You still need a visa in ADVANCE to visit India. Getting one is a pain.

I spent hours in a Kafkaesque office in Calgary, trying to get the paperwork right.

In Canada you are recommended to go through a 3rd party – BLS India. That helps. A bit.

All foreign nationals except those from Nepal and Bhutan need a visa to enter India. But the following nationals can probably get what we all want — a visa on arrival:

Finland
Japan
Luxemburg
New Zeeland
Singapore
Vietnam
Philippines
Laos
Myanmar
Cambodia

India is fascinating, once you finally get a visa.

On arrival at Mumbai International terminal, I changed cash at Thomas Cook.

US$200 got me … 11,250 rupees (“Trans Fees, Service tax, Education Cess., Higher Education Cess., etc)

Google (same day) told me $200 was worth 12,410 rupees.

So I lost 9.35% by going through Thomas Cook. Par for the course, I believe.

Using my Visa card cash advance was, the Thomas Cook agent told, was going to cost me about 16%.

There seems to be no good way to get cash when traveling abroad, these days. My plan in future is to try not to exchange currencies more than once. You get burned each time.