Travelogue 9 – Urban Decay – Hounslow Style

I had been advised that Post Office is the best option, both by friends and by American Express. In fact, the Amex lady even said, sir, why do you want to pay a charge of about 5% and exchange rate for Traveler’s Checks is usually lower at the airport. Post office is your best bet. God bless her heart! The Lampton post office did not do currency conversion. So, I had to find another post office. I was told of the main post office in Hounslow. Hounslow does not exactly qualify as mini-India, mini-Punjab, mini-Pakistan or anything like that. But it is not uncommon to see Punjabi-dress or saree clad women and to hear an occasional Punjabi sentence with British accent. There also seems to be a lot of urban decay in that area. My walk to the Hounslow Main Post office took me through the neighborhood and back! Shops usurping on the roadway, houses of poor quality, a crowd that would be closer to the south side of Chicago and lots of graffiti on walls. The streets were narrow and footpaths narrower. There was trash on the footpath and many people just loitering around in streets, half-naked and smoking on London’s hottest day this season. Many cars full of teenagers were driving around with blaring music. The post office itself was dirty – waste papers, discarded receipts and dirt adding to the ambience of official ness created by the announcement of “Cashier number n please…,” repeating frequently whenever a cashier was available. I felt a little vulnerable carrying the cash back but that was a necessary conversion.