In BLR
With a spare few hours in BLR, my missions were to get some small souvenirs, and to get an Indian prepaid mobile SIM. The latter turned out to be a challenge, and has resulted in me resolving to document the process of getting prepaid mobile SIMs in all future trip reports, for the benefit of travelers to come.
Initial research had revealed that getting a prepaid mobile SIM in India was not a trivial exercise. Documentary evidence required included a copy of your passport, plus proof of residential address, plus with a self-attested colour passport sized photo. I had none of those in hand, simply my original passport. But, the stubborn part of me insisted that this mission was achievable.
India, from first impressions, has very bureaucratic processes, but if approached in the right way, a simple way can be found to get around the bureaucracy. With that in mind, I strolled down the main shopping street (Brigade Road, up at the M.G. Road end). I knew, from prior research that if nation-wide use was important (it was to me), to ensure that the service you purchased supported national roaming. Good reports had been read about Airtel. Then, walking down the road, I was accosted by a sales promotions crew of young boys and girls, selling a special promotion of what I took to be Airtel SIMs – free SIM, INR 99 top-up required for 5,000 free minutes of calls, free internet for 1 month, national roaming. I was sold. Choosing a number, I waited to see what would happen with regards to ID. Presenting my passport, I told them that was all I had. No problems, they said. There's a Xerox shop round the corner which can get a copy made for INR 1. No photo? No problems too – you can get one down the 2nd left. Easier said than done. The Xerox shop had no electricity – so we walked (I was accompanied by one of the sales crew) for 5 minutes to another one. No electricity either – apparently load shedding was in operation for an hour. We waited there, and 10 minutes later, and 1 rupee (2 Australian cents) changed hands for a Xerox. Photo studio? Just down there. Unfortunately, the studio they sent me to had no working camera. But, I was referred to another one. Yes, we have a camera, but the cameraman is away on lunch and won't be back for an hour. Come one – how difficult is it to take a photo? No – no one else allowed to touch camera. Ok, I said, I'll be back (with no intentions of doing so). It was time to try things the other way. I walked into a small corner shop with mobile network stickers, and asked outright if I could get a SIM, with Internet and national roaming and no paperwork required. Yes was the answer – I was offered an Airtel SIM, already activated, and 1 week unlimited EDGE/GPRS would cost INR 49 (1 Australian dollar). Minimum top-up INR 100, and a “service fee” of INR 200. So, INR 300 changed hands, the shopkeeper transferred INR 100 from his prepaid account to this SIM, sent off the appropriate SMS to activate the GPRS service, and showed me that I had a balance of INR 51 left, and 3 years to use it. No name, no paperwork, just a small by Western standards “service fee”. Even showed me Google working, and got me to plug it into my notebook to make sure it worked, which it did. Then it struck me – the SIM looked completely different. I walked back past the other promotions stand and looked more closely – aha! There's Airtel and Aircel. Never mind. I now have a working mobile internet connection.
Next stop, souvenirs. Now, it was very apparent that I was 1 of about 4 foreigners walking in Bangalore at that time. And so, I probably had “tourist” stamped all over my forehead. So, when a local taxicab (3 wheeled LPG motorised trishaw death-trap) driver came up and started talking to me, I immediately cottoned on to the scam and waited for it to unfold. The offer was – only INR 20, and I'll take you back to your hotel. Playing it through, I countered – straight back to hotel, no detours to shops for INR 20 – if you stop at a shop, you pay me INR 20. His face fell quickly, so I asked what the finders fee was, to see what sort of deal I could strike, since I knew I was in the market for certain things. Apparently, the current deal is that for each sucker he delivers to a shop, he gets a voucher for half a litre of gas (about INR 15). So, since I had some time to spare, and did want to pick up a few things anyway, I proposed a deal. No charge – you can take me to 3 shops to get these specific things I want – and you can collect your gas vouchers, and if you can do that and I get all these things and you can get me back to the hotel in 1 hour, I'll give you a INR 50 tip. All in all, I thought it was a pretty good deal for him, but also allowed me to experience Indian traffic from a different angle and accomplish the other mission. Apparently he thought it was a pretty good deal too, and jumped at it happily. The challenge was on, and from the way he started weaving through traffic, leaving inches between vehicles at the top speed that thing would go at (according to my GPS, top speed is about 25 km/h), he was hellbent on meeting the 1 hour deadline. After the third time I realised I could reach out and touch the occupants of the car we were weaving by, I began to regret the 1 hour challenge. He was true to his word though – I got everything I wanted and no more, though the hard sell was on at every store. Made it back to the hotel well within the hour, and then, a new twist to the tourist scam I hadn't come across before – he professed to be a collector of foreign currency notes and coins and wondered if I had any to spare (hmmmm... to most tourists, a spare Australian 2 dollar coin wouldn't even be missed, whilst that would equate to INR 90 – more than what he would have collected in gas vouchers, and fee/tip). I admire his ingenuity. I was happy though with the experience and what I got – and he turned out to be a pretty good tour guide with commentary all the way.
The next morning, time for my BLR-DEL-AGR flight to become a tourist for the day.