Jaipur 1st April 2006

Christ, the months are flying in. I’ve been on my trip for six months now and I don’t know where the time is going to .

This morning my friend and I decided to top up our mobile phones, which is easier said than done in this country. The first shop we tried told us that he didn’t have the top up facilities, even though he was advertising the fact that he did. My mate was luckier at the next shop and he bought a 500 Rupee top up (which only gives you 380 Rupees credit!), but they couldn’t sort me out. We went to another shop and they wouldn’t do it because I bought my sim card in Agra, but he gave us the name of a shop which was near by that would be able to do it. I’ve got a Hutch (3) sim card and I went around to their shop to hopefully get my top up sorted.

There was a hassle trying to decide if I wanted to re-validate my card and put money on it or just top it up. I made it perfectly clear that all I needed was a top up as my phone was validated for six months (don’t ask!). The guy then told me that he couldn’t do either as “the system” was down and asked me to come back in two hours! He was also telling me to buy 198 Rupee top ups, but I told him that that wouldn’t last me a day as I had to ring Ireland and the UK, so he told me that I could by several top ups, I told him that I just wanted to buy one top up of over 500 Rupees. He insisted that I buy several 198 Rupee top ups, my mate and I were in stitches by this stage, you’ve really got to love India! We then passed a Nokia shop and my mate dared me to go in and see if they could do it for me, he was having a right laugh over all the hassle I was going through. Fair play to the woman in there, she was able to work out that I wanted a top up! But, of course, she couldn’t do it, but she sent me to another shop on the top floor of the shopping centre. It was closed.

We went back to the Hutch shop later on and their system was up and running, and I went through the whole validate / top up scenario again with another assistant. I decided to buy one 198 Rupee top up, just to make sure that it would work and I’m glad to say that it did. I then told the assistant that I wanted to buy another (500 Rupee) top up and was told that I’d have to wait for fifteen minutes! AGGGGGGGH.

We then went back up to the shop that had been closed earlier and I tried to buy a 500 Rupee top up from them, I got a message to my phone which told me that it wasn’t possible. We just gave up at this stage and went and had some lunch.