Racism and Racists

I have now been travelling for around seven months and I have discovered that I am becoming a bit of a racist, but in my defence I would say that it is a racism born from being used, abused and mistreated by those who I put my trust in and should have been on my side when all others were indifferent.

When I book online to check out a hotel, I was chosing the hostels and hotels with not the best price, but a low price combined with the best ratings to ensure that my stay would be as smooth as possible and that perhaps I could avoid being ripped by the local hawks and touts that can be found in most airports and major train stations, especially near places considered of high importance on the tourist trail.

When I arrived in Delhi my hotel had arranged for me an airport pickup and charged me 440 rupees, the standard being 250 but it was early in the morning so they felt they could increase the price accordingly.

During the ride into town the taxi driver said that if I wanted to go to Acra then I had best use their personal taxi service as the trains were very busy, hot, expensive and booked full for weeks in advance. I thanked his for his advice and took it under offer.

When I arrived at the hotel the owner said the same thing and so I originally cancelled the trip til in the end the tour desk clerk convinced me that it would be worth it and again that the train was not possible as it would be very hard to book for me and be a very long, expensive and uncomfortable journey even if I could book a seat.

With three people all telling me the same advise I decided to trust them and so did not go for a wander to find the local train statoin myself, but agreed to go with them that day. The car's air conditioning was not working properly, it broke down twice and the traffic on the way back extended a 3 hour journey into a 5 hour journey.

That was yesterday.

Today I had no plans and as I finished my blogging early, due to being woken very early by the pigeons mating outside my room, I decided to go for a walk and randomly found the train station after a bit of walk just at the very end of the road that it was off of. At the station was a nice big blue sign saying that international tourists should go upstairs to the booking office and avoid talking to touts or locals saying that the tourist place is closed.

When I went upstairs I easily found the place and within ten minutes I got to talk to a clerk who confirmed that there were several trains that left for Acra each day, that a luxury train including a meal and air conditioning was only 400 rupees each way and that I could book as many tickets as I wanted for whichever day I wanted, including today, quickly and easily then and there, and if I booked in advance and didn't mind slumming it a bit I could get a ticket for a normal train even cheaper.

My hotel charged me 4200 rupees for a return journey that was long, boring, hot, without working air conditioning and without a meal. Five minutes up the road I coud easily get a ticket for 800 that would not be delayed by traffic and offered all the luxuries and comforts that the stuck in traffic private car ride would not.

When I went back and confronted the tour desk and hotel owner they were both very blazais about it all, suggesting that it was my fault, denying that they put any pressure on me to book with then, denying that they blatantly lied about how difficult or expensive the train was and refused to give even a partial refund for their treachery.

And remember all this was from a hostel voted #1 in Delhi in 2007 and was still receiving favourable reports when compared to other places in Delhi.

People who claim that racism is bad and wrong are often suffering from the bleeding hearts syndrome and are people who have never been on the rough end of trying to deal with the locals fairly and honestly. I believed that the hotel I was staying in would offer good advice and failing that would at least offer some apology and partial refund if I was unsatisfactory with their tours or advice given, but what I got was a rude brush off from a staff who unanimously gave me the go-tell-someone-who-gives-a-fuck atittude.

Asuming that the people who gave the hostel good reviews had even one brain cell between them it is highly likely that they gave it a good rating after visiting other places and feeling that this place was good, yet under my analysis it is not good just possibly better than the other local hostels and hotels.

Thus it feel that it is unwise to trust most indians, that I do not want to get close to most indians, that I do not want to visit India again and that if I never saw an Indian again it would not be a bad thing. If that makes me a racist then so be it, but I say that they started it and when confronted with their own lies and unscrupulous behavoir were neither apologietic, understanding nor made any effort to remedy the situation so that I would leave on happier terms.

All men may be made equally, but by their behavior, beliefs and attitutude to those around then some show themselves to be lesser men than others.

If as a race of people you live off lying and cheating others then do not expect to be granted the same sympathy or compassion that those from other races benefit from, and especially not from the very people from whom you treated unfairly in the past simply by because you feel you want it. Instead be ready to receive nothing short of contempt, distrust and dislike.

