I’m in the most amazing market I have ever seen! The entire street is full of stalls, crammed so tightly together it’s impossible to know where one ends and the next one begins. In the the middle of the stalls is a narrow passage that is so full of people, both locals and tourists, that you can hardly turn around without bumping into anyone. Nearly every vendor in the market is selling things for the upcoming Deepavali festival. There are entire walls covered in garlands of artificial flowers; there are tables laden with boxes of fireworks; and from the canvas roof hang thousands upon thousands of strings of jewelry: long rows of pearls interspersed with gilded pieces of metal, rings, bells, leaves and all manner of other shapes; glass beads in bright colors, ruby red and emerald green, framed in gold; brightly colored hemispheres like little umbrellas inlaid with pieces of mirror glass that sparkle in the light. These decorative, bejeweled strings hang so low they almost touch the top of your head and if you stop to look up for a moment they are right in front of your nose; there’s so much that it’s almost overwhelming, I find it hard to describe it in a way that does it justice. This kind of extravagance, all gold and pearls, is not my style at all, but I can’t help but be amazed at the sheer amount.