It might look smaller than a Tesco Express but in Vashisht it's the equivalent of a Tesco Mega Store! Inside there aren't several isles selling a good variety of foodstuffs, instead the middle of the shop is an empty space and the goods for sale are displayed on shelves around the walls. As you can imagine, the choice is very limited unless you are looking for tea, coffee, porridge, rice, dhal, hot chocolate, buiscits, soap etc. There are slightly better stocked shops in the main town of Manali but it is a challenge trying to food shop when you first come here.
During the tourist season here loads of clothes shops spring up. If you think that shopping for food is a challenge, try getting clothes. Luckily there is no 'it's fashionable to wear' culture here and people just wear whatever they want ranging from brightly coloured unmatching cheap travelling clothes to just a piece of cloth wrapped around their waist (most travellers only have a few pieces of clothes which they wear until they are no longer wearable). Colin and I had dust rags at home that were probably in a better condition than clothes that we sometimes wear here! The Indian tourists though put you to shame with their beautiful, ornate clothes.
The Rangoli Cafe above the clothes shop is a popular hangout for Western tourists. There are also many locals who use it and sit and play chess for hours on end. Colin is in his element being able to find someone to play chess whenever he wants and I can chat with people until I'm blue in the face (beats working).
For some reason this clothes shop seems to be quite a busy shop. It is just across the street from Rangoli Cafe where we sit drinking chai and chatting for hours on end with friends on the balcony, so we see the comings and goings in the shop (oh what an exciting life we lead, with no other pressing business than watching a shop)! What a laugh we can have though. On the lower right of the pic is the lower half of a blow up silver mannequin with a pair of multi-coloured leggings on. The shop-keeper changes these leggings daily and one pair worse than the next. We call the mannequin 'the silver lady' and when the shop-keeper takes 'her' into the back of the shop for the daily legging change he does seem to take a considerable length of time. We do wonder what website he bought her from! She sometimes can be changed several times a day as the leggings do actually sell. We do like to give the shop-keeper a round of applause when a pair are sold. Sometimes you have to remind yourself here that you are actually an adult. Life here is certainly very different from a weekend away in September to Spain with all the girls!
Check out the 'crackin' jacket and trouser suits for children!! They are made from horrible nylon bobbly fleece (a bit like the old woolly bed blankets your granny had). Would your child wear this? Looks like the Indian equivalent of a shell suit I think.
Colin getting our Saturday night from the bottle shop.
Mountain 'fashion'. It's not 'what will I wear' it's 'what clothes have I got to wear'. This day probably started out quite sunny as I am wearing a summer dress. Must have got colder so I added leggings and fleece top. Must have got a bit chillier so I added scarf and thick mountain socks. Glad it never rained as I would have had to put on my plastic full length poncho! (for those of you who don't remember what a ponch is, it's a big square with a hole in the middle to put your head through). Not exactly Gucci or even 'What Every Woman Wants' (I'm sure you all remember that shop girls)
Colin isn't any better, although he does look fairly normally dressed in this pic - with the exception of the socks of course. I think they are his Vashisht version of a Ranger's scarf . I suggested that, as socks are worn lower down than a scarf , it was maybe really appropriate under the current climate to take your show of support lower down ie wear socks/third division. I won't repeat his answer.
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