Last trip with Baba

A 20,000 km bicycle tour returning my fathers ashes to China

India’s Demonetization: My account of not being able to get money

Posted on December 2, 2016 by bodhitree

Indian policemen stand guard as people queue up outside a bank to exchange and deposit Indian currency of rupees 500 and 1000 denominations in Ahmadabad, India, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016. Delivering one of India’s biggest-ever economic upsets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week declared the bulk of Indian currency notes no longer held any value and told anyone holding those bills to take them to banks. (Taken from Hindustani times)

I thought I would give a brief, first hand account of what life is like in India after demonetization. For those who haven’t been kept up to date, three weeks ago the government declared all 500 and 1000 rupee notes (about 85% of the country’s currency) void as legal tender, making a population of over 1 billion people almost completely penniless overnight. Businesses and stores closed, but the ones that remained open immediately (even though a deadline of Dec 30 was set)refused to accept the old currency. This made the 100 rupee note, about 1.5 US dollars the largest note of Indian currency! Riots began and many people, stranded with only 500 and 1000 notes, couldn’t buy anything because their money was essentially worthless.

How and why did this happen? Well there was and is a lot of talk about tax evasion and counterfeiting in the newspapers and on the streets but I don’t think anyone really knows why. Personally, from my experience with Indian culture, my guess is that someone up at the top in government made a mistake and now everyone has to suffer. But as to what really is going on, I am not sure anyone really knows.

Immediately after, a state of panic ensued and overnight select banks started stocking large quantities of smaller denominations and a new 2000 rupee note. As news quickly traveled millions of Indians que’ed in long lines to exchange their worthless currency.The thousands of ATM machines around the country would offer no hope as these too were filled with the void currency. Banks, not being able to stock enough money for the demand, quickly closed and thousands of people could do nothing but wait.

It was about this time, when things couldn’t get any worse that my brother and I entered India from Bhutan. I had read a headline from a newpaper article a day or two before but was completely unaware of the chaos which we were about to be engulfed in.

Exchanging old currency for smaller denominations. All of the sudden any small rupee note became usable even the torn and ripped.

At the border everyone was trying to get rid of their 500 and 1000 notes, so we ended up entered India with no rupees. Luckily we found a local Bhutanese driver who would take us to the nearby train station, accepting payment in Bhutanese nultrums. My brothers first impression of India was remote country farms and small cities filled with people waiting in long lines at the bank. When we arrived at the train station, it was already afternoon and after seeing the lines at the bank I wasn’t sure if we could get money in time for our departing train. I decided to tell our driver to take us all the way to our planned destination, the states capital, Guwahati.(This move would save both my brother and I from being stranded for many days at the train station). (Not completely aware of the extent to which the demonetization situation had affected banks and ATMS, I told the driver that I would pay him in rupees once we found an ATM at a large bank).

Hours later, in our small minivan almost out of gas because the driver also didn’t have any money, we arrived in Guwahati. The lines at the banks were worse than in the countryside but being a foreigner I was able to cut to the front and ask the teller where I could find an ATM. The man almost laughed in my face and told me that; all ATMS countrywide were closed for the next 3 days (while they were removed of the void currency) and that no banks would exchange USD for rupees. With no money and almost no gas I asked the drive to take us to the nearest 4 star hotel, thinking that maybe they could help us. Luckily they accepted credit cards, so we were able to get a room and eat in the restaurant. They did not however exchanged USD and even if they did the hotel also did not have any money!

The driver was completely stuck, he had no money to buy gas and I had no rupees to pay him.He kept telling me that he was tired and wanted to go home so I asked him what he wanted to do. No response! There was an ATM down the street that had a line as long as I had ever seen so I told them to wait in line and if we were lucky he could call me when they got to the front and I would withdraw cash for him. He didn’t want to do this, and instead wanted to wait in the lobby for something to happened. Eventually I got annoyed and paid them off in USD; I felt bad but had to turn my back on him because he didn’t seem to have a clue what to do, and I was tired. Somehow he made it back the the Bhutanese border, because later I was told by reception that he had left.

It’s not hard to find an ATM that has cash…Just look for the long line. The problem is getting to use the machine before it runs out of cash.

My brother and I would then spend the next 3 days in Guwahati staying in the hotel, search out ATMS and waiting in long lines hoping that the cash would last. On several occasions we waited for hours only to be turned away close to the front by a machine out of money. Several times we witnessed heated arguments as people tried to use several cards to withdraw more money. The working machines were set to a withdrawl limt of 2,000 rupees, and with the new 2,000 rupee note not yet in full circulation the machines dispensed denominations of 100 which were quickly depleted. We were lucky though, we had a place to sleep and could by food at a nearby super market with a credit card. Many others would not be so lucky and each morning I read accounts of paitents who died in the hospital because the doctors wouldn’t accept the old currency.

What are local Indian’s supposed to do with a 2000 rupee note? Most make about 150 rupees a day, and make transactions under 300 rupees.

The newspapers were also full of corrupt stories where days before the demonetization was announced people started buying up large stock piles of I-phones and computers. One article told of how, the day before the demonetization occured, a man paid his employees a year’s advance salary in soon to be void currency. I can only imagine the impact this is having on the country, as farmers complain that they can’t buy seeds to plant next years crop.

After three days my brother and I were finally able to get enough money from ATMs and exchange through our rental car company to depart on our journey to Arunachal Pradesh. We had a great trip and learned how to drive a car Indian style! Absolute madness!!

Elephant safari, Kaziranga national park, Assam

I am slowly making my way south and will be flying back to the states for Christmas. Will post again soon with current details, I just wanted to get this one out while the inconvenience of demonetization is still part of daily life in India.

