Any guesses? No, not Mir space station!
Yes, another monkey!
Hamayun's tomb (Delhi)
Does my face seem like I'm ready for Argentina :D
Namaste and farewell from wild and crazy India!
Before we arrived in India we were thinking traveling here would be somewhat easy as people speak English..hmmmm! Ironically, it has been the most difficult and stressful!
As this is our last day in India, I kind of feel like I need a tattoo or something - possibly: I spent 6 weeks in India and SURVIVED!!! :D
You know what the main problem is, its not that there is a risk of being murdered, maybe robbed, but the problem is that there are so many con-artists in India. If I said tens of millions, it would be an understatement. I can write a book from all the first hand stories and personal experiences of the past 6 weeks! I gave you an example about 5 weeks ago when we went to the Andaman Islands. We have seen 1000's of attempts for trickery and this is not BS! Unfortunately this makes it tough to trust anyone in India. This along with poor hygiene causing tourists to become ill are the main reasons why people HATE their time in India - we have met many of these people! LUCKILY, our experience has been positive, however arduous. I don't think anything can prepare you for India, but for us maybe Nepal did a bit. Both Marina and I are thrilled we chose to come to India, however, we are more than thrilled we are leaving. India can infuriate you more than you can imagine, but equally it will surprise you in many fantastic ways!
Let me tell you about a typical day in India;
You leave your hotel and try to get an auto-rickshaw (tuk-tuk) to go sight-seeing. Firstly, you have to ask the price. Expecting a driver to use his meter (By the way, this is a legal requirement) is almost like expecting a politician to be honest! Anyhow, if he did use his meter he would drive you in circles so a fixed fee is best. So you ask, 4 times the price; you say "too expensive" and he drives off. Can you believe it, these guys would rather lose the business if they can't REALLY rip you off! Next guy we ask, 3 times the price, then a local (who has nothing to do with the driver) says, that is a good price, its 10km (6 miles) - which is a complete lie. So not only do you have to fight against the rickshaw drivers, you need to fight against the locals who have it out for you being a foreigner! Then on your 3rd try you find one that will take you for double the correct price! Happy days, off we go!
As we are driving, he veers right and seems to be heading in the wrong direction, I object (but can't be 100% sure as I don't exactly know the way) and he argues. After a bit i see exactly where we are and say, its to the left, TURN. He argues again, and after a few minutes (15 total) he pulls in front of a travel agent. Keeping in mind we are going to the Red Fort, Delhi's biggest tourist attraction. Then he asks this guy outside, I immediately recognize the scam - as he asks to look at my guidebook, I say, "YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE THE RED FORT IS"??? He says yes I do, confirming my belief that he is a trickster. Their object is to lure you into this travel agent to scam you; sometimes its shops instead. I yelled at him, we didn't pay anything and left. A bit annoyed, but as this often happens, we walk down the street, getting away from all the fraudsters, we look for more auto-rickshaws. Ten minutes later, after arguing with numerous drivers about the price - again 3-4 times the correct rate; we have one that agrees for about double the price. As he starts, he tries to turn in the wrong direction - We yell and he goes the way we tell him to. After about 5-10 minutes, and we are following the route on the map and with a compass; he tries again to go the wrong way (which would have been to a shop, tourist agent, etc). We yell at him, said we warned him, get out, don't pay and walk for about 15 min. Then we see a few cycle-rickshaws, we are only about 1km away now, we negotiate with about 10 of them who all want to ask for 4-5 times the price, we finally get a reasonable price and go. Just to summarize, this place was only 5km (3 miles) away from our hotel and its taken an hour! This is India! Now we get to the mosque we want to see; its now 10 minutes to prayer time (when they close the doors) so we have to hurry. Trying to get in, we are physically barred by tour-guides, they don't work for the mosque, but want to sell tours so its in their interest to tell us to come back at 2pm. We try to push past them and they would not let us through; it would have been a fight! Muslim people around us are apologizing (the phony tour guides are not Muslims). We abandoned the idea of seeing India's biggest mosque because of these scammers. They were also trying to tell us about fake admission fees; how do I know its fake (besides that there is always a scam) they didn't have a ticket to support this). We start walking to the next destination, then we get hassled by about 25-30 other people in the next 15 minutes on the way to the Red Fort. We are told, don't go this way, its the wrong way, or people standing in front of you to block your way (they think you will buy something if they do this), or a lady tells her children to go and pester the tourists asking for money (and these were not homeless people). Now, you want to buy your ticket, you stand in line like a normal person; then you see Indians cutting the line walking to the front or they go in front of tourists (I just figured out why they do this to tourists, because we don't hug the person in front of us. Indians do this so people don't jump in front of them). This is the typical day and I've only described the first hour!
Now you see why people don't always like India.
Its crazy, even if you pay 3 or 4 times the price, they still don't take you to the destination. You must use a map & compass, and scream and yell at them the whole time to get to the right place. If you pay too much, they think your a sucker, then your really in for a scam!
Its the only place in the world I've been (other than Nepal), where you have to yell and scream at people to be treated fairly; otherwise they take advantage of you!
The daily interactions with locals test your resolve to believe there is good in the local people.
Why is India like this, one reason, because tourists allow it to happen by not standing up for themselves.
When brought to a shop (as in a taxi driver scam), they shop.
When people threaten them (as in a scam), they give money away.
When charged 4 times the price, they pay it.
When told elaborate stories(lies), people allow themselves to believe it.
If robbed, they let the person run away.
RESULT - India is the biggest hassle of any country you can visit in your life!
Should you go? YES!!! India has fantastic food, incredible history and architecture, a fascinating culture, nature wonders, and very interesting people.
While watching TV the other night, the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels came on. Marina asked me to turn off the TV as it reminded her of all the local scammers. She went to use the internet and I continued to watch it, smiling by the irony of watching this movie in India.
Now that I have you super excited about visiting India, let me tell you where we have been this week!
Delhi > Agra > Fatipur Sikri > Delhi
Sunday - Taj Mahal: Sunday was a tough day. After being sick on the day before, we caught our 6:15am train to Agra. As we arrived (I'll not talk about the major scam we encountered setting us back an hour) we started at the famous site. The Taj is indeed one of the top 10 buildings of the world. It was simply amazing. Besides the building you have seen pictures of, there is the tomb of Mumtaz and after that we were on our way to the Red Fort. The Red Fort (there is one in Delhi too) is phenomenal - absolutely huge - not a fort, but a castle! We had enough time so we hired a taxi to take us 40km away to Fatipur Sikri to see the famous ancient city! Such a great time, but we didn't make it back to Delhi until 3:30AM! We were going to stay in Agra, but the hotel we booked was the scam so we just decided to leave Agra the same day.
Monday to Thursday: Delhi is a tough city to be in and for the first time on this trip, I wanted to spend time in our hotel. We have gone out to see bits and pieces of Delhi and have seen all the major sites. One notable thing, we watched Slumdog Millionaire last night. Not sure if you have seen this, but I can tell you, it does not show the true underbelly of India. In our opinions, this was a very soft image of India and excludes the true problems. I can give you examples, but I've probably been too negative and Marina will start editing :D
What's next; We have 3 days in London to celebrate New Years Eve with our friends, after this we are off to sunny Argentina! We land in Buenos Aires on January 3rd.
Happy New Years!
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