Unless and until you as a race can first learn to treat others fairly I feel you have no ethical or moral right whatsover to complain when you receive less than an equal treatment away from home soil.

I began my travels with my eyes and heart open to all and a dislike for no race, only individuals. However time and again I have been cheated and lied to and when I find out that far from being unexpected this behavoir is considered normal I can only feel that those responsible are sadly not a disgrace to their race but instead a reflection of them as a whole.

Google Analytics

Out of curiosity I opened the date range on my blog analytics to see who has been reading it since I first started travelling.

Over 40% of my traffic was directed (not via a random search ) only 40% were repeat readers, it has been viewed in 96 countries from around the world and specifically in 48 states of the USA, however finally more than 60% of all hits was from UK based. Finally there was an most frequent rate of 10 hits per day.

Maybe not world shattering figures, but fairly impressive none the less, especially as the travel blog is all about me and my experiences and not just name dropping for the sake of raising awareness, though maybe I should do a little more of that in the future?!?

I also noticed the other day that I had reached the end of my T-shirt, meaning that of the 80 or so cities that I originally planned to visit, ending with Beijing, have now been passed and so I am truly and officially on my way back home.

On the road I decided that I could not hang around long enough to sort out a visa for Russia, although now that I am here in Beijing I probably could, and so arranged a few flights to hop back to blighty via Delhi, Dubai, Cairo and these are all that I have left to visit.

It has been an absolutely amazing adventure, despite the frequent showers, I have met some wonderful people, some friendly people and a few that now hold a special place in my life and always will come what may.

I am not sure how best to write up the book when I return, with a part of me wants to make it into a fictional fantasy storybook for kids, but I know that I need it to have some sort of edge if it is going to be snapped up by a publication house.

If my efforts fail to impress the powers that be, then I will go self publishing, at least for this one book, and so the only thing I am realy worried about screwing up is the dedication page, I want it to mean something and let those who form a part of it know without ruining their public anonimity which I have up til now done my darnest to maintain.

Something along the lines of a simple "to those who I met and made me feel especially welcome in distant shores a big thanks and you know who you are" doesn't quite seem to cut the mustard for me but still it might be the best way to phrase it.

Hidden costs of travel

When I planned my trip around the world I did my best to budget for the trip. Talking to friends, travel guides and the internet allowed me to check out the costs of flights, accomodation, food and then I added an extra allowance for trips and luxuries and figured out how much I thought I would spend, but my experience travelling has taught me that these were all pie in the sky prices are are not to be counted upon.

One of the big pulls of visiting further afield places is the lure of the inexpensive costs of foreign countries, and knowing that countries in the Orient, Africa and South America are considered by western standards to be poor tricked me into thinking that it therefore follows that it should be cheap to travel there, but this has rarely been the case.

True it is cheaper than travelling through countries like Australia, the USA or central Europe but cheaper does not mean cheap, and I have decided to jot down a few of the many reasons why this is not always the case.

Pre-travel costs. Ignoring all the private costs that people have to pay to keep their normal lives going on back in their own home town ( ie, rent still needs to be paid whether you are home or not and not everyone gets paid holiday, kennel fees for domestic pets, etc. ) there are often a slew of small little costs that creep into the mix before you even step food outside your own doorstep such as visa's, travel inocculations, travel guides, power adapters, mosquito repellent, travel insurance and foreign travellers cheques.

Few people are neighbours of airports and thus getting to an airport, and on the return leg getting back from the airport also is a small but above zero cost.

Arriving by flights. Almost without exception the cheapest flights to a country require either a rediculous arrival time, a stop over in different city or arrival in an airport so far away from anything that you want to visit that it will cost extra to get from this far flung airport to the city centre.

Then you have to include the travel agency fee, flight tax, airport departure tax, possible business of first class upgrades, onboard food or drinks surcharge, fuel surcharge and headset surcharge, some of these being optional and others not.

Once you reach your chosen city, by whatever means of travel you chose, you still have to get from the point of arrival to your hostel or hostel which can mean either a privately rented car ( plus yet more insurance and petrol ), public transport or a private taxi.

