Indians travelling with foreigners to monuments/attractions

karuna

Yeah, I amended it to "many people" because clearly it would be quite a big deal to some. I was thinking mainly of foreign tourists.

Either way, it should be worth your time arguing- if not for the money, most definitely for the principle of the thing. I don't know, but I wonder to what extent such vagaries of charging continue precisely because most people don't think it's worth making too much of a fuss?

Having said that, would we be so principled if we were accidentally undercharged? Not terribly likely in my case since I'm white as a sheet and enormous, but for the sake of argument.

Nick-H

Can be counter-productive.

The more the fuss, the bigger the ego-boost of the refusal.

I wonder if they have a Complaints Book?

__________________
.


Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

karuna

You're right. I just spent ages Googling because I forgot the Hindi phrase sab chalte hai because that's what I was sort of getting at (not that it applies to foreigners, I suppose), but yeah, I guess it does just depend on the ego/attitude of the man in the booth. Booth=power.

machadinha

Booths aside, uniforms or some general sense of superior position tend to do that anyway. Anywhere. The lower the actual position, the better (or worse, depending on your view), it seems.

So what does sab chalte hai mean anyway? Booth equals power?

__________________
Reading tips, all picked up at IndiaMike : INDAX's A Comprehensive Guide To India / Dinoj Surendran's Desi Humor / ITHVC on Culture Shock & Travel Health / JetLag Travel Guides For the Undiscerning Traveller / India Travel Links

karuna

Hehe, no- although if someone could post the Hindi for that it would be great!

It means....similar to a laissez-faire attitude. Like "this is India". Accepting things the way they are. Let me have a Google and I'll edit some links in here.


OK, I'm not going to edit links in here because they all seem to be very wordy blogs, but suffice to say the correct form seems to be chalta hai, and it sort of means just shrugging and saying "that's the way things are" when you see something bad happening.

machadinha

Aha! We are like this only!

karuna

Exactly!

Although I think maybe I'm wrong to say it doesn't apply to foreigners. If the French have a word for it.....

crvlvr

Rs 180 is less than what most of pay for parking in developed countries. Regarding the principle of it, the "officer" is just enforcing his interpretation of the rule. Which could change depending on the direction of the wind.

Many people get pissed off about the dual rates. Well, if they go fully informed, atleast they know what to expect when they get there. Just don't let the couple of pounds ruin the experience when you get there.

SteamBuff

Since you are an US Citizen (and not a Indian resident), you should be paying the foreigners rate!

__________________
Huffing & Puffing along ... The Steamy One!

karuna

And we complain bitterly about it too!
It's something like £10 for 5 hours in the centre of Cardiff now [correction: 80 pence per 15 minutes so £16 for 5 hours! Wow] just incredible (but understandable). But it is £10 no matter where your wife comes from or the mood of the parking attendant, so I'm grateful for small mercies I suppose.

Spirit of Havelock

Uhhhhhhh, Twenty US Dollars for the Taj isn't a couple of pounds. & if you go as a family of five? - oh, but I forget, all us whities are millionaires, so it really doesn't matter.

One year I went to Singapore and as a newly arrived foreigner I was given a bunch of get-in-free and half price vouchers to varios tourist attractions. There was also a free tourist bus. Then the Indians wonder why tiny Singapore gets more tourists than they do! Well, the Singaporeans start by making foreigners feel welcome and not discriminated against!

I noticed in Meghalaya they don't have duel pricing, so I wrote a long letter to the Shillong Times congratulating them - which they published in full.

I just don't like it at all - sorry. The rich Pakistani businessman gets in for a few Rupees, the well-off NRI/PIO from the UK gets in for a couple of Rupees, then the poor Kenyan student behind them pays 20 times more - the system sucks. It's nasty.

__________________
Neither worry about, nor rejoice in the future (Ancient Egyptian saying)

karuna

I don't bother worrying about it.

I would if I felt it were based on race, or the race of my spouse/travelling companion.

Spirit of Havelock

Sounds like Sydney airport, where I have to go in about 10hours to pick my wife up arriving from Calcutta. (I have to to tidy the house! What am I doing on the internet!)

People say "you would pay that in your country so that's OK" - it's not. Australia is cheaper than the UK, but that doesn't give them the right to hike up the price for pommies - and they don't do it. I lived in Uruguay for three years, I never paid a penny (sorry - Peso) extra for anything.

crvlvr

This issue of dual pricing has been discussed to death on this forum on many occasions. I don't support it.

But, here is the reality. There is no way in heck the Indian govt is going to get the indians to pay $20, and there is no way they can afford to maintain the monument if all tourists pay the subsidized Indian rate. So they do what seems logical to them -- screw the foreigner. "He does not vote for us anyway"

BTW, India does not rely on foreign tourism to keep its economy chuggin. If you look at travel numbers, foreign tourists are (off the top of my head) less than 5% of the total tourists. Plus, the country has pretty much run out of hotel rooms during peak seasons thanks to the outsourcing boom. So, now its a matter of supply and demand. Do you really think they care if a few foreign tourists are pissed off at the system?

Would it make you feel any better if all the Indians paid $20 too to visit the Taj?

edwardseco

Chuck the pride, send the wife ahead alone and trudge well behind, saving some money..