Next on the list was the shop run. First was a rock shop which didn’t really fancy our tickle and we left empty handed. I mean seriously who charges 1000 rupees (AUS$30) for a silver necklace. A bit over the top if you ask me.

Now I like my linen. Everyone does I am sure so I was quite excited to be going to the cloth factory. This was where I met strangely enough Abdul, because I can’t remember his name.

“Welcome my friend.” We were greeted at the door.

“Welcome my friend” I replied in like.

This is where he began talking a million miles an hour and convinced me that I really did need a doona cover. Not really sure how it happened but now I am stuck with this double doona cover for my single bed when I get home. They can be tricksy those Indians. It was quite cheap. I think the real reason I bought it was because another chap strangely enough called Abdul had convinced Hannah that she needed to look at every single item in the shop, and there was a lot, and then because she couldn’t decide to look at them all over again and I was bored. Also Abdul no. 1 was trying to swap me my dodgy black market watch from Turkey for his dodgier watch from goodness knows where and he caught me unawares.

“Mika what do you think of this one.”

“Oh that one is the best for sure.” I tried to be helpful.

“You said that about the last one.”

I realised then that my cunning plan of saying whatever she was holding up was the best was not working and only complicated things. I tried a new tack.

“Mika this one?”

I began of randomly picking items and saying they were the best by far. This only seemed to confuse myself more.

“Mika you said this one was the worst one before and now you are saying it’s the best one.” She retorted and ended with a huff.

Damn those girls and their memories. Can’t they see they all look the same? Strange creatures finding differences when there are none.

She walked off muttering about something, where all I heard was ‘boys’, ‘no idea’, and ‘why do I bother?’ The last was a good one because I sometimes wondered about that as well.

We left that shop a bit broker for sure but by now I had seen the end of our trip and was cashed up and eager to spend this free windfall that had come my way. Never worry about how I was going to live when I got home with no job. About then I realised why I never really like to plan ahead too much. It only makes you start to worry about things you probably have control over.

Next stop was a mosquito farm/picture gallery. We tried to get out as fast as we could but it is never an easy job extracting ones self from those kinds of places but we managed. If that shop keeper ever reads this I am really sorry for doing that. You know what it was and I will pay the damages, I swear….

Last stop Hannah managed to convince the taxi man to find a bead shop. It wasn’t too hard though I must admit.

As we arrived it was starting to get dark. Hannah was pretty keen on getting some beads so we knocked on the door of the closed shop. The owner was only too happy to let us in when the first thing Hannah said was, “We want beads, lots of beads.”

I don’t know why she put in the ‘we’ bit but I could run with that.

The store keeper was keen to show off his skills and prowess in rocks. A handy skill rocks, knowing rocks. He also was very proud of his 12 year old daughter and got her out to meet us.

“She is my apprentice.” he stated proudly.

“You must be so proud.” I smiled. Always nice to see a proud father. I hoped it didn’t sound sarcastic because I was pretty impressed because she was young.

“She can tell you what any rock is just by looking at it.”

I whistled appreciative.

“See show me your fingers,” and pointed to the 2 rings on my finger. This is where he informed me of what I had suspected for quite a while.

“That ring is silver and the other one is stainless steel.” he informed me.

“Doh” thanks a lot mate now I don’t like that stainless steel one. I knew he was right though when I looked a little closer.

He then decided it was his daughters chance to show off.

He looked me up and down and noticed my necklace. He spoke rapid Hindi or whatever it was they spoke in Rajasthan. She came closer and peered at it.

“Wood.” She said.

Wow. It WAS wood, amazing. I then felt bad for thinking that because she was little. She then went around showing us all sorts of rocks naming each one. I had no idea if she was right or not but she had a name for everything.

Hannah was getting excited and the little girl more excited with Hannah excitedness and so they took her into the house and then spent the most marvellous 3 hours pouring over all the bead rocks with a fine tooth comb.

I however spent the time with the punk kid son who kept showing me the same joke box thing which when you opened had something jump out.

“Hey, Look, see this.” As he shoved the box under my nose for the 100^th time.

“Actually, yes.” Just in time for him to open it and the thing to shoot out and poke me in the eye.

“You want yes?”

I rubbed my eye. It was probably karma getting me back for me thinking I was being a smart arse to the daughter and since it was India, karma was stronger here. So I considered buying the thing as a present to him seeing as he loved it so much but then thought that since it was his fathers shop he got to play with the thing all the time.

“See this?” as he shoved it under my other eye. I gave the kid 5 rupees.

Hannah came back beaded up to the eyeballs, “OH MY GOD Mika, this is only $50 and back home it is worth at least $500, it’s so cheap.”

I looked ruefully at the massive bag of beads and said practically, “Where are you going to fit that? You can’t even fit everything in now, let alone with all that.”

“Oh don’t worry about that I have a plan.”

I had a suspicion what the plan was and I didn’t like it. Not one bit. As it so happens I was right and ended up packing it that night.