Monday 5^th November

On Saturday afternoon we went to our lovely little State Theatre complex to see Argo, a new movie made by Ben Affleck and George Clooney, about the rescue of the 6 Americans who sought refuge in the Canadian Embassy during the hostage crisis in Iran.  Very gripping edge-of-the-seat stuff, although, naturally, we already knew the outcome.

On the way back to Pete’s we went to the supermarket for a few last minute necessities.  Our check-out person was very helpful and friendly but not a prepossessing looking chap.  In fact he looked as if he was barely ticking over sufficiently to tot up our purchases on the cash register… He asked what we had been doing and we said we had been to see Argo.  “Oh, at the State?  Is it a French film?” he asked.  Well no…but the title does sound French, doesn’t it?  Pete told him, briefly, that it was set in Iran during the hostage crisis and he said, “Oh yes, 1980, I think.  It was that episode which lost Jimmy Carter the election, wasn’t it?” 

We were mightily impressed with his general knowledge – once again, appearances can be so deceiving!

India #10

Early on in our travels, Vish, Mary Pete and I realised that we were targets for scammers of all sorts.  We decided to have a Mug of the Day competition, with a photo of the biggest mug recorded on digital camera at dinnertime.  But…after Pete’s and my performance near the Mondegar on our second day in Mumbai we didn’t need Mug of the Day competitions – we had been declared Mugs of the Whole Holiday; nobody could surpass us, so the competition was over before it had begun.

We had read in Lonely Planet Guide that there are black-market moneychangers everywhere, and that it is not worth even trying to do business with them – the premiums are just too high.  So…we were completely forewarned.  But when we were sauntering out of the Mondegar, pockets full of Australian $$s, a bloke approached Pete, and asked if he wanted to change money.  The exchange rate on the legitimate market that day was 34 rupees for $1AUS.  He was offering 45 rupees.  Hmmm, too good to refuse.  Within seconds we were whisked around the corner by a second, younger bloke, who took us into a little dark alley off the main street, under a stairwell, where a third man was waiting.  A very slick operation.  Pete and I could tell how shady it all was but we had complete control of the situation; no flies on us!!  Our third man was very cross when he realised we had Australian and not US $$s.  He sighed deeply and said, “Well I will still give you 45 rupees exchange, but only if you do a deal for $200 instead of $100,” which was our original offer.  Fine, fair enough; we were going to be rolling in moolah.  He wouldn’t touch our $200, told Pete to hang on to it while he counted the money out into my hand.  It all came in crisp new 500 rupee notes, right up to 9,000, meticulously counted.  But he didn’t have the last 500 in crisp new notes, he would have to delve into his pockets, while I held the 9,000.  Out came a wad of sticky, shabby 10 rupee notes.  Ten, twenty, thirty, he counted, right up to 490.  Oh damn…quick quick, the police might be coming… What was he going to do about the missing 10 rupees??  (Ten rupees is about thirty cents…)  Pete and I said, “Don’t worry about it, 490 is fine.”  Pete handed over the $200 and our Moneychanger Extraordinaire slipped the big wad of rupees into my shoulder bag, where it weighed very heavily.  We all slipped out of the alleyway and went our separate ways. 

Pete and I swaggered back to Vish and Mary and told them about our fabulous, lucrative deal.  They were duly impressed with our savoir-faire and I think we managed to remain very smug for at least 24 hours.  The next morning I got the wad of money out of my bag and told Pete we should put it somewhere safe, ie in his keeping rather than mine, as we were leaving our nice safe Apollo Hotel and going off on night trains to parts unknown.  The wad sat on the little table in the hotel, looking just a little bit brown and shabby.  Pete picked it up and unfurled it…umm, where is the rest of it??  Yes that is right you could see it coming, couldn’t you; there was exactly 490 rupees there, NOT 9,490… We had been royally swindled by a bit of clever sleight of hand.  We should have seen it coming too!!  The only good thing was – we had tip and beggar money for days to come – 10 rupees is a very acceptable sort of tip, and beggars are thrilled not to get nasty little 1 or 2 rupee coins.

Over the Christmas period in Hobart we caught up with friends and relations and swapped stories.  One evening Pete and I were regaling his friends Pete and Maddie with our major money-losing tale.  We had barely begun setting the scene for the money-changing-in the-dark-alley story when Pete Salmon said, “Stop, I know the rest of the story!”  This had happened to him in Rome a few years ago, with almost exactly the same outcome.  But where we were left with a pile of 49 soiled and rumpled 10 rupee notes, he was left with a nice thick bundle of newpaper, cut to size…. So do these badboys swap ideas across the continents or what??