Shopping In India

klmari

Hi….

I am going to Delhi, Agra and Jaipur and I would love to buy some jewelry made from semi-precious stones such as amethyst, blue topaz, garnets. Which of these three places has the best deal in terms of choice, price and quality. I will have more time to shop in Delhi. I also hope to buy some nice punjabi suit – salwa khamez , hope I got the name right. It’s a combination of long dress with both slits on both sides and it’s worn with long pants.

I am also thinking of buying Henna hair dye. Is it factory-manufactured or home made? Would appreciate some guidelines on choosing a good Henna hair dye.

Also hope to get some nice pashmina shawls while I am there.

Please also provide some other shopping tips especially on things which is really worth buying in the cities I am covering.

Thanks…

Lily

I'd say Jaipur by far - for semi precious jewelry, cottons, handicrafts! Give us a buzz when you are in Jaipur and we will give you a few names of wholesale dealers. But it is always best to compare prices and see a few places befor you finally decide to buy.

For Pashmina we normally advise our guests to visit the Kashmir Emporium in Delhi. It is run by the Govt. of J&K and you will be assured of quality. In Jaipur so-called Pashmina shawls cost from INR 350/- to the sky. The lower priced are certainly not Pashmina - well maybe there is a thread or two of pashmina in the shawl - but most people cannot tell and think they have got a true bargain! Caution: Make sure you go to the Government Emporium in Delhi and not some shop which says "Govt. Approved".

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Lily

wonderwomanusa

Henna comes in packages; I saw stacks and stacks of boxes of henna ("mehindi" is what you'll ask for) at Mt. Abu and I'm sure you'll have no problem finding it wherever you go.

You can sometimes find salwar-kameez readymade, but if you are not Indian size, you might have to have them tailormade, which isn't all that expensive. All the "state emporiums" in Delhi have such things readymade, so if that's where you are arriving in India, check them out first. They're off Janpath and there is a list of them with addresses in the Lonely Planet guide.

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The map is not the territory. --Alfred Korzybski

Amit

try karol bagh or sarojini nagar too (in delhi) for salwar kameez types and jaipur is the place for precious stones.

Amit

or loads of pretty shops in south extension and the ansals plaza at khel gaon is also good for garments, etc

vinayverma

Semi Precious stones: Jaipur is THE place for it. Go to Johari Bazar in the main city to get the best bargain.
Salwar Kamiz (punjabi suit): Karol bagh, Dilli Haat, Hauz Khas Village and Fabindia in GK -I market.
Henna Hair Dye: it also comes as branded pre-manufatured ready to apply (after mixing with water), but most of the Indian household actually use the pure Henna poder (again readily available in packs) this henna is mainly used for appling on hands and thats how u have to ask for it. Don't say that u want it for applying it on ur hairs say u want to apply it for designs on ur hands.
To this mix tea water(1 tea spoon of tea leafs boiled in water and then cooled), 2 tea sppons of coffee, 1 egg, 2 spoons of yoghurt and few drops of lime if you have dandruff.
Apply this on your hair and scalp and leave it for 2-3 hours beofre washing. Jaipur again is good place to buy Henna

Pashmina Shawl: J&K emporium and central cottage industries Emporium both in Connought place in Delhi.

Jaipur: One of my fav. shopping destination (along with Jodhpur, jaiselmer, Pushkar, Himachal, Spiti, Leh etc....)
Mainly textiles (readymade garments and clothes with vegetable dyes), I use these clothes for curtains, bed sheets, pillow covers etc. Blue pottery of Jaipur is great for taking some show pieces back home.
Traditional Rajput jwellery in old silver, gold and/or other metal alloys (cheaper versions).

