After walking about 30 minutes through Little India, I was submersed. Little shops filled with cloth for ordering sarees (their spelling), walls stacked floor to ceiling with assortments of colorful bangles, spice houses, jewelry stores and little grocery store (yes, I went in one and bought spiced tea and some curried crunchy snacks). Sidewalks filled with men and women walking in traditional dress, but with their ears on their cellphones! Street after street of the same. The jewelry stores were stocked primarily with 22 and 24 carat gold pieces, a different color than we normally see, and many had women and men sitting on the stools – I don’t know if they were buying or selling (there were counters for both), but most were very busy. Buddhist temples, with stories of how and when they came to be built; most in the mid-1800’s and added onto. A couple of the temples had yoga class during the weekend, but unfortunately I won’t be here for those. And finally to the big open air market, almost a carbon copy, layout-wise, of the Chinatown complex, with the one obvious difference. In the back half of the markets were fruits, vegetables, spices, mutton and seafood counters, and in the front half, the little eating booths. This time I had already had an incredible Indian meal (see next post), so I didn’t feel remorseful. I did order a lemon lassi and enjoyed that as I walked around. Above you see a man hacking open a very, very large, very, very strange spiked fruit.