Not every city has a decent public transport system, with even fewer having decent evening / night time schedules, and the unless you are lucky enough to have arrived at an airport or train station that has its own fixed fare taxi rate to reach your accomodation you wil often have to haggle with a local taxi driver who'se ability to speak or understand English often evaporates the moment you sit down.

Metered taxi drivers are notorious for taking a longer route than necessary or getting themselves stuck in traffic to rack up the fare and I have even heard of some taxis charging an airport carpark surcharge or highway toll surcharge.

Bargaining for a fixed fare is often even more expensive as you have you have no idea exactly how far away your destination is thus how much is a fair price and on more than one occasion I have been screwed over by not fully understanding the exchage rate and ending up paying an arm and a leg for a ten minute ride. My worse personal experience was paying over £80 for a fifteen minute taxi ride to a hotel from an airport and then it ended up being the wrong hotel.

As a bit of side advice, more often than not taxi drivers in foreign cities are not to be trusted and it is best if you dont even try to talk to them as they will often try to first befriend you and then either convince you to change hotels to one their friend owns ( to receive a commission ), take a detour to their friends shop or talk you into using them to visit a place of interest with them that wil be much more than if you just picked up a different taxi from outside your accomodation especially if they know that you are an easy touch and have already been fleeced on the fare.

Hotels or hostels are the next place where costs both upfront and hidden rack up. As few people want to visit a place during their rainy season, most hotels and hostels know this and have a high season increment.

The cheaper hostels and guest houses are often extremely hard to reach as few taxi drivers will admit to knowing where they are and more than a few are very badly sign posted so you can end up going round and round in circles trying to find them.

Generally the cheaper places will also be the ones furthest from the things that you want to visit and so even if you save a buck or two on the room you end up paying way more getting to and from each day by taxi, and further out also often means off the edge of the crappy tourist map that you managed to pick up someplace.

Forgetting inclusive resorts / hotels, I have found that the price you see is rarely the price you end up paying. Single person supplements for rooms have been the bain of my hostel and guest house experience and I have had to pay double or treble for a two or three bed room on more than one occasion.

Without being able to speak the local language and have an intimate knowledge of every last cheap b&b means that you end up staying in the ones you know about or find while wandering around, which are rarely the cheapest available.

Then come the in room extras. Wanting a room that is not next to a power generator a noisy elevator or at the top of the a long flight of steps increases the price, as do most of the following :- air conditioning / fan ( sometimes a must if you actually want to get any sleep ), bed sheets, towel, tv, refrigerator, locker, wifi access or private bathroom.

Plenty of places I have been too have asked for either leaving a credit card, passport or cash as a key deposit, and I hate having to wait hours or pay extra to arrive outside of standard office hours. The cheapest places rarely have internet access so you cannot book in advance, except by phone, and will be fully booked if you just turn up and try to check in, or only have one room left which will be their delux room that is double ore treble their standard room rate.

Food and drink is the last of the big unexpected hikes that you are likely to face

I will not argue wherever you can find people you will also come across a dingy market stall or street corner vendor that will sell you a plate / bowl of something nondescript and often unidentifyable that passes for life sustaining food, but while it is certainly adventurous to try to local gourmet delights, my general advice is to avoid such places unless you have a cast iron stomuch or enjoy having diarrhea.

Similarly it is often wise to avoid drinking directly from cans, using ice cubes or eating fresh salad that has been washed in local water that is usually not as pure as your body is expecting.

So once you recover from your first bought of "trying the local delicacies" your choices are slim, either stick to something your body is used to, like McDonalds or Wendy's, risk even more food poisoning or eating in places that are a little more upmarket and thus more expensive than where many of the locals eat.

Visits to special sites of interest or city tours can be done a number of ways, booked in advance through an agency, by hiring a taxi or tuk tuk for a day or just getting a map and going it alone but in the end they all seem to cost more than they should and each have problems.

