The most expensive thing by far is lodging. The 3 of us here are paying $900 for our flat. My friends commented that these are “Boston prices”. But it’s a very big apartment with a large terrace off the little kitchen.
Next is tuition at the Institute. It’s $450 for a month of classes. You have class 6 days a week, not on Sunday. Classes are 2 hours. Then you are given a practice time of 3 hours each day, sometimes immediately after class. It’s still less than the cost of classes in the West, but its’ not silly cheap to come to India any more.
What is silly cheap is food in restaurants. Unless of course, you order beer. A rickshaw taxi to our lunch restaurant yesterday cost the 20 Rupees, which amounts to about $0.42. That’s less than 15cents per person for a 10 minute ride!
Our meal at lunch, which was an unlimited Thali (plate) of different cups of vegetables, soup, raita, beans, etc., was 55 Rupees each, plus 13 R for each of us to get a bottle of water. A Rupee is worth about 2.1 cents.
Oh, and I bought a pair of sandals from off the street yesterday. They are normal looking Western type slides of black leather and a heel. Price was 200 R, which I negotiated down from 220 R. Cheap.
We did have beer with dinner last night. Half of our bill went to beer, which is NOT to say we drank a lot. We shared two large bottles for the three of us. But that was a treat.
This Sunday we are planning a shopping exursion for clothing. One of my friends wans a sari and we all want long sleeved Kurtas.
June 8, 2009 at 10:25 pm |
I visited the Golden Triangle in India in 2008. It’s amazing how inexpensive so many things are. Shopping for textiles and clothes is great.
So happy to hear you’re so productive and learning so much!
June 15, 2009 at 7:43 am |
I haven’t done the Golden Triangle. I hear Delhi is terribly dirty. But I have been enjoying the whole textile market.