A couple quick Travel Tips: Uber, Trains and Banks in India

There will come a time when you are over haggling with tuk tuk drivers. There are certain places they are more rapacious than others and you will lose your pity over their low wages and destitution. Where people are dollar signs. Where white women are to be surrounded and bullied. Not everywhere, but often at railway stations in bigger cities like Delhi and Jaipur and sometimes in small areas where they’ve banded together: Varkala and Pondicherry. It would be easier to just book an Uber. Or so it seems. What happens more often than not - I did get two honest Uber drivers in Ahmdebad, but honestly, they were the exception - is that the driver will text you after your credit card has been hit for the ride by Uber (they do this at the outset) is that driver will text you or call you and demand more money. This has also happened to me when they show up. And they will not take you unless you pay them more cash. If you refuse via text or phone, they will want you to cancel the ride because they are charged, or so I’ve been told. Sometimes they further block you from moving forward by once again accepting the job from Uber and demanding a bit less than they did initially. If you do take the ride, at the end of the ride they will say they can’t find your destination and drop you off where they feel like it because they don’t want to enter a traffic area or go down a dirt road or want to take another job or just call their friend. Now Uber makes them wait for a new pin provided you at the end. As frustrated as you are and anxious to just leave this guy and walk the rest of the way, don’t give it to him until you’ve reached the destination you paid for. He’ll watch you walk the wrong way in the suffocating heat and just grin because he feels he’s worth more than you paid.

Trains. If the railway station has an arrival/departure screen and that is a big IF, do not rely upon either the time of arrival and departure OR the platform number. Try to position yourself where you have a view of several platforms and begin watching closely what is going on a half hour out. Do not rely on the IRCTC or Ixigo websites. They do not update in real time. Twice I have caught trains switched to another platform through sheer luck. Through wondering why that train is sitting there. The announcements if they are made and if you can hear anything through the noise are frequently in the local language which unless you know a lot of regional languages in India, you are not going to understand. Memorize your train number  and listen for it. Watch the coolies, the guys yelling malayamalayablabla coffee or blabliblablibiryani! If they are pacing the platform outside a train, it might be yours. They’ve got the inside skinny. It won’t help anybody to ask them or show them your google translate. They’re likely illiterate and hustling to make the most of their minutes.        

I’ve already told you about buses. But in case you missed it, it bears repeating. The business model of the bus companies that partner with Ahbibus and Redbus is to wait until the last minute to see if the bus fills and if it hasn’t, to cancel it. With or without noice to you. Ahbibus can’t notify you via text unless you have an India number as their website does not allow you to enter a non-Indian number. Any country code you enter will default to India’s. And although they easily could, they won’t bother contacting you through WhatsApp or email either. There is no help, no sympathy. Just a recording that you will be reimbursed within 48 hours. Also, the pickup points seem at first very unlikely. But they are accurate. They are often at some hole-in-the-wall travel agency tucked among a dozen other hole-in-the-wall travel agencies near a flyover or some other undesirable and heavily congested part of town. A flyover is an overpass.      

You need cash in India. Everyone wants it. Your lodging will tell you their credit card readers don’t work, and often they don’t because they have cheesy ones, dicey internet or they only accept India credit card or UPI payments, which you as a foreigner cannot make. Some use a Wise or Revolut card, which is basically a debit card that you preload and often it is accepted by their credit card readers when your usual credit cards aren’t. I have a Wise one. I got it initially ant the behest of the owners of a lodging establishment who wanted their deposit wired and it was free if I used a Wise card. It’s hit or miss working with local credit card readers. Against all advice, I use my credit card (Penfed) for cash advances. That’s all I use it for. As soon as my withdrawal posts, I pay it off. It works great for me. Most India ATMs limit your withdrawals to 10,000 rupees which today is about 111 USD. It’s a law in India that banks can’t charge fees to nationals for withdrawals of 10,000 rupees for less, so maybe that;\’s why the ATMs are programmed at that amount. Obviously of the bank charges a per-transaction fee, this low limit is not ideal. Conversely, you have to carry a lot of bills so maybe it’s better not to be weighed down by cash. The currency is mildly ridiculous. I have spread out on my bed right now four different five-rupee pieces, different weights and different sizes. They hardly buy a thing and yet you can’t just reach in your pocket and know what it is. It’s just inconvenient in about every way. And the one and two rupee coins are like US pennies. What is the point in weighing people down with this nonsense? 

Always select local currency so there is no conversion fee. This is a general rule you should follow for purchases made with your regular credit cards. I have had the best luck with Bank of India and SBI not charging convenience fees. But you have to be careful that the bank is a major national bank and not partnering with some other entity. SBI partners with Yono (in small print) and will dock you about a ten percent fee. I’ve not had consistently good luck with HFDC, so I avoid them.