Arrive in India (Delhi)
Trip Start
Dec 09, 2007
1
39
52
Trip End
Jul 07, 2008
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Delhi,
India
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
I realize now that I was sucked into a tout ring that involved the tourist company that set up my accommodations from the airport, the taxi driver to the hotel, the hotel management, and finally, what a appeared to be the central motive for this elaborate business, to buy a trip package from a tourist office near my hotel, which I'm sure everyone would get a little kick back from. I learned weeks later from my friend Nandan in Varanasi how they are trained to manipulate westerners to get a sale and often set them up with sketchy travel packages that involve some kind of lie or extortion or scam. You can read in my journal entry below about the main trip they were pushing and what I read later in the Lonely Planet about this trip.
The Lonely Planet does highly recommend just going to the government sanctioned tourist offices, and well it seemed a little late for me and besides I didnt' want any trips and wasn't planning on staying in Delhi for long anyway.
From the moment I stepped into that first cab ride I new something was not right.
Bankok Airport
And for the next three days I kept surpressing my instincts to leave this ring and get out on my own. But they were so determined and kept buying my trust with niceitese like breakfast, constant chai, big smiles, personal stories and invitations and an undercover ride to do some late night drinking in the Taxi (I would have been up for a bar but I was going along for the experience and they didn't want anything to do with the extremely high prices bars and hotels charged when compared to the pennies street brew came for). From the moment I stepped into the lobby of my hotel I was stopped by the manager. He'd directly and simply say sit down for one moment as if it was something important. Then a car would show up and I'd be taken to the tourist agency. They would ask me what I wanted to do and I would tell them how I'd just like to walk around on my own. They (when I say they I mean several men) would tell me the places I wanted to go were too dangerous, that there were recent terrorist threats there, that I'd be better off to take their taxi. Of course, I was skeptical but I so wanted to trust these men. I didn't want my first experiences of Delhi people to be based on what this all probably turned out to be...lies and coercion.
Now I'm no elitest and as always in backpacker's hindsight I'm chalking this up to a pretty amazing experience. I did learn a lot and I wouldn't trade it, but not trading doesn't mean not disagreeing with or not disliking. And later as I gathered my wits I even learned to have a special kind of respect for things like this that I found distasteful.
Jama Masjid
India has a tremendous ability to offer numerous opportunities for one to dismantle any judgements that might be held too firmly and even to sit inside contraciction from time to time.To give you one example of my suspicions: On my first day I hired one of their taxis to take me to a couple of the tourist sights in Old Delhi. I wanted to see the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid (big ol' beautiful Mosque). On our way to the Masjid we passed the Red Fort. I asked my driver why don't we go to the Fort first. He replied, "No Fort, No Fort...Terrorists! Fort closed." I looked closer and could see some pale skinned folks walking around and said, "Why does it look like there are tourists there then walking around." He just responed louder and stronger, "Terrorists!". They must have thought this was the line that would work best with us terrorist fearing Americans
Now I don't really know if this was the drivers personal agenda to avoid the Fort or the agenda of the travel agency but either way I found it to be wrong. After coming down from the Masjid (I was also taken by a tout at the masjid as well. For anyone going, it is free...anyone who claims to be a guide followed up by a strongly suggested donation for their services is not to be trusted. There are no guides and the only donation should be to the man who watches your shoes at the entrance. And as I learned from the LP after going in this "guide" will just tell you the exact same thing you could read in the two paragraphs the LP has on the Masjid.
from jama masjid tower
Note to self read the damn Guide books before entering the tourist sites.) On my way out I avoided the driver and hired my own rickshaw driver to take me to the Fort. And it was of course open and flourishing with tourists. But despite what I'd seen from the taxi it appeared I was the only westerner amongst the hundreds there. I point this out only because I eventually made quite a scene. At first I meandered around enjoying the vistas and the war museum. Even met a friendly college student who was eager to talk to a Westerner. It was so refreshing to finally talk to a sincere kind person. I wanted to latch on to him and make him my friend and guide for the rest of the time I was in India.
I made my way to the main courtyard and bumped into 3 other young male college students. They approached me with wide glowing eyes. I'd never scene anything like it as if I were some amazing anomoly maybe like a famous actor or something. The ring leader of this small group just stared at me and took a couple unsolicited pictures of me with his camera phone. Then I took one of him. They laughed and we did some small talk. Only the one guy spoke a little english. Then each of them had their photos taken with me, thanked me graciously and as I moved on I heard them speaking excitedly to each other.
Not too long after I was jumped by 3 young boys who spoke surprisingly clear english. They were quite agressive and woudn't stop asking me questions like, where are you from? What are you doing here? are you married? how much will you pay for these laser light pens? I could have put up with them if it weren't for the constant insesant use of a word directed at me that felt and sounded derogatory.
