Bilaspur - Domino's & Kuta

This past Saturday, all the students from the guest house decided to take a group trip to Bilaspur, a city about an hour and a half away from Mungeli. I desperately needed some Indian clothing, and we had heard from others that they have a Domino's Pizza there. So we rented a car and off we went.

On our way there we decided to stop by a zoo that was about 8km outside of Bilaspur. Apparently very few foreigners have visited that area, and we ended up in the local newspaper for simply being the 19th foreigner to ever go to the zoo. I guess it is nice to feel like a celebrity once in a while.

Bilaspur was definitely more modernized than Mungeli. It had two western style malls that housed quite a few American fast food chain restaurants ( I satisfied my pizza craving). The markets were also larger than the ones in Mungeli. 

Specialty pizza with paneer

One thing I must mention is my shopping  experience here. The Indians have created a haven for people who hate shopping. When we entered a traditional clothing store, we were brought to the second level. The entire floor was covered with a very thin mattress ( they were kind of like seat cushions, but covered the entire floor, like carpet.) along the walls there were shelves full of clothing and fabric. The shopkeeper and his associates requested us to sit down while they brought out outfits for us to look at. The Kuta is the traditional Indian clothing, women usually wear it with leggings or cotton pants. It was the most relaxing shopping experience I have ever had, coffee and chai were even brought to us as we were looking through the clothing that was presented to us. I left the shop happily with two outfits and wishing that all shops in the U.S were the same way. No one would ever find shopping stressful because the process of shopping was an experience in itself.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the shop, but here are a couple Kutas I got in Bilaspur.