I flew out of Seattle on Sunday Feb 28th 2010 at 6:40 pm headed for London. This was a very uneventful 8 hour flight. There was a 5 hour layover and left London headed for Delhi, India on time and got to Delhi ahead of time after a 7 1/2 hour flight. I arrived at 4:20 am Delhi time. There were several good things about this flight; I was on the outside of 3 seats, my seat mates were very pleasant company and there was the cutest 18 month old India boy who walked up and down the isle for most of the flight very quietly. He fell asleep shortly before landing and his mother was not happy as she had to carry him through the “miles” of passageways. We got to the baggage recovery area and the young lady sitting next to me was very concerned that her bag would be lost. On a previous trip to India her gab was very lost and it took several days and miles of red tape to recover the bag. My bags came up almost immediately and so I waited with her until the carousal had nothing left on it’s surface. She went to the lost baggage people and was told in less the 2 minutes that her bag was still in Chicago where she had changed carriers. It looked like she would get the bag on the next British Air flight which arrived the next night at 1:30 am. I will never know how it all came out as I went on to customs and the fun for me began.
I have over $12,000 of equipment in my bags, one weighs 69 lbs the other 49 lbs. I am told that only $150 worth of stuff can be brought into India without paying duty. He ask for my CARNET form. I had never heard of a CARNET form (it is evidently some international treaty form that allows one to bring over $150 worth of stuff as long as it again leaves the country, without paying duty.) The duty rate is 36.05%. I would owe $4,100.00 duty and it would not be refunded to me upon leaving the country. The customs agent said he wanted to “help” me. How much would I be willing to pay to get my equipment in the country without paying duty. I started at $500 and he suggested $400. Why he was lowering the price I do not know. Evidently he was concerned that if the price was too high I might complain to the supervisor. Finally he said 15,000 rupees and I agreed, Then he came down to an even 10,000 rupees. I went over to the money guys and got 15,000 rupees and the agent and I met out of sight at which point he said 15,000. I said no the agreed price was 10,000. 10,000 rupees is $222.22 USD. I was very pleased to get off so cheaply.
I got to the YMCA hotel at 8:00 am and asked for a room. I finally got into a room at 10:30. The standard check-in time was after noon. The room cost twice as much as the listed price on the internet. I was later very glad because the cheap room didi not have Air Conditioning and it got rather hot. I tried to sleep but could not because of my concern about getting from Delhi to Landour the next day. I finally went to bed and was asleep by 9:30 only to wake up 5 hours later and I was through sleeping for the night. Now for some thoughts on sleeping (or not). I was able to sleep for only 7 hours over a 73 hour span of time. I finally got some sleep in Landour. It was a very unusual 8 hours long.
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