A rupee in my pocket: The taste of freedom was great!!!

Namaste!

Well our adventure out of the confines of our hotel was a success! It was so nice to get out from behind the guarded walls we have been living in for two weeks! Ahhhhh the taste of freedom! However, now I want MORE!!! Escaping yesterday was an eye opener to how secluded and captive we have been, and that taste of freedom was amazing! It is apparent all I have taken for granted my whole life!

Ok... enough of the depressing mumbo jumbo. Let me fill you in on the details of our adventure yesterday! So we went out shopping. We went to the Great India Place Mall in Sector 18 of Noida. This place was huge! Four stories of shops containing anything you can imagine. They were all pretty much "brand" shops. There was a store for Nike, Reebok, Polo, Tommy, Levis, Cannon, Nikon, Kodak, etc. There was a KFC and McDonalds (no, we didn't stop), there was even a Staples! There were also quite a few Sari shops, home decoration stores, and a couple of "department" stores. Brett assured me quite a few times that he was "okay!" and doing fine! LOL!

Most importantly... I found a shop that advertised pedicures! I was so excited! As we stood outside of the pedicure shop, we noticed that it was a small space, there were no pedicure massage chairs, no nail stations... only two aquariums full of little fish. What? Yes! It was a fish pedispa! We stood outside the shop for about 5 minutes... just staring in. Finally, we decide to go see how much it costs. Only 450 rupees (about $9 US) for 30 minutes. I will try anything once! So... take off my shoes... get a quick foot rub and put my feet in. You can watch the video of it below. I had to cover my mouth because the owner told me that I couldn't scream... and yes, he said that people have before. It felt weird... but the end result was amazing! Those fish did better than any razor and scrub treatment I have had!

We walked every floor of the mall, stopped in one shop and bought some hand woven rugs that double as wall hangings... But that was it. It was not the kind of shopping I wanted to do. I wanted the authentic Indian shopping experience, the haggling, the dust, the people trying to get you in their shop, etc. I can do a mall anywhere... and even in the US, I avoid them like the plague!

So... the crew at the hotel are on a mission to get me some locations for a great authentic Indian shopping experience!

My husband mailed our care package yesterday! $299 for shipping and NO smokes, or aspirin or midol! So... in about 4 days or so... I will be smoke free and someone will probably be hurt badly! I promise I won't hurt Brett! (too bad)

I was able to get a video of driving here! 20 minutes of pure excitement! It has footage of a man peeing, a tractor driving the wrong way on the freeway, cows, dogs, people running across the street, a couple of intersections, you can hear Brett clinch his teeth and hold his breath... it has EVERYTHING! The only problem is that it is too long and too large to post anywhere! So... I am going to try to find some way to edit it, and then, I will get it posted for you to enjoy.

I have more random pics below. That is it for now... Kal milte hain!

Flower arrangement in lobby of hotel... Very pretty!
Did I post this one already? LOL!

Beautiful garden and temple... I don't know which one. The driver wanted
stop in the middle of the freeway so I could take a picture... I was like
"thanks! I got it!" lol!