up and down ganges - how much?

jsme84

Hi I m in Varanasi at the moment.how much should i be paying for a boat trip down the ganges.Obviously they are going to try and rip me off but what is a reasonale price? I will happliy pay more than the ' indian ' price but what is normal for tourists.

machadinha

LOL. I don't know about current rates, sorry.

Have you considered asking some tourists around you, or your hotel staff though? Often a good source of information.

Really. Just try it. Ask a few, then take the common denominator. (A thing with fellow tourists of course is with any luck they'll all think Rs. 500 is decent pocket change.) Esp. staff won't be far off the mark though; they may quote not the exact rock-bottom price that you might get with some stiff haggling; but it will give you something quite reliable to go on.

If you don't trust your staff, casually ask around in some other places you frequent. Beyond that, if you end up paying Rs. 200 instead of 100 (and I certainly don't think you should be paying more! You might well get one for a couple of tenners, I really don't know),* that's still nothing right. Just enjoy the ride. It's nice out there.

* It will obviously matter in such cases do you hire the ride to yourself, or with a group of fellow passengers. Now as a foreigner not knowing the language it can be hard enough to arrange a shared ride; even if you see them going around, people will still try to get you onto a private one of course. And they'll often succeed.

It follows that you'll then naturally be paying for a full ride that you might otherwise have shared with others. That's not necessarily "ripping you off"; it's just how it works. You pay for the entire boat (or rickshaw, or whatever); how many people is pretty much irrelevant.

So the more time you're willling to invest in scouting around, and in seeing if you can get a shared ride, the more lucrative it may be. If you don't have the time or inclination to do so, you'll pay more. Fair enuff. Like I said, you'll likely still be talking peanuts.

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raj1985

Last summer I paid somewhere around Rs.150 for up and down rides.
Anyways they would start with Rs.500,but even a Rs.100 would be a reasonable rate.
The boatman would try all tricks to persuade you to visit some "benarsi Saree shop on the ghat",up to you if you want to visit or not.

justbronwyn

In my humble opinion...
If you go wearing Indian clothing and speak a little Hindi to ask how much, you can go for 50 rupees for an hour, up and down the ghats.
Otherwise, you can definitely pay a lot more, and the boatmen will try to tell you that it costs a lot more, but in reality right now is not tourist season, and they would very much like your business, even for very little money.

jsme84

I paid 100 for an hour without even haggling. some clown started at 500 but most were offering 100 straight off.

machadinha

For a full hour, good job I'd say Could have been cheaper maybe, but hey, what the heck. It's nice to not haggle sometimes. I think I paid similar for a boat ride on the Narmada just recently. Same kind of scenario really: They were relaxed about it, I didn't feel like arguing over every Rupee (and mysteriously couldn't manage to take one of the shared rides I saw moving around, indeed), and so having cut down the price by 50 Rs. or so I figured why not.

Meeting one of the boatmen on the streets later, he seemed genuinely pleased to see & chat to me.

You enjoyed, I trust?

jsme84

yeh it was good. I dont know if it's the heat , the fact it's the low season and just varanasi but it seems the touts arent as bad here.Everyoine isnt out tt rip you off and there is a lot of honesty around.

machadinha

That's nice to hear; and funny, many claim the tout situation there is sheer hell nowadays (I was there in the early '90s, so can't tell).

I reckon it's a lot to do with settling into the place (India as such, I mean) & so sort of emanating that you know your way around, too. And then there'll always be good days and bad days I guess.

But I met more honesty and sheer caring kindness than I did anything else on my last trip, yes. Keep enjoying!

Darmabum

There is an inverse proportion between the air temperature/humidity and the aggressiveness of touts/rickshaw drivers/etc. I kept a careful log of this during my monsoon stay in Varanasi in '06. When it's so hot and humid that a rickshaw driver doesn't want a fare, you know it's hot.

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machadinha

LOL, Darma

(Funny though: Aren't people generally said to get more testy as the heat rolls on?)

justbronwyn

I think you are both right!
These days it seems like the rickshaw men work like dogs in the early morning and evening, and decline afternoon fares in favour of sleep...
But, others certainly can be very testy. I have been here since the end of march, and have been to maybe 10 weddings (I love wedding season, wow!) and in every one, there has been some sort of fight. The boys who hang around Assi Ghat mostly work in tourist business: commission work, guiding, silk shops, boatmen, etc etc etc...and right now, they're just passing the time, because very few foreigners are around. So they drink chai, smoke and drink in the evenings, and generally get into trouble and fight. They're not busy enough, and the hot weather definitely seems to make people a lot more volatile.
This may sound intense, I don't mean that it's too crazy to be managed, it's just a very interesting time to be here in terms of observing how the locals manage the weather and the off time.

Booradley

How do you manage to be invited to so many?

Boo

Brisso

The touts pick their mark. The less confident looking tourists are targeted. If you look like you are on the bones of your arse that too seems to help. In the height of summer you are approached more often, as tourist numbers are low.

My experience was that 60 rupees an hour was around the mark. You rarely get an hour - a boatman scam everywhere in the world.

justbronwyn

I'm living with an Indian family, and volunteering at two different schools...so have made some contacts. It has been great! I love the weddings! You can always count on dirty tables, beautiful women in beautiful saris and suits, delicious puri subji and mitha chutney, and young children pumping their hips to mega pumping music.
India is so fabulous.

haydn

nice to hear justbronwyn, the only Varanasi wedding we were invited to (by other guests! so we decided not to go) ended with much drunken dancing and our friend being groped by sleazy guys while stuck a boatride from home! you get all kinds i guess.
which schools?
how are you finding it?