Lahaul Gate Red Fort
It sounded like "Abraggon". At first they would just look at me and repeat it too each other under their breath and make giddy laughter. But as our time together grew and their confidence with it the word became louder and more frequent followed by bigger and more gregarious laughter. At this point I started to become more curt and picked up my pace or tried ignoring them or asking them if they had parents or didn't they have more interesting things to do or horass. Nothing worked. It all just seemed to egg them on more and people started looking at us. I tried to put on a smile with a slight questioning look and once or twice it sounded like an old women would hold a scolding tone to them in Hindi as we passed by. I started considering a much more loud and aggressive approach (or maybe running). I was not enjoying myself or the scenery after all this and wanted little more than to find my way out.
Then I came across those 3 college kids again. They joined me and it seemed to dampen the little monsters a bit. They didn't leave but they got quieter when the college boys would also take a scolding tone to them in Hindi. I asked one of the college kids about the word they continued to toss at me, "Abraggon". He just shook his head and said something in broken english like, "Ohhh, not nice!" I took this to mean it was indeed derogatory in some way.
These boys tried to ask me questions to practice their english. They were so excited and kept egging each other on to ask more.
Inside Red Fort
They kept their camera pics and videos rolling practically the whole time (might see this all on you tube some day soon). I only understood a couple of the questions but enjoyed their company and their attempts to be kind despite the harrassing boys. The younger boys grew agressive again and I decided to try to take a more direct approach and flip the script a bit. I stopped our little ontourage which seemed to be growing with onlookers and faced the main college boy I was speaking with. I was going to show him the American Buds hand shake that I use with my "buds." It's the arm wrestling grab with the finger grab with the snap followed by the fist knock. This is where I "made a scene". He seemed genuinely excited and grateful for this opportunity and his freinds looked on with jealous expectation. We tried a few times but couldn't quite get the snap down. Soon we had 15 or so onlookers stairing at our attempts at some strange ritual of culural exchange. I tried one last time and with determination and now our pride in the balance because of the growing circle of onlookers be finally got the snap. I cheered. the boys cheered and the little monsters cheered. And in the excitement the younger boys were temporarilty dettered so I quietly said goodbye to the college guys and made a slip for it behind the crowd and out the exit before the little ones knew what happened.
From my journal:
Delhi was insane. Insanely interesting and insanely disturbing.
Red Fort
Something exciting and shocking to witness what kind of conditions humans make there homes in and from. It can only be described in extremes, kind and cruel, magical and disturbing, dirty and well...dirty, fast and slow, traditional and westerized, amazing cheap food and then Delhi Belly! Spent 1300 Rs or about $35 US (most I've spent yet) nights in the Karol area taken in by travel agency, only spent time in there office eating, or in their cars drinking (bars are too expensive, so they buy bear and drink it illegally outside or in car, just like in high school) so time only spent either in hotel watching endless bollywood shows, or travel agency, or taxi, or tourist destinations, Ghandi memorial, burial, museum, Red Fort, Billa Temple and Jama Masjid.
The Tour agents I got hoodwinked into seemed like nice guys but were hard salesman . Always hard to know how authentic someone is when there doing a hard sell. Only really liked and semi-trusted this one guy named Gopal, who took me around on my last day and dropped me off at Paharang district where i could finally get my good cheap guesthouse, food, and info. for next destination. Stayed at Major Den nice big room with 450Rs and finally greeted by people that simply wanted my guesthouse patranage and nothing else. They were also quite helpful to arrange my travels to McLeod Gang. Paharang was all the character and mess and maze and beauty that i had expected. It was sold to me by the travel agents as drugs, criminals, and prostitutes too dangerous to even drive through.
They were lying...I didn't see any of what they'd told me though I'm sure it was there. They tried many scare tactics on me to try to stear me toward the places they wanted me to spend my money on such as various businesses and markets. They even tried to sell me a trip to the house boats in northern kashmir, which for the price they offered I almost considered. Then I read in the guidebook about these seedy agents and in a particular bordered section it said something like, "and above all never book a tour to the house boats in northern kashmire, they are ripe with scams." Well I got out of that by the skin of my teeth!
Saleem was a cool bicycle rickshaw guide...through old delhi. Got his card and might have him take me on his full tour of old delhi. Red Fort was crazy and I even made a scene. Rude young boys wouldn't leave me along, real test in tough love, calling me bad words, then there were these cool and kind college kids who just kept shaking my hand and taking pictures and video of me with their cell phones. I got a little feeling of what it must be to be the subject of tourist's photos interests, like an old monk, or some tribal person. Then there was getting ripped off by fake tour guide at jama masjid. Hey 70Rs for a story. I've paid more for less before. After seeing places like the Alhambra in Spain the Masjid was nice but not as impressive.
