Today was that unique combination of highs/lows, pleasure/pain, enjoyment/revulsion that only an Indian mega city necessarily serves up to a westerner in spades. The schedule today was The Red Fort (1st 3 pictures), Humayun’s Tomb (next 2 pictures) and Qutab Minar, all amazing sights and surprisingly in a city of 15 million, the first two were each an oasis of tranquility.
All wonderful but there was an additional, unscheduled item our guide had added - a visit to the spice market which sounded great. A short walk from The Red Fort through street chaos
Then a bicycle rickshaw ride
A visit to some stores ending in one with strangely only western customers with prices that were, well generous.
Some chai from the street
Then a return bicycle rickshaw ride. All very nice, but then our guide suggested a way over the top tip and herded us towards an auto rickshaw. The penny dropped, every bit from rickshaw drivers to stores was a setup with everybody taking a cut. Now we enjoyed the experience, but I just didn’t enjoy being taken for a ride. We refused the 2nd rickshaw ride which resulted in a few choice swear words (interesting my Hindi is limited to those, counting to ten and ordering a beer). Those of you rooting for the guide will be pleased to hear that our recommended lunch spot was also strangely expensive and frequented only by westerners and guides.
Throw in the traffic, child beggars families living on roundabouts Delhi produced a day of highs/lows, pleasure/pain and enjoyment/revulsion that only an Indian mega city can do.
For those of you rooting for the guide, yes we did give him a tip.
ReplyDeleteNo one is rooting for the guides who are trying to take advantage of you, Norman. We are on Team Davies! But they perceive you as having SO much as compared to them . Which is probably true.
Sue here. I agree. It is just a few dollars to us. I think the reason this experience jarred so much was that we spent a couple of days with this guy and felt we could trust him, and part of the reason for employing a guide is to avoid being ripped off. We are trying to be generous with tipping, and one of the reasons for choosing India to visit was because the tourism industry was completely blasted by the pandemic. I think this experience just left us both feeling uncomfortable, for the reasons you mention. Thanks so much for your comment, which got me thinking all over again.
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