Obstacle Of The Day: Airlines In India No Longer Accepting Foreign-Issued Credit Cards

I have been trying to book my flight from Mumbai to Delhi for the past week. There are many airlines and many flights that are available. Unfortunately, due to a "widespread fraud" that the airlines encountered a month or two ago, they do not accept foreign-issued credit cards. Period. That leaves only going to a travel agent to book the flight. That would seem to be perfectly acceptable but travel agents double or even triple the fare when it comes to domestic Indian travel. Of course no one just comes out and tells you all of this. It's all discovered piecemeal by actually going to each website and going through the booking and registration process and then, after the very last step, when you click PURCHASE, it brings up some seemingly-benign message like "Input Correct Phone Number." In case it's not obvious to you, that is code for "we don't accept foreign credit cards." If it wasn't obvious to you, you might spend, say, an hour or so trying to figure out what the phone number should look like before you brace yourself and make the call to India to see what the problem is.

I finally did find an Indian agency that does not double the fare and is willing to accept my credit card if I will fax them a "Letter of Dispatch" and a photocopy of my credit card. I chatted with a helpful representative and she told me to fax the document ASAP and she would take care of it. Then I tried faxing. But it failed to go through... I think it took 11 attempts before it finally worked. And now the agency is unable to locate the fax.

I did find a great resource for researching travel planning in India: IndiaMike.com. It contains forums by people who are passionate about travel in the region and who are intimately familiar with the vagaries of Indian travel planning. Here are some of the forums I've been perusing:

Knowing the Indian Train - contains everything about classes, food, vendors, reservations, cancellations, etc.

Booking Indian Rail Tickets from abroad - self explanatory

Train Information - still more information about trains in India

Scams and Annoyances

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DSL Dead. Work Done. Leaving In 3 Days.

I wanted to post this morning but my DSL inexplicably died. I did everything I could think of to avoid calling AT&T and going through their infuriating tech scripts but in the end I had to give in and spend a few hours dealing with that. It ended up being a "problem with the line" which they have now fixed but which ate 4 hours out of my finite life. In a just world I would be compensated for that, n'est-ce pas?

Work was a grind as I scrambled to get every file I have open (~20) in shape to withstand 2.5 weeks without my attention. I was at the office past 9:00 PM twice this week (a lot for my office) and tonight I only got out earlier because I had a wedding in Laguna Beach to attend. I didn't make it to the ceremony but caught some of the reception.

No luck yet on getting an earlier flight to Mumbai.

Contact With The Crew: Meditation, Knitting, Debating. The Scenery is STUNNING. They are FREEZING.

I received a call yesterday evening from Anjum's father. His message: The Himalayan Crew is leaving the hotel in 20 minutes. Call now or forget about speaking to them for a week. And he gave me exactly what I had been dreaming of: A phone number!

I immediately called Karin and caught her just as the Team was about to head off. After exchanging requisite Valentine's Day wishes, she gave me a quick run-down of what is going on. Yesterday the Medical Team delivered care to monks in a monastery. Apparently this was particularly enjoyable because the monks are very pleasant people (and oh so darn cute). Following the clinic, the team was treated to a meditation session. And, later on they all learned how to knit. Since wool is the primary source of what keeps people warm(ish), knitting is a crucial skill to have. Harry abstained from knitting as he finds knitting "unsexy" and, understandably, a potential threat to manhood everywhere. Thanks for standing up for us, Har.

Our Intrepid Trio (Karin, Anjum, Harry) have figured out that a grand total of 2 of the 6 Jeeps have heat. They are currently riding in Anoop's Jeep. Anoop has really got it goin' on... Not only does his Jeep have heat, but it has a CD player and an MP3 player (with USB port). During the drive yesterday they were actually warm (I'll get to how rare that is shortly) and were able to listen to U2, Aretha Franklin (and others) while driving through some of the most unbelievably beautiful Himalayan terrain. Having a decent ride makes it a lot easier to enjoy of course. The Intrepid Trio are worried that they will not be able to hold onto their coveted seats, however, as they are encouraged to move around between vehicles and mix with other team members.

At one point during the drive someone had asked Anoop what elevation they were at. Anoop responded: "Fifteen thousand meters." When one of the passengers questioned that estimate Anoop was adamant (note that Everest tops out at 8,850 meters and a Boeing 747 tops out at 12,500 meters). There was an uneasy silence in the Jeep for a little while... Until they passed a sign that read "1500 meters" and Anoop said "Oh, 1500 meters. Sorry. I make mistake." They are all friends again now.

While the drives are long and sometimes treacherous, they are not uncivilized. The team stops for regular tea breaks and chip breaks. Apparently Lays makes a Himalayan version of their chip that is extremely popular with the Explorers. Karin describes it as a modified-ketchup flavor. During yesterday's drive Anoop's passengers decided to debate some contemporary issues. Among them: capital punishment, gun control, legalization of drugs. If you wish to have your topic debated in the Himalayas by medical practitioners listening to soul or rock (or other) music while eating Himalayan Lays, please let me know and I will pass on your request.

The team will be at the next campsite for 6 nights. They expect it to be vvvery cccold. And speaking of cold, last night in the hotel Karin went to sleep wearing, among other things, long-johns, a thermal shirt, a turtleneck, wool socks, wool hat, wool gloves, with 3 blankets and a space-heater and was completely and utterly freezing. Freezing is an ongoing theme now. The buildings are not heated and even though everyone is constantly bundled up, the cold is never-ending and pervasive. And now they are traveling to an even more frigid area. Brrrrrr.

