Second Mistake.

The second mistake I made was being totally honest.

I had been advised that bringing in rupees into India is illegal so not wanting to break the law I brought with me Singapore dollars, US dollars and 2000 Aussie dollars ( the leftovers of a winning streak at Jupiter's Casino in Australia's Gold Coast in mid 1996 )

The Singapore dollars were duly changed at Delhi Airport and in Amritsar I decided it was time to cash in the Aussie dollars.

So off I headed to the Chartered Bank in Amritsar. Sorry, they did not change foreign currency but I could try the State Bank of India down the Road.

I duly walked to the State Bank of India.

After a 30 minute wait while two men filled up huge registers to change the Traveler's Cheques of the Caucasians in front, I was duly called to the chair.

Then came the surprise.

Sorry. My Aussie currency was unacceptable. They only accepted plastic currency.

But it was legal tender, I protested. And just received a year ago.

The manager was summoned and he was no wiser to the currency.

So off I scurried ( it was a Saturday morning ) to get my US dollars.

They were duly changed but not before I was told to write out the serial number of each and every note.Then there was more filling in of registers, issuing of tokens and collection of money from the cashiers. I had been in the bank for nearly half the day!

(* The Aussie notes not accepted by the State Bank were accepted by the first moneychanger I approached in Singapore, in a transaction that took three minutes!)

This was perhaps one good illustration of why friends had advised me that it was better to get money on the blackmarket.because the Banks are a total hassle.