-Julian

A few weeks exploring Bhutan

Posted on November 24, 2016 by bodhitree

View from Sengor Pass, Mongar District east Bhutan

A small country broken into districts by large mountains. Most district capitals are located in long beautiful valleys.

I spent just over two weeks exploring Bhutan. And in retrospect I have very conflicting views of the remote country. My first two weeks in Bhutan were spent cycling with a young local named Kunzeng, who following me in a small station wagon as I headed east from Indian/Bhutanese border city of Phuentsholing. He invited me to his home village where I had lunch and breakfast with his grandmother and I spent two days with his high school friends in the Jakar valley. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience of what Bhutan was really like. Staying with locals and camping around fires the Bhutanese seemed to learn more about me than I did from them. Because of the extremely expensive visa , $250 a day, the typical tourists that Bhutanese see are old, retired, rich couples who spend much of their time in the resorts. This was a new experience to my Bhutanese friends, and I was constantly told that they had never met someone like me.

Kuenzang and Jigme my friends in Jakar, Bumthang valley.

When I was not staying with locals I slept in small roadside guest houses filled with Bhutanese truck drivers. I was introduced to the local vice early on and spent many evenings drinking rice wine cooked with scrambled eggs and smoking the local hand rolled hash.From dawn till dusk I was alone on the roads and could explore at my whim. The mountains, rivers, and valleys are stunning and in many ways I couldn’t have found a better cycling destination. However, I was completely dismayed by the treatment of Indians who make up the majority of Bhutan’s work force. Bhutan’s roads are built and maintained by an all Indian work force, and they live in communities of shacks built out of old oil barrels next to the road side. Their tools are extremely primitive, Indian women and children pound rocks all day with hammers to make gravel, and men make road side fires to bring large barrels of tar to melting point.

Here is a stake of oil barrels near a roadside Indian village, After empty the Indian labors will flatten these barrels out to make paneling for their homes.

In the many rice farms I encountered Bhutanese no longer use yaks to till the soil, and instead use petrol fueled power tillers. Saying that the old method was causing “too much suffering to the animal”. Meanwhile the Indians are breaking rocks with the bare hands to make the roads smoother! The Bhutan/India borders are wide open with Bhutanese going out to buy cheaper Indian products and Indians coming in large numbers hoping to find work.

Lhuntse Dzong. A Dzong is an administrative building half monastery, half district office. Each district has its own Dzong in a similar design. Buildings around a square courtyard.

Fall orange plants found above 3,500 meters

Bridge across the famous “Burning Lake”, Bumthang county.

Rice fields near downtown, Paro city.

This is the most common site in Bhutan, Indians fill all the labor positions, and live in small shacks near the highways. My Ortlieb panniers completely came apart and was sewn together by this cobbler on the streets of Phuentsholing in west Bhutan.

Bhutan’s highest pass, 4,000 meters. Trongsa/Bumthang border

Roadside Stupa protecting travelers from the mountain spirits.

More of the beautiful eastern Bhutan. Anyone making the trip should put the east on the top of their list.

I was lucky to obtain an official guest invitation to Bhutan so was able to skip the formalities associated with a typical tourist visa. However my brother was not so when I arrived in Paro two weeks later we got to experience what it is like to be a tourist in Bhutan. Being a tourist in Bhutan means that you have to stay in a government regulated hotel, eat a designated restaurants and visit places deemed tourist worthy. You are also give a guide which will be with you all the time. After two weeks of Bhutanese freedom having to have a guide and to follow regulations made Bhutan seem more like a museum exhibit than a real country. We went to all the tourist places, ate buffet meals in hotels, and spent too much time being followed by our guide. However being with my brother made things OK because we could at least share our views of the tourist imposed version of Bhutan.

Standing below the famous Tiger Nest Monastery outside of Paro city. Many tourists only walk as far as their cameras are allowed and never venture inside the monastery.

Bhutanese visiting the Dzong must wear their official attire called a “Go”. Tour guides will usually wear their GO as do the older generation and other members of the government. The majority of people in the cities however wear western clothes.

Bridge built by famous Tibetan bridge builder.

Typical courtyard inside a Dzong.

My brother and I tried in vain to visit something not on the tourist map, we even came up with an idea of going to a textile school. However this too was filled with tourists taking photos of Bhutanese children making sculptures of Buddhist deities while playing video games on their cellphones. I feel that as a tourist Bhutan will show you how it wants to be seen by the rest of the world, as a small country with a strong culture that continues to teach the old ways. However this is only sustainable with; an extremely small population (about 700,000 Bhutanese), a large exploited Indian workforce, and extremely expensive tourist visa (the revenue generated from tourism is second only to Hydroelectricity). For example a typical Bhutanese meal consists of several types of dried meat, all coming from India. Slaughter houses are banned in Bhutan so all meat products which make up the majority of Bhutanese meals are shipped into the country from India. Butcher shops are all run by Indians and all the meat products contain large amounts of chemicals. Alcohol however is sold throughout the country and many Bhutanese start drinking at noon.

This was probably the best thing that my brother and I got to see/do in Bhutan. Totally off of the tourist path we met some locals who invited into their puffed rice factory.

Brothers look to the Himalayas for respite from a facade.

To me the real Bhutan and Bhutanese culture is in the east where few farmers still use yaks to plow their fields and old women kit clothes on wooden looms near the roadsides. These people make only a few dollars a day and subsist on trading rice and vegetables for other necessary goods. I am now heading to explore the eastern states of India Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram. I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and will be home for Christmas.