One minute travel guide to enigmatic pluralism - 5

DAY 5 : ACCOMMODATION, BANKING, INTERNET, MARIJUANA, ROBOPARK

1. Accommodation : I frequently use the following and always found them useful.



makemytrip dot com

tripadvisor dot in

yatra dot com

cleartrip dot com

travelguru dot com

goibibo dot com

ezeego1 dot co dot in

ixigo dot com

2. Banking : there are more than one lakh ( one-tenth of a million ) atm-s in India. Another one lakh are scheduled to come up by 2016. There are around four thousand talking atm-s with braille keyboards to help the visually challenged people and are mostly owned by the state bank of India - this figure is likely to be doubled in the coming year. Biometric atm-s are mostly seen in rural India. You can also use white label atm-s ie owned by a non-bank entity, simply look for the indicash logo, presently available in bengaluru only. Use the visa / mastercard global atm locator to customize your search. NFC tags and mobile money are gradually replacing credit cards. And you can even buy gold and silver and even diamonds ( a twenty gram silver coin costs as little as buying twenty yard decor sets ie twenty usd or one thousand and four hundred rupees ) from an atm at high street phoenix mall in mumbai.



3. Internet : 4G is available in bengaluru, pune, chandigarh, mohali, panchkula and kolkata - the last one being the first city in country to offer this. And the rest of India is served by 3G at present. Broadband is available in all major cities and you can also opt for FTTH. Does that sound geek? OK, you won't be missing your verizon fios, it's as simple as that. The fastest plan one could buy for domestic use is 100 mbps at present. Kochi's startup village is the second place in the world after google fiber to offer 1 gbps connectivity, and is the world's largest telecom incubator, but it is meant for entrepreneurs only. Private players have started to upgrade their infrastructure to bring 1 gbps internet to the masses soon. And just like other utility bills ( cooking gas, electricity, credit card, insurance, dth ) broadband and phone ( land and mobile ) bills can also be paid online.



4. Marijuana : Consuming marijuana is legal in India, if and only if bought from the government licensed shops, simply look for the sign that says - government authorized bhang shop ( GABS ). The best places to enjoy it are jaisalmer and varanasi and the best time is Holi ie the festival of colors. You can even get a marijuana-biryani at the time of Holi. You are supposed to ask for a single shot, double, or a super-duper sexy drink when visiting a GABS. And i can't educate you about the possible repercussions of the last two, as i took the first one a couple of year ago out of curiosity, and never bothered to try again.



5. Robopark : Multi-level automated vehicle storage and retrieval systems are available at airports, shopping malls, and temples in major cities including delhi, mumbai, bengaluru and kolkata - and the fare is as little as one us-dime for a forty minute occupancy.



See you all soon in India!

( All the images belong to their respective owners and the first one captures a tree house luxury resort of jaipur. )