Revisiting India

Asia » India » Tamil Nadu
November 4th 2016

Published: November 19th 2016

So the usual email from HR arrived which said "You have heaps of leave days and if you don't take them we will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger"
A quick chat with the old girl and the decision was made.
"Lets go back to India, the south this time. I always wanted to go there" she said. It sounds so easy.

Departure date is set for 12 December.

Logistics are underway.

House sitters organised. Sam is moving back in and Tim may be around for some of the time. Bhudda has been found a home.

Visas - double entry 90 day maximum which lasts for over a year only cost $95 each which isn't to bad. Had a fearful moment when they hadn't turned up by the date the Embassy had indicated. This date happened to be a couple of days before the Kaikoura earthquake so spent a lot of last week thinking they might be sitting in that train stuck on the blocked railway or other such images but they turned up a week later.

First few nights accommodation booked in Mahabalipuram with a night in Chennai when we land. 10.00pm arrival time is painful but found a place close to the airport for that first night. Getting apprehensive about the walk out of customs and into the swath of people that I am expecting to be there. Always the hardest bit of any trip. At least some of the sites, sounds and smells will hopefully be familiar from 27 years ago.

Having to think hard about currency. A couple of weeks back India announced that they were withdrawing all 500 and 1000 Rupee notes from circulation. All notes in circulation have to be deposited in to bank accounts except for 2000 rupees worth. Its a measure to try and drive India to an electronic currency country and make illegal cash based transacting difficult. It was announced and implemented straight away so there have been lots of problems with cash, ATM's running out of money, queues at banks etc. I am hoping that its quietened down a bit.by December. Thankful it didnt happen when we were there. It does mean at the moment the largest currency note is 100 Rupees which is $2. I will need to take the larger of my two money belts!

Vaccinations sorted. Shelley was reasonably up to date after her trip to Peru a couple of years back and our lifetime Hep a shots we got a few years back mean one less. Typhoid and Tetanus for me and no adverse reactions.

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