Surat again today! Girls were on a shopping spree.

Car was not in till 10:30am, decided to go for a morning shave. Just around the corner it was, surprised to find Parimal there! Small world.

Got my turn soon after, smooth shave and facial massage – the Indian way! A great experience all for 50 INR = $2 AUD!! Not complaining about that.

Back at home, kids and Nita were ready, car had just arrived and we were on our way to Surat. First stop – Aso Palav. The place had a new upstairs area – quite different to what it was 6 years back! We were there for just over an hour however did not find anything the girls liked. The difference here were the sales person, either he did not understand Nita’s tastes or was intent on showing us outfits that was not holding Nita’s attention.

Out of there with zero shopping, was already lunch time – stopped at Sugar n Spice, same place we ate 6 years back. Lunch was Pizza then followed by the sizzling brownie!

Next stop was G3 – on our previous visit in 2011, this was one of Nita’s favourite store, this time it was a major let down, the sales persons were again only interested in serving NRI’s who were willing to spend over 20K INR on each piece. Nothing much there, were out of there just as quickly.

Shopping all done, what now, our driver suggested we visit a famous Gold store around the corner – apparently it was very well known amongst locals – “Kalamandir”. Gold was the next stop. Entering the place, it was no ordinary small shop, this place was BIG and BUSY!! Lots of locals, the driver was correct, did not get to see many NRI’s. Nita got stuck there for a good hour, lucky kids found a nice sofa to relax in. They were very bored!

Gold done, then it was back to the VR mall, for an early dinner. Pooja was loving another nite of McDonalds, Neha was into her chaats and we settled for some desi fusion manchurian.

It was kind of a wasted day as we did not find anything good in this visit, atleast there were no regrets – we had finished all the stores that we wanted to visit.

Tomorrow was Xmas day, we were heading to Valsad with Jayesh/Priya’s family.