Introduction
Most people in India are quite honest and helpful to foreigners (if they are not selling you a service). But in big cities there are lots and lots of scams, touts, and people that are generally a big pain in the arse to the average tourist.
Commission is huge in India (at least in major cities like Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, etc) so these people are generally just trying to make money. But to make money a lot of these people will lie right to your face if they think they can extract money from you. Tuk tuk (auto) drivers seems to be among the worst for this.
Common Scams
You get into a taxi and you are told that the hotel that you made a reservation at has closed. Or has burned down. Or the fog is so bad that the city is closed (I’m not kidding). Of course they have a great deal on a run down, rat infested, flee trap of a hotel that their friend owns.
Or somebody approaches you on a train platform and tell you that the train has been cancelled. Then he tell you that he works for Indian Railways. Then he shows you an official ID (a fake of course). This person is trying to get you to go to a travel agent that will charge you a very large fee to take a car instead of the train.
Or somebody with a police uniform on (and a fake badge) tells you that the road to a fort is closed to traffic (even though many other cars are driving on it) but he can take you (he has special permission ) for Rp./2000. At least this one gets marks for creativity.
Making money
These people are obviously trying to make a living. The problem with this is that this kind of day to day annoyance starts to wear on you. You tend not to approach people anymore and you tend to ignore everybody that is talking to you. It’s not really a fun way to travel though a city.
Countryside
When I was out in the countryside around Ranthambore this did not happen. People were much more laid back and honest. I’m really hoping as I get down to Kerala things will be like that again. Jaipur in particular has been really bad. For every 100m I attempt to walk down the road, 2 or 3 people approach me with the “best” price on priceless jewelry. I have been told that sights are closed when you can actually see people inside of them.
Is there a solution?
There is no simple solution to this. Part of it seems to be a cultural thing. Lying and cheating has become the norm for some parts of India. It sounds depressing but it is true. There also seems no enforcement from the police to help with this. I’m not sure what the police do in this country, but it is not very effective.
One option that I have tried is hiring a taxi (or an Ola / Uber) for the day. At the very least that gives you a car to get back into once you have seen the sights. But this will most likely not stop the driver from “suggesting” that you go shopping for jewelry. This is because he gets paid commission if you buy at that shop.
I think maybe another solution is to get out of large Indian cities and into the countryside. I’m going to try that tomorrow by flying down to Kerala. Fingers crossed that the situation improves.
