Sunday 3/23/2008 Shreyas Museum & Kankaria Lake

I woke up early to talk with my dad's brother's family as they were at my parent's house for Easter. It was nice to see them using the web cam. After showering I spent most of the day working on this blog in attempts to stay caught up. I also worked on updating Picasa with pictures. I also chatted with some friends on AIM. After being at the computer all morning through mid-afternoon I needed a break (and I was getting bored).

I called Shannon to see what they were up to but both she and her mom were sick. :( Then I called Jason who was also bored but neither of us knew what to do. I tried to ask our driver Gemar if he had any suggestions but I am not sure if he understood what I was asking. So I called Vevaik and then Anoop for some idea. Anoop jokingly told me to go to Mumbai. So Jason & I were left to figure out what to do. We decided to consult our trusty "Lonely Planet" books.

First we went to the Shreyas Folk Museum. This one reminded me of the Putnam Museum in the QC minus the IMAX theater. There were a lot of peafowl all around the place. I wasn't sure whether I should feel bad or what but we were the only people there besides the workers. Every building we went into they had to turn on the lights. Oh funny thing, we found a poster listing the price of admission as 10 rupees. We finally figure out where the window is to purchase tickets and wait until some guy finally shows up. He tells us that admission is 100 rupees (this would be the foreigner rate not Indian national rate). We decided to pay. OH Yeah....this is the first place I was able to purchase postcards at!!

So the museum couldn't have taken more than 1.5 hours so we decided to head out to Kankaria Lake. This was clearly the wrong thing to do. Sunday is about the only day most Indians have off and spend it with family. One of the places everyone goes to on a Sunday afternoon is Kankaria Lake. Let's just say it was CROWDED. For some reason it stank at the lake also. Found out from the newspaper later that week that the lake hadn't been cleaned in 2 weeks & the garbage was just piling up (in the water also). We didn't stay very long at all but it was nice to see it. There is a zoo, amusement park, boats, paddle boats, sugar cane water vendors, horse & carriages to ride, and a whole bunch more there.

We went home to freshen up (it was hot out) then Vevaik, his roommate, and his fiance (Vibha) came to pick us up and take us out. We went to Fun Republic again. Bowling was booked so we played pool. Vibha hadn't played pool before so I encouraged her to try, which she did. After fun and games we went out to dinner (remember India dinner time is 9 pm every day of the week...) We attempted to go to Curries but there was a long wait (everyone was out for dinner) and ended up at 4 Foods.

We were able to order before being seated. I ordered cheese naan and butter roti (all bread). The 3 Indians we were with laughed at my order then laughed at the waiter's reaction to my order. Jason just shook his head since he was use to my weird orders by now. Unfortunately when they brought the order out it was just cheese naan, I decided it wasn't worth trying to get the butter roti.