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If Life is a journey....travel on...and on..on..on.....

sunni

I also have a question about shopping. When I travel, I like to get something special for my nieces, my parents, and close friends. For the little girls, I wanted to buy them some bangles, plain metal, plastic, or lak. My mom like to sew, as does a friend, so I wanted to get them some fabric, cotton or silk if it wasn't too expensive. For another, I'm planning to find some very nice paper. I wanted to have a rough estimate of the price of these, what other travelers paid, so that before I got there I could have a good budget for gifts and eye-catching items without having to call home for more money. I like the idea of the emporium in dehli being set prices, but I still have no clue as to what the set price is, since I haven't left yet.

czoona

Hi Sunni,

I visited Delhi and Rajasthan last month. I found beautiful bangle stalls all over the place.... The problem for me was that I'm Swedish and my hands are quite large!! So many places didn't have anything in my size. For prices, the Cottage Industries Emporium in Delhi had a nice selection and most of theirs were Rs 100 for a set of bangles (6-12 or whatever, depending on how wide/elaborate they are) and Rs 100 each for the fancy metal ones with decorative stones and/or pendants. Plastic ones can be incredibly cheap, not sure how much as mine were a gift. Glass ones can be incredibly fragile!!! Elsewhere, we found excellent selections in the square next to the Hawa Mahal in Jaipur (bought some very pretty mirrored bangles for Rs 10 each there) and in the Meherangarh Fort in Jodhpur - these are the places where I was able to buy bangles large enough to fit me! There are tons of other places of course. The most I paid for any bangles was Rs 40 each, but they were beauuuutiful and the man wouldn't drop his price... but then he gave me one free one too :-))

Fabrics - we bought some blockprinted cotton of lovely quality for about Rs 50 or 60 per metre in Jaipur, had it made up into sets of pyjamas (Lily will no doubt remember us modelling these! ). Cotton is incredibly cheap. 40g silk wasn't very expensive but I can't remember exactly how much. I saw some fabulous handmade raw silk in a shop in Udaipur, which worked out at about Rs 1000 per metre after some haggling, which I thought was quite expensive and didn't buy, but it really was fabulous. This was definitely the very most expensive fabric I saw, apart from some fantastic handwoven silk saris with lots of gold thread woven into the borders. There is so much to choose from when it comes to fabrics, but hope this gives you some idea!

We bought handmade paper outside Jaipur at the paper factories in Sanganer. They have everything from envelopes to photoframes & albums. Prices started at about Rs 40 for 6 envelopes & matching cards (a little more if you want them in a little giftwrapped box) - don't know if this was a good price, but we bought some there as we thought they were worth that price.

I wouldn't worry TOO much about only shopping at set price places - you can always haggle and decide for yourself what you think things are worth... I don't feel cheated because even if I paid more than anyone else, I still paid only a fraction of what these things cost at home. So I'm happy and maybe the shopowner's family got a better meal than usual that night.

sunni

czoona, you're an angel! Thanks so much, your advice has ended an extremely frustrating search.
I didn't plan to shop only at the fixed price place, especially since Dehli is my last stop, but everytime I'd ask about prices people would say to shop there, which in my opinion limits my fun for shopping.
Thanks again.
~Sunni

czoona

Hi Sunni

You'll have loads of fun shopping around! I agree that the set price places can be good - they seemed to have good quality stuff and you could get some sort of idea of reasonable prices, but the most fun is exploring various bazaars and seeing the the whole range of stuff available. The thing I thought the emporium was very good for was pashminas (not cheap, but good quality) and Kashmiri papier mache boxes (really big selection & really nice quality). If you're buying something really expensive like a painting or carpet, then it's probably a good idea to shop at the emporium as well, since you can be sure (well, I assume so anyway!) that you are getting a good quality item & not some worthless imitation, and also that you are paying a fair price. But for cheap things like bangles it's easy to judge the quality for yourself & decide what you think they are worth. It won't take you long to figure out the best way to get the price down to something you deem reasonable!

sgreszcz

Lily,

Could you please tell me the address or how to get to the Kashmir Emporium in Delhi?

Thank you.

Stephen

volga_volga

if you missed your chance to do shopping in India... or simply feeling homesick for India and are around Hyde Park Corner/Knightsbridge

i discovered a new store called The Red Fort at 41-45 Knightsbridge; unlike most of other stores in London this one sells stuff ONLY made in India (well, at London prices but... looking is free!)

silver jewellery, shawls, salwar kameez, jackets, cotton carpets (no carpets from Kashmir - ) and of course Rajastani textiles and loads of pillow covers. also woodwork. the store is quite large for Knightsbridge and it is a pleasure just to walk around. it reminded me of governement emporiums at CP

one things was missing for sure - noone was trying to sell me something, the sales people were rather silent (probably never been to India)

would love to work for them as a buyer