Being a tourist you always know that you will be taken advantage of one way or another. Living in China we have to haggle hard and every shop and stall holder is desperate to garner your attention. In India we experienced the hardest haggling and tourist prices of our lives.
1. Taking photos. People and especially children will say "One photo. One photo please". If you take a photo the next moment they will be thrusting their hands in your face demanding money. We knew that this would happen and so we went armed with our sniper zoom and only took the photos we actually wanted. We did see a tourist take a photo of an enormous group of children at the Mosque and that pretty much emptied his entire wallet. Considering the amount of photos we pose for in China and the number I was asked to pose for in India I probably should start charging too!
2. Tuk-tuk and trishaw drivers will try to charge you at least double. Thankfully our host Ajay at Eleven Delhi helped with our itinerary every day and told us exactly how much we should be paying for our transport. We did have one trishaw driver who decided when we got to our destination that we had agreed on a price per person not just a price for the trip so we paid double. Walking away was our best tactic for getting the price we wanted. It's important no matter what the exchange rate is for you to pay the fair price as otherwise things will become unaffordable for the locals and drivers will only wish to pick up tourists because that is where they can get the price they want.
3. The Mosque was another great place to be ripped off. As a tourist you have to leave your shoes outside and pay a fee to get your own shoes back when you leave. The local worshippers take their shoes inside and keep them with them. We had to pay a fee to go in and then an extra fee for having a camera and on leaving the guy didn't believe we'd paid for the camera and was trying to get us to pay again. I had been wearing highly appropriate clothes and even had a scarf ready to cover my head. Despite having no skin other than my hands on show I had to pay more money to wear a floral dressing gown that was shorter than my own clothes in both overall length and in the sleeves and it was open at the front. The point of it I don't actually know.
4. Tour Guides. We went to Agra and had a driver arranged to take us there and back. On our way the driver pulled over and picked up a man who we were told was our tour guide. The only problem was that we hadn't booked a tour guide and had been given no option and had no idea of the cost or what to do. We called Ajay and he sorted it all out for us and then the company that had provided the car gave us a discount as this was obviously not what they expected to happen.
5. Pre-paid taxis. The police run a pre-paid taxi service from the airport. We decided this was our safest bet. We organised the taxi at the airport and paid. We were told by the people we paid that we were not to give the driver any money at all and they gave us one of their phone numbers in case we had any problems in India. As we approached our taxi a man grabbed my husband's bag and then mine and put them in the back of the taxi and would you believe it demanded money for lifting our suitcases when he hadn't even given us an option. The taxi driver was a lunatic. He was racing another taxi from a different company and it was the worst, most frightening car ride we have ever experienced. Next thing the driver couldn't find our accommodation and drove round and round. When we did get there because he had got lost and had to drive further he decided that he needed more money. The logic is priceless. He got lost. He drove like a maniac. He wouldn't look at the map or call the number I gave him so we needed to pay him more!
6. Shopping Malls. All drivers get a commission for taking tourists to the mall. Every driver when working out a price with you will try and say that for an extra amount of ruppees they can take you to a shopping mall too or will ask if you wish to go to a mall. You have to be incredibly firm and say that you don't want to go.
7. Metered Taxis. Generally the metered taxis are safe. You do run the risk that they will call a friend and pretend they are from the place you have said you have a reservation and claim no knowledge of it. We didn't experience this as we used one of the two companies recommended to us. The only issue we had with a metered taxi was on one occasion when we reached a destination and the driver turned the metre off, and claimed the price was more than we believed we should have been paying.
As I have said in a previous post there is a huge amount of poverty in India but you have to be careful how you help as a tourist. Paying more doesn't necessarily mean that your money will be used for good or that it will actually help.
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