Indian touts, cab-drivers more annoying than in Vietnam or Cuba ?

GoWithTheFlow

Hello all !

Finally going to India for the first time After reading a lot of posts here on this forum, I'm curious as what to expect from touts, cabdrivers & 'new best friends'.

The only Asian country I've ever been to is Vietnam and apart from a somewhat unfriendly encounter with a single cabdriver in Ho-Chi-Min city, I didn't found them too difficult too handle. They were always friendly and after a few 'no thanks' they'd usually leave.

I found them far more annoying and difficult to shake off in Cuba, even though I speak Spanish. Dinnertime in Trinidad was not a fun time to be walking outside.

Having said all that, I consider myself a pretty relaxed guy and usually try to get a laugh out of those situations.

If anybody here has been to India and Cuba or Vietnam and can post some experiences / comparisons ... I'd love to read them.

Thanks.

Nick-H

You'll find lots of how-to-deal-with-touts stuff on the site, although it may not compare with the countries you mention. It really does depend where you are, there's plenty of India where you never see such a thing.

Cab drivers like you to visit shops that pay them commission for delivering you. It's not always bad; you might have wanted to do some shopping anyway! Otherwise, just be firm. The thing that annoys me about taxi drivers is that I may have driven a hundred times between two places, but they refuse to follow my route --- not a problem for most tourists! Apart from that, not much hassle from them: you say where, they drive.

Auto-rickshaw drivers, on the other hand, except in the rare places where the meter is used, are sharks.

Brisso

No comparison Viet and India - Indian touts and new "friends" or the coincidental meeting with the "student" or "business man" in a bad suit - these guys are far more wily and persistent.

GoWithTheFlow

oh, I fully agree. When I'm shopping for 'X' and they lead me straight to it ... then I don't mind paying something extra (within reason off course). And if they entertain me during the ride ... , well, that's a bonus.

Which reminds me of the following story.

On my 1st day in Havanna (<- could have been any city I guess), I was approached by a friendly looking guy who started talking to me. Alarm bells went off in my head straight away and for the next few hours, while he was guiding me through the city and telling me the history of almost every single building we passed, I was waiting for him to ask me for money. And sure, just when I started to say goodbye, he asked me to enter a dollar store and buy some milk powder for his baby daughter

I told him I could to that, or that I could just give him some dollars on the spot and save the both of us some time. Guess which option he chose ?

Was I scammed ? Maybe. Did I have a good time, worth a few bucks ? You betcha !

I guess my point is, 'keep it in perspective'.

zoltan

In this case, it's definitely a win-win situation and I think this is a good way to make some money (and impart knowledge).

Lately, it's when the touts just demand something for nothing that they get the pointy end of my walking stick.

Cheers
Zoltan

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PeakXV

I met a small Tibetan kid on the street in Kathmandu about 7 years ago. He was too polite & nonchalent to be a tout, but mentioned in passing that his uncle had a shop of curios that he sold out of his home and that if I wanted he would take me there some time. Well to make a long story short he was indeed as you might have anticipated - an extremely clever pint-sized tout and his uncle turned out to be not-so-pint-sized dealer operating near Buddha Stupa. I bought a few items off of that dealer that day ..... and just bought a few more items off of him via the internet a few hours ago.

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

capt_mahajan

Yes. specially the touts.

carlaeb

I've been to Vietnam too, and I don't think there is any comparison at all between traveling in Vietnam and India- except that the rules for crossing the road are typically the same and equally as crazy in both! I've been around in India with two Americans now, one who visited China and one who lived in Korea and Japan, and both say that India is nothing like those places. So I don't think that traveling in the Far East really prepares you for India. That said, one of the Americans is enjoying herself and the other had a miserable trip, so I think it depends on your attitude.

I've never been to Cuba, but my husband and I were talking a few weeks back about a good comparison for traveling in Indian metros, and we decided that of the places we've been, Guatemala City is most similar- at least in terms of disorganization, touts, crowds, strange modes of transport, and the feeling that you are frequently going to get scammed. But even that is not a full comparison as Guate is very small with a small population and the touts are less persistent. India just takes everything you know and puts it on an entirely different level.

I have a particularly difficult time with the touts in India because they frequently will not go away when I tell them to. But your attitude will make all the difference, and it sounds like you are much more patient and have a nicer attitude about it than I did initially, so you should be fine!

suiko

I found Cuba a pleasure. Never met such charming touts anywhere, and Trinidad is pretty laid-back, I'd say. India is a lot more havy-duty in my experience, and that was 20 years back.

RPG

In most countries, standard rules of polite discourse still apply, and a 'no' is accepted. In India, saying 'no' merely means you have foolishly opened the door to a two-way conversation. Ten emphatic no's means that the two of you are having a long conversation and are practically intimate.

That having been said, I don't see the same feeding frenzy in India as I used to see 15-20 years ago. In many places, foreign tourists are no longer rare, and if you appear to be a poor prospect they have other more promising tourists to chase after. The problem in the old days was that you might be the only mark of the day and they had all the time in the world to pester you.

I mention foreign tourists because of course they have no idea what things should cost and what is a scam and so forth. The seller can ask for Rs. 1000 for something that costs Rs. 10, and some of the time, they'll actually get it...after all, that's 'only' $20. (The Rs. 10,000 samosa story is extreme but the basic plot is reenacted thousands of times a day in India.)

The other problem foreign tourists have is that they are trained to be friendly. If someone approaches you, you respond with a smile and eye contact. You don't have the same antennae Indians have that tell them who is 'lower class' (I know, not a PC thing to say) and so should be totally ignored.