end of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (good movie) but then I was relieved when it ended at 10 pm--I could finally go to sleep! I was so proud of myself; waking up in the morning and taking zero naps until a reasonable hour (10 is very reasonable--nearly brag-worthy--for someone jet-lagged by 10.5 hours!)
...it's now 3 hours later and I haven't slept yet. I only just got on the computer and I know that's a bad idea because the screen is a stimulant but I wanted to write this. When I'm done I'll read a few pages of a book, I swear. Just took 5 mg of Ambien so hopefully I'll be good to go.
No idea what we're doing tomorrow but our weekend trip seems to be shaping up :) Oh actually, I think we're going to a little market in the morning or something, it's nearby.
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