10.27.09
Today I barely got up in time to get to the bus for my trip. Mackenzie (who got back around 2am) and I toured Prasad studios, which is one of the largest movie studios in India. We met a director/teacher and got to see the sound mixing area. We got a preview  of some of the movies and that was cool. The studio wasn’t as big as I thought it was going to be. We were hoping we would get to see some shooting, but there was none going on.  We did get to see them build and tear down a set. The set they were building looked like a music video of some sort. It looked like it would be really cool. We also got to see them splice negatives and put them back together. They operate completely on film, which I thought was interesting since most of the industry works digitally now. They took us into the developing room and I was all the sudden hit with a flashback of the photo lab with all the developing chemicals. It made me really glad that I don’t have to smell those chemicals anymore.
Afterward, we signed out of the trip and went to Spencer’s Plaza. It is like a shopping mall/marketplace rolled into one. The first store we come to has a huge sign that said “Special Discount for MV Explorer” So of course we went there first. Their stuff was pretty cheap and I loaded up on gifts for people. But the time I left Spencer’s I had way more stuff then I was expecting.
We got outside and needed a rickshaw to take us to the post office and then back to the ship. The first guy said 300 – I said 150 and he walked away. There was no way I was paying that much because we are not that far from the port. Another guy said 200, but I grabbed Mackenzie and we started walking in the general direction of the post office. Then another driver came up and said 150 so we went with him. Once we actually got in his auto, he said 150 and one store. The driver’s in India work with shop owners to bring tourists to their shops. The more people the driver brings to their shop the bigger the kick back from the store the driver gets even if we don’t buy anything. We agreed on one store because we had time and nothing else to do.
We made it to the post office and I mailed a letter to Nate and my Disney Campus Rep application. Our driver waited outside for us and then took us to the one store. The store actually turned out to be really nice. If there was any way that I had a lot of money and a way to get furniture back to the US I would have bought something. We left and didn’t buy anything, but our driver still got some money. After the store, we had to argue with him to get him to take us back to the port without any other stops, but he eventually did.
We checked back on the ship and just hung out and showed everyone each other’s purchases. It was a pretty chill evening because everyone was exhausted from the craziness that is India.