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Indian embassies
Australia High Commission; 3-5 Moonah Place, Yarralumla, Canberra, ACT 2600® 02/6273 3999, © 62731308,® hicanb@ozemail.com.au. Consulates; Level 27,25 Bligh St, Level 27, Sydney, NSW 2000® 02/9223 9500,® 9223 9246,® indianc@enternet.com.au; 15 Munro St, Coburg, Melbourne, Vic 3058® 03/9384 0141, ® 9384 1609. Honorary Consulates; Level 1, Terrace Hotel, 195 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth WA 6004, Australia (mailing address; P0 BOX 6118 East Perth WA 6892, Australia) ® 08/9221 1485,® 9221 1206, ® india@vianet.net.au; Brisbane® 07/3260 2825, © 3260 2826.
Bangladesh House 120, Rd 2, Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka® 02/503606,® 863662; 1253-1256 Nizam Road, Mehdi Bagh, Chittagong ® 031/211007,® 225178.
Burma (Myanmar) Oriental Assurance Building, 545-547 Merchant St (P0 Box 751), Rangoon ® 01/82550.
Canada High Commission: 10 Springfield Rd, Ottawa, ON K1M 1C9® 613/744 3751,® 744 0913,® www.docuweb.ca/india. Consulates; 2 Bloor St W, #500, Toronto, ON M4W 3E2 ® 416/960 0751; 325 Howe St, 2nd floor, Vancouver, BC V6C 1Z7® 604/662 8811, ® www.cgivancouver.com.
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Mail services in India are quite reliable. Apart from Government opertaed General Post Offices (GPO’s) known as “Daak Ghar” in India, there are many courior option available in India. FedEx, UPS, XPS, DHL and other major players operate from many cities. Many other local courior services operate from all other smaller cities. Generally, a mail can take anything from three days to four weeks to get to or from India, depending largely on where you are; Stamps are not expensive. You can also buy stamps at big hotels. Having parcels sent out to you in India is not such a good idea - chances are they’ll 90 astray. If you do have a parcel sent, have it registered. Sending a parcel out of India can be quite a performance. First you have to get it cleared by customs at the post office (they often don’t bother, but check), then you take it to a tailor and agree a price to have it wrapped in cheap cotton cloth (which you / may have to go and buy yourself), stitched up and sealed with wax. In big city GPOs, people offering this service will be at hand. Next, take it to the post office, fill in and attach the relevant customs forms (it’s best to tick the box marked “gift” and give its value as less than Rs 1000 or “no commercial value", to avoid bureaucratic entanglements).
Parcels in Britain, North America and Australia and New Zealand, books and magazines can be sent more cheaply, unsealed or wrapped around the middle, as printed papers ("book post"). Alternatively, there are numerous courier services but it is safest to stick to known international companies such ! as DHL. Packages sent by air are expensive. Couriers are not as reliable as they should I be and there have been complaints of packages going astray. Remember that all pack-: ages from India are likely to be suspect at i home, and searched or X-rayed; don’t send : anything dodgy.
Telephones in India
Calling from hotels is usually more expensive. Both national and international calls are dialled direct. To call abroad, dial the international access code (00), the code for the country you want - 1 for the USA. Privately run phone services with international direct dialling facilities are very widespread. There privately runned phone services are called STD/PCO in locals. You can find many wherever you are in India. They are extremely quick and easy to use; some stay open 24 hours. Prices vary between private places and are slightly cheaper at official telecommunications offices; many have fax machines too.
Direct dialling rates are very expensive during the day - Monday to Saturday 8am to 7pm - but this falls to half rate on Sundays, national holidays, and daily from 7am to 8am and 7pm to 8.30pm, after which the charge is reduced further.
In India, generally in rural areas, foreigners are represented as the “rich sahib” (a rich and respectable person), whose culture dominates the world. English not being their first lan¬guage, they may not be familiar with the conventional ways of doing this, and thus their opening line may seem abrupt if at the same time very formal. “Excuse me good gentleman, what is your mother country?” On the other hand, Even if you are of Indian origin, you may be considered to suffer from Western cor¬ruption, and people may test you out on that score. You may find it odd or even intrusive that complete strangers should want to know that sort of thing, but these subjects are considered polite conversation between strangers in India, and help people place one another in terms of social position. Kissing and embracing are regarded in India as part of sex: do not do them in pub¬lic. It is not even a good idea for couples to hold hands, though Indian men can some-times be seen holding hands as a sign of “brotherliness". Be aware of your feet. When entering a private home, you should normally remove your shoes (follow your host’s exam¬ple); when sitting, avoid pointing the soles of your feet at anyone. Accidental contact with one’s foot is always followed by an apology. Indian English can be very formal and even ceremonious. Indian people may well call you “sir” or “madam", even “good lady” or “kind sir". At the same time, you should be aware that your English may seem rude to them. In particular, swearing is taken rather seriously in India, and casual use of the F-word is likely to shock.
Don’t worry too much about the first quoted prices. Some guidebooks suggest paying a third of the opening price, but it’s a flexible guideline depending on the shop, the goods and the shopkeeper’s impression of you. Bargaining is very much a matter of personal style, but should always be lighthearted, never acrimonious. There are no hard and fast rules - it’s really a question of how much something is worth to you. . “Green” tourists are easily spotted, so try and look like you know what you are up to, even on your first day, or leave it till later; you could wait and see what an Indian might pay first. Don’t start haggling for something if you know you don’t want it, and never let any figure pass your lips that you are not pre¬pared to pay. It’s like bidding at an auction. Having mentioned a price, you are obliged to pay it. If the seller asks you how much you would pay for something, and you don’t want it, say so. In places like Jaipur and Agra where this is common practice, tourists often strike a deal with their drivers - agreeing to stop at five shops and splitting the commission for the time wasted. Obviously if you’re taken to a shop by a tout or driver and you buy some¬thing, you pay around fifty percent extra.
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