**Legal, administrative stuff**
Got my Indian visa and travel tickets. Mustafa’s services are amazing. Also changed my money there. I assume they should have the best rates for rupees, seeing how so many Indians use their services.
Trying to get my early hotel stay confirmed. Also had some issues with my Kingfisher internal flight – they said they had trouble processing my credit card.
**Medical**
Went for a Typhoid jab early last week. It takes about 2 weeks to be effective so it should be timed well for my India trip starting this weekend.
I will be bringing a small first aid kit and medication. This kit will also accompany me to Fonty. For India I may have to bring some pills for diarrhoea as well. At least some charcoal.
Bought my travel insurance for India.
**Geeky and gadgety**
Bought two 4GB SDHC cards from Mustafa at $16.50. It’s a long story. First I saw the cards going for S$14 at a counter in Mustafa. But I noticed that further up the same cards were going for S$16.50. I pointed out the discrepancy, at which point the salesmen said I had to pay the higher price. I said usually the price of memory goes down, not up! However they insisted on it. I was not happy with the principle of the matter and decided not to buy the cards from them that night. The next day I popped by Funan and learnt that the prices there were even higher and that I could not get normal-speed 4GB SD cards; they only had SDHC ones. So I went back to Mustafa, picked up the cards, changed my money and bought a few packets of spicy food (which will accompany me on my next trip to Fonty).
The high capacity cards will ensure that I will not run out of memory when I visit the Taj Mahal on Sunday. Also, as my dear iPhone 3G tends to die before the end of the day, I bought a $49 battery pack which seems to be working fine so far. At least if I’m stranded I can call for help.
**Indian SIM card**
My darling R has loaned me his Indian SIM card so I can use that to make local calls instead of paying international rates. Unfortunately my itchy fingers will not be able to access any 3G content on the fly, because India apparently doesn’t have that network yet. On the plus side this means I will have to totally concentrate on what my professor is saying.
OK time to sleep, even though I don’t feel like it.