Oak Grove Alpacas: We Have Made it to Bangalore

After a long journey we have arrived in Bangalore India. We stopped in London for 7 hours on the way. Not wanting to sit in the airport for 7 hours we decided to take a risk and go into the city. We took an express train to Paddington Station. It only stopped at 1 place so we thought we could probably find our way back. I made the jetlagged kids do a few laps around the Paddington area to keep them going. It was a nice are with lots of people. We had a hard time adjusting to the traffic on the wrong side of the road. It was hard to cross streets! They did have a Paddinton Bear shop at the Paddington Station. We look forward to seeing more of Londoon at the end of our trip.

After our layover we bourded the plane to Bangalore. It is a long 9 hour journey from London. While over Iran someone on our plane had a medical emergency. I was sure we were going to have to make an emergency landing. Wouldn't that have been interesting! Luckily we made it to Bangalore without having to stop.

We saw many sights on our first day in Bangalore. India is kind of overwhelmeing at first. The traffic drives everywhere with no regard to lanes in the road stopping etc. Somehow everyone manages to get around with few accidents. You need to have a driver for sure!

We are attending a wedding today so our we went shopping for pretty Indian clothing on Saturday. Our first stop was the sari shop. The items in the shop were amazing! Saris are very cool. They are woven in patterns especially made to be wrapped. At the end there is an extra section to make the top. These items are hand woven and put anything I have ever made to shame! The detail in every one is incredible. Ther are hundreds of them in the shop and each one is different. Most ladies wear them around all of the time. They look so pretty in them. I ended up buying 3 saris. One is being made into a mini sar for Annelise. One is being made into one for me. The last I have kept as fabric. I will take photos of all when I get them back from the tailor. I also purchased about 6 silk scarves. I could have spent way more but these items were a little pricy. I think my bill was about $350 for 3 saris and 6 scarves. They are truely beautiful and I would have felt really bad if I didn't buy them.

After our visit to the sari shop the salesman took us around the corner to the weaving shop where everything is made. The use a dobby loom. It was very interesting to see the fine silk warped. They know what they are doing. I took video of the weaving shop too. I will try to upload it soon.

We are attending a wedding today so we then went shopping for a Salwar Kameez for me to wear. I found 2 that are full of beading and very pretty. They were far more inexpensive than the saris so I bought them both. I think I can get away with wearing one of them in the US. I will post some pictures of me wearing my outfit when we get dressed for the wedding this morning! I wish we dressed like this in the US! Everyone looks so pretty in these outfits. You hardly see anyone wearing western clothing. I can understand why.

Below are a few photos of our first day. I have much bigger album on facebook. If you would like to view them my Facebook name is Michelle McCabe Waling.

The streets of India

THe Bull Temple in Bangalore- we got blessed and everything!

Fruit seller. There are wonderful pineapples, mangos and papaya here!

The sari loom - this is the fine silk warp wound on the loom

The man running the loom

Our sari salesman behind him are all of the saris

Annelise getting fitted for her mini sari. SHe is going to look so cute! SHe would like to have next years school picture taken in it. St. Joseph school ought to love that!