Adventures of a Wanderlust: shopping

On Monday I went to this gigantic exhibition that is held only once a year with a few of my girlfriends. They include Shae, her cousin Rachel whom she brought back from the United States to spend 3 months with her, and Chunny, and American Indian who did her College over in India and decided to stay and work here.
The exhibition are vendors from all over India and other parts of the world. Many many of them from Kashmir, which mean gorgeous cashmere pashmina's, stoles and scarves for very cheap prices. But you have to know how to bargain!
There were food vendors, circus rides, and so many things to buy. I bought a pashmina scarf, a pair of sandals, some saffron honey, black bangles and some mango jelly all for under $13, and apparently i could have still gotten it cheaper. The exhibition will be around until mid-Feb so i hope to go back.

We had a fun day getting stared at (4 western girls, 2 of which are over 5 feet 8 inches tall and blond), but it doesn't really bother us much anymore. We also had some ice cream and chat (which is pronounced kind of like chart but with a silent r). This is Indian snack food or vendor food originating in Rajastan (the royal part of India) and it's really hard to describe. My favourite is Dahi Papri (dahi meaning yogurt), it's crumpled up crusts of samosas or dried roti (without the filling), then layered with chick pea curry,then a bunch of spices, turmeric, cumin, chili powder, then layered with sweetened yogurt, and tamarind sauce then topped with red onions and a kind of cracker. I love this stuff, and it's so cheap, like about 30 cents a plate.
I added a few links for you to see the many variations of chats. Another popular one is pani puri (which means water and a kind of Indian donut/pastry). At first I thought it was so weird to poke a hole in my food (a pastry kind of thing), put water in it with onions and eat it. But it's delicious! Here are some more pictures of Pani Puri. The flavoured water is put inside the puri which already hold some chick peas and onions, and you eat it like that. It's addicting and so cheap!! i think I'm going to get some chat tonight at work at the chat vendor and drink some freshly squeezed sweet lime juice from the fresh fruit vendor!