So we finally arrived in India.
The first job we needed to do on arriving at the airport was to arrange a SIM card so we had data for the trip, and get some cash. India do not allow you to bring currency in and it is illegal to take it out with you.
We had researched the SIM card before arriving and for £8.89 – INR800 we have free calls, free texts (to Indian numbers) and 1.5Gb a day for the next month.
When researching SIMs we had read all sorts regarding paperwork, it taking a long time to activate we decided to go with Airtel. Airtel is the largest communication company in India. The sim should work for the whole length of the journey and it actually took no longer that 15mins. We did have to bring passport photos and they took photocopies of our passports but it all seemed rather efficient. Just like they said at 8pm we had data and were back online.
Watch out for your change though they did short change us by INR500 but corrected as soon as we raised it, a lot of the blogs we read online warned about this specifically with Airtel at the airport.
The drive to the hotel was a little crazy and at times quite hairy. We prepaid for a cab using the Delhi Traffic Police, again we had read that this was the safest way to ensure you get to where you need to. Apparently there are loads of scams in India so you have to be aware all the time.
One of them is not giving the taxi driver the paper slip until you get to where you are going cause that way he can just drop you off and claim his money. Yes Chris failed with this one straight away passing over our paper slip 🤣.
The taxi driver had no idea where our hotel was despite us giving him the address and telephone number and him even giving them a call. We were staying in Pahar Ganj which is the backpacker area and to say it is full of back streets and winding back streets it would be an understatement. The roads are full of cows, auto rickshaws, tuk tuks, bikes and taxi’s all dodging one another with little regard for pedestrians; it’s a cultural experience over shadowed by the loud honking of horns!
One of the scams that people try and we were nearly got was telling you your hotel is actually another one to get you inside. The taxi driver had asked someone for directions who we thought were helping but actually was trying to guide us to another one, in the end we left the taxi when recognising a land mark finding our hotel 200m down the road.