Travel agencies are usually expensive and often mean waking up early to then spend ages waiting around to form up into big groups with other travellers where you are then taken to a carefully selected number of places at specific times, often via comission based shops, markets or restaurants, and listen to some tour guide who will tell you plenty of useless information and skip over the bits that you most want to know all about.

Hiring a private taxi or tuk tuk for the day can be as expensive as an organised tour if you want a driver that speaks your language and has a god knowledge of the sites of interest.

Cheaper drivers either dont speak the language or have little or nothing to say about where you are visiting and often they either make stuff up or remain mute when questioned, and few are able to say if the place will be open on the day that you arrive or how much the entrance fee will be if any.

I have noticed that outside of Europe there are often special discounts on entrance fees for locals, sometimes even no charge at all or just a fraction of what a tourist is forced to pay, and without a guide often you have to queue up for longer and then even once you are in you then have to find your own way around and maybe miss some of the sites relevant or important features.

Doing it totally on your own is the cheapest option is almost always cheapest but the one more open to frustration and dissapointment. Although some places have taxis or tuk tuks everywhere and all offering a fair price, other places only have taxis in a few places or have those who deliberaretly raise their prices knowing that almost all of their passengers will be rich tourists willing to pay over the odds.

Wandering around trying to find my way to or from someplace guided by a map that is out of date, geographically inaccurate and without street names that make any sense have left me at my wits end on more than one occasion and at times to escape from the pouring rain or scorching heat I have ended up jumping into the first taxi that I came across, regardless of price, to either find a way back to civilization and familiar streets.

Finally there is the worldwide trick / habit, of not actually having any price labels on produce and thus a travellers local knowledge and bargaining skills are put to test on a regular basis.

Everything from a postcard, bottle of water, taxi fare, entrance fee, black market item increase to asking ( bribing ) the police / government officials to do their job faster than an ice-age eternity often involve having to negotiate with a local who has the clear advantages of not only knowing the cost price but knowing where the balance between supply and demand actually rests and thus can set their price from a fair fraction markup to as much as their greed feels they can extort from the hapless of unfortunate visitor.

There is no better teacher than experience for educating a person on exactly how best to haggle, but looking poor, speaking the local lingo, asking around ( from a neutral person ) for what the going rate, hiding your desire / desperation and never accepting their first offer no matter how reasonable it may seem are all good starting points.

Also don't be fooled by their appearance as they are paying the same game as you and no doubt will be looking much poorer than they actually are. If you are finding it hard to believe, just think about how a girl who works in a restaurant or street stall during the day transforms when its nighttime and she is out with her friends or hitting the nightclubs / pickup joints.

The same woman who seemed poor, dirty and wearing cheap clothes one minute suddenly looks like a thousand bucks when decked out in fancy clothes, shoes, hair done up and makeup the next.

The golden rule to remember is that no matter how friendly a person appears, or who referred them, no one goes into business to lose money and a person will never sell an item or service less than it costs them to offer so they will always be looking to make a profit, and of course the bigger the profit the better for them.

I could go on, but I think you have got the point. All in all, travel can be a wonderful and mind expanding experience but it is never as cheap as it should be and you would be wise to ensure that any budget is both well researched and never the full extend of how much you can afford to pay, merely an approximate guideline on how you plan to proceed with enough in reserve to pay for those unexpecting hidden costs that hit you from left field.

Defective WiFi Dongle

I am very unimpressed with the wifi adapters.

This is the second time in six months that mine has died on me, making them a very expensive way of keeping in touch using a laptop and I am beginning to regret not spending a few extra dollars to get a laptop with one pre-installed.

I have got a few photos and details to post, but with the wifi down and all the local internet places not wanting me to use my own laptop it is kinda hard to send them.

Every day I am amazed at how cheap something are and then a short time later how expensive other things can be.

The new hotel I moved into only cost US $23 dollars a night but they want to charge me US $5 per hour to use their internet, even though there is a 24 hour internet place 4 doors down on the same road where an hour is less than US $1.

Its insane logic, plus why should a internet cafe have a separate price for locals and tourists to use their computers ... is it like a tourist will use twice the electicity or something, I mean come on ... what's the crack here?