9 Nov SAT: Humayun's Tomb (and getting Sim Cards)

When we arrived in India (Amritsar) David wanted to buy an Indian sim card so we had wifi coverage at reasonable costs.    We asked the hotel manager to recommend the best place to purchase one as we know it isn't easy for 'foreigners' and we'd need to go to a major mobile provider's store.    One of the staff members offered to take us to a local small supplier and do the necessary translation.  But when we got there the person in charge of Sim Cards wasn't available and we were told to try again later.

The staff member then suggested that to save hours of hassle we should buy his Sim Card from him and he would get another (easy for an Indian national).   It seemed logical so the deal took place and he made a bit of commission for himself.

Then the phone calls started - he'd failed to tell his friends he no longer had the same number … in particular he'd failed to tell his girlfriend (now his ex) so we were getting constant calls and having to block numbers.      Then yesterday, one week after having got the sim card he reported his card as lost so the number was withdrawn!   David was not a happy bunny.    When we get back to England I will contact the Hotel Manager and let him know what his employee has done as we've been tricked/cheated and it doesn't reflect well on his hotel.

Luckily being in a bigger City, there are major phone shops nearby in Delhi.    

After watching the Changing of the Guard ceremony we visited one only to find it didn't open till 11am.  A helpful guy directed us to the Tourist Office saying they opened at 9am would be our best bet.   They weren't!   Once they realised they weren't going to be able to sell us any tours they didn't want to know.     

We gave up temporarily and headed off to look around Humayun's Tomb.   Its a mausoleum built in 1570 by Humayun's wife for her husband.   Its of particular significance as its the first 'garden tomb' on the Indian subcontinent and was the inspiration for the Taj Mahal. 

Also known as the 'dormitory of the Mughals' as more than 150 Mughal family members are buried there.

The mausoleum is set in beautiful landscaped gardens and there were lots of places to sit in the shade and relax for a while

We headed back to Connaught Square and found a Vodaphone shop.   90 minutes later we were the proud owners of 2 Indian sim cards.     As we've been using Google Maps a lot we were stuck once we lost the use of the previous sim card so we're back on track again now.

We found a nice Indian restaurant in Connaught Square so thought we'd treat ourselves to a 'proper' restaurant lunch.    They were advertising local wine (by the pint) for around £3 so it would be rude to not at least try it!     It was only 5% proof and it was a light sparkling white wine but actually quite refreshing.   I'm not really a beer drinker but wine is usually so horribly expensive (in restaurants/hotels you pay more than £20 per bottle).  

We then came back to our room and crashed out …. we had enough to eat at lunchtime so we're just having some R&R this evening.