Old City

Today we took an auto rickshaw down to Old City. We went early in the morning partly because it gets hot here and partly because people tend to come out in droves on Sunday afternoons and we wanted to go before that. The auto rickshaws are pretty crazy. They have three wheels and are everywhere. There is one seat up front for the driver and a bench in the back. We squeezed three adults into the back seat. While we were driving out we passed another one that was just crammed with people. They were even hanging out the sides! Their motors sound like lawn mower motors and have a little lever that the driver has to pull up on to get it started. Naturally they don't go very fast so I wasn't too worried about having Anna just in the wrap while we were driving.

Here is a shot of where we were walking. It was all about 3 or 4 stories tall and pretty close together, this was a wider street. The green and yellow vehicle is an auto rickshaw and the guy in the hat is Steve.

We didn't have anywhere in particular that we wanted to see, just the place and get a feel for it. So we had the driver take us to a kind of central location. We got out and just started walking. At one point we turned up a very narrow "street" and were walking where people lived. It seemed to be wash day as just about every place had clothes on the line. It dead-ended though so we had to go back out the same way. We were fascinating to the people we passed twice.

The vase we bought. It's not quite a foot tall and is mostly black but with redish patches. It's made out of brass.

Steve from Jason's work came with us (the third adult). He had been given a request to buy a little brass bell for another guy's girlfriend (why she didn't ask her boyfriend we're not completely sure, Steve thinks it's because he is more reliable). So while we were walking and stumbled upon a brass shop, we decided to go in and look for a bell. They had a little, open air shop in one street and a huge, 5 floor store around the corner. We would look around and the guys in the shop would motion that there was more upstairs so we would head up. We saw three of the floors. Steve got the bell for the girlfriend and a little bell wind chime for his wife. We had not intention of getting anything until I saw these vases. I loved them and we didn't think we would be able to find the shop again so we bought one. Someday when I have a house, it is going to go in our Oriental themed dining room.A close-up of the detail around the middle. There was another vase that was shaped differently and had a big peacock design that was beautiful but we liked the shape of this vase better. It feels more exotic.

After the shopping, we decided we were done. We were all hot and sweaty so we decided to head home. Anna slept on the ride back which was impressive because some of the car horns are really loud and right on your tail. She was unfazed. I decided she was either really tired or had passed out from the heat. As she woke up when we went over the speed bumps, I guess it was the former. Also on the ride back we passed a number of carts or areas on the ground selling stuff. There were these totally cute little tables but I have no idea what I would do with one. I'm going to have to be careful about buying things here.