Himalayan Expedition Draws International Attention

This is amazing: France, Spain, Germany, England, Italy, Sweden, Israel, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, lots of China, 3 Canadian provinces, about a dozen US states, and India. And that's just the past 7 days. People are reading this blog from a northern latitude of 71°23'N to a southern latitude of 41°17'S. That, my friends, is a whole lot of latitude.

Karin called me this morning but I was squeezing in a workout and only caught a snippet of her voice. I ran for the phone but it had disconnected by the time I got there. Unfortunately she did not leave the name of the hotel or a phone number - and it's not in their itinerary. I looked up hotels in Palampur but found over a dozen. I quickly decided against playing the "Hello, Hello, Hello" game with every hotel in Palampur. Estrella (Karin & Harry's mum) passed on Harry's cell phone number but I couldn't get that to connect either. So basically I struck out. Hopefully she calls back. I also have no progress to report with American Airlines. Given that it's a long weekend, I don't expect anything to open up. But I'll keep trying.

And, in a completely unrelated development, Cousin Alex was on NPR yesterday.

Team Himalaya Is Incommunicado. Expedition Schedule. Realization: I'm Leaving in Less Than a Week!

Our Intrepid Himalayan Explorers are now, by my calculations, on their way to Palampur, where I will hopefully be able to communicate with them (although I do not have a phone number for them there). Here is part of their schedule:

Feb 13 & 14: Clinics at Monastic school. Stay in tents. The 14th will be a half clinic day. Immediately after lunch they are scheduled to drive to Palampur and stay in a Hotel.

Feb 15: Drive into clinic site at Chowari (Yet another Himalayan town that is successfully avoiding Googleation). Overnight tents.

Feb 16- 20: Five day clinics at and around Powari (Also not Googleable. You can see my theory about that at the bottom of this post.)

Feb 21: Morning drive to Dharamsala/McLeodganj . They're going to see the Dalai Lama!

Meanwhile, back in San Diego, I have to start packing! I'm leaving in less than a week. And I am in the process of trying to leave earlier. Right now I'm scheduled to depart on the Tuesday following a long weekend. I'm going on points (we're talking major point drain) and Tuesday was the only day available. But something could open up. Inevitably I will plan for Tuesday and on Saturday evening I will call and there will be a seat open for Sunday at 5:00 AM. I will then be in a mad rush to get out of here and will forget my dental floss, my earplugs, and, quite possibly, my teddy bear.

I will be flying into Mumbai (Bombay) to hang with Eric Bellman. Apparently another friend of ours from SAIS will also be in town - direct from Italy - Fabio Soleri! When we were at SAIS in Bologna he was running Rimini. I think he's setting up a consulting business in India. Eric has provided the following run-down of what we will be hitting:

Restaurants: Salt Water Grill, Indigo, Trishna, Koyla, Kyber, Rajdani

Bars: Henry Tham's (apparently this is his house), Olive, Enigma, Shiro, Zenzi, Red Light, Poly Esthers

Sites: Gateway of India, Haji Ali, Banganga, Mahalaxhmi, Dhobi Ghats, Horniman Circle

and much much more

Just so you know, I have a bad habit of going back over posts for a few days and modifying and adding to them. Soooo.... you may want to scroll down and see if anything has appeared subsequent to your initial reading. I apologize but it's part of having an obsessive personality (I will be editing this post for a while).

Contemporary India

I love that cool head-bob he does as he admires his masterpiece.

Holy Cow! Planning Travel In India Is Complicated.

Wikipedia on the Cow: In Hinduism, the cow is considered sacred and its protection is a recurrent theme in which she is symbolic of abundance, of the sanctity of all life and of the earth that gives much while asking nothing in return. Most Hindus respect the cow as a matriarchal figure for her gentle qualities and for providing nurturing milk and other products for a largely vegetarian diet. Hindus do not worship the cow, yet it holds an honored place in society, and most Hindus do not eat beef.

Jaime on travel planning: I am working on getting us to Jaisalmer in western Rajasthan. The problem is that there are no flights to Jaisalmer. There is a military airstrip but no commercial flights land there. So we will likely have to fly into Jodhpur and then train to Jaisalmer (so as to minimize Karin's time on the roads). Doesn't that sound simple? It's not. If you try booking a train you will find that none exists. Or maybe it does. Depends whom you talk to and which website you visit. And don't even bother trying to book a bus from here. And then there is the never-ending flow of warnings about hiring the wrong driver who will explain to you how your hotel burned down overnight and who will then drive in circles until you agree go to wherever his biggest kickback lies. India is a nonstop barrage of people trying to rip you off. Or maybe it's not. If they openly charge foreigners 5 or even 10 times as much for the same product or service, is it highway robbery? Of course! Or perhaps not. Perhaps I'm just being culturally insensitive.

I don't think I've ever been quite so bombarded with information (and that includes law school). At one point yesterday I had between 40 and 50 webpages open. I've planned trips to quite a few places in this world - including when I have prepared the actual flight plan - but this is something else. Getting a handle on traveling in India is like trying to install democracy in Iraq... The concept makes for a marvelous sound-bite but, in reality, is quite impossible (end of controversial analogy). Even after we have narrowed our trip down to one tiny region of India, the options are seemingly endless, the histories long and complicated, the accommodation choices practically infinite, and the means of travel labyrinthine (Connie: "Oh, quit your belly-aching Levine!").

The plan, as it stands, is the following: 1. Spend a couple of days exploring Delhi. 2. Do a day trip to Agra. 3. Fly as far as we can into western Rajasthan. 4. Visit Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jaipur, and then finally end up in Alwar before we head back to Delhi.