- Hello
- Hello Sir, what do you want?
- Can I have a bottle of cold water please.
- We don't have cold water anymore. But I have toilet paper.
- Well, I can't drink toilet paper, can I?
- No, but for later. I also rent motorbikes if you are interested. Do you want?
WTF????
Anyway, I'm back from Hampi and in Goa now. I'll leave to Kerala in the evening.
It's not the permanent high noise level. It's not the constant bad smell. It's not the garbage laying around everywhere. It's not the hot weather. It's not the honking of cars and bikes. Nor is it the people that approach you every second trying to sell you anything for too much. No. It's that you can not escape from it that makes traveling in India challenging.
Anyway, I guess somehow I will get used to it. And in fact, there's worse here...
So, a few days back I flew from Leh to Delhi and too the bus to Jaipur. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, the state of India where women are wearing Saris and men Turbans. So to say, Rajasthan is the 'classical' India.
Every second shop in Jaipur sells jewelry. It's big here and export is the main business.
I found a guest house in the center. It wasn't nice and quite expensive. However, I didn't want to walk any further with my heavy bag. After strolling around during the afternoon, I met three Indians. Two of them were students, the third was running some jewelry business. They asked me to go with them to a disco later. I wasn't in the mood for partying and just joined them for a beer in a pub. I planed to do some sight-seeing the next day and we agreed to meet again in the evening.
The next morning, I first changed my accommodation. I found another room. It was as crappy as the previous one but half the price. Sight-seeing wasn't impressive. Jaipur has a fort, blah blah blah...
In the evening I went to meet my friends. I was a bit late so that they were already waiting. Two of them. The students. The other guy was still working, that's what they told me.
They told me that we go to his shop, have tea and wait for him. Well, so they drove me to the building where he was working. I was guided into a narrow path, up the stairs into the first floor, along the aisle into a tiny office. There he was, sitting in his chair behind an empty desk. Chai was served and someone closed the door. His two friends were gone. I didn't feel comfortable but kept quiet. We had some small talk and I mentioned that I don't want to go out tonight cos of some stomach problems (I made this up, which was a wise decision). He then turned the conversation towards government issues and how much export taxes they have to pay and asked me what I think about all this. Now I realized that I was in the the wrong movie. This neither comedy nor romance but crime! He introduced me to his 'concept'. I, in possession of a tourist visa, can bring jewelry of $15'000 into my country without paying taxes. So, what he will do is, once I'm back at home, send stuff to my postal address and someone will come and pick it up. For this, he offered me $7'500. He claimed that nothing is illegal. I didn't care. No way that I would agree on such a deal!
However, remember where I was? Right, in his office. I pretended to be interested cos I wasn't sure how much force he would use to make me sign any contract. But how could I get out of this situation? The 'pain' in my stomach increased rapidly and I apologized. He asked me if I need to go to the toilet. 'Yes', I said. He called one of his friends who showed me the way. The office was too small to have a toilet. So we had to leave it. I realized that the entrance was just next to the stairs we climbed before.
Now or never!
I run down the stair, out of the building and continued along the street (This was the only time I was happy about the crowd cos it helped me to vanish quickly). After a moment I stopped a rickshaw and yelled at the driver "GO GO GO, JUST GO". He looked surprised but started pedaling. Damn, it was a bicycle rickshaw and therefore pretty slow. They have a motorbike. It would be pretty easy for them to catch up. But no one followed me.
I'm now proud of my first H/Bollywood-like escape. :)
They didn't know I moved to another accommodation. However, they know where I was staying the night before and I left my full name and passport Nr. there. Will they go and check? Will they trace me? I was thinking of bribing the receptionist to remove my name from their registration book. Well, I didn't wanna go back to the accommodation alone and therefore went to the police station to ask for help. But shit! That sounds like work. Of course no one was interested to help me. After a bit of talking, an officer agreed to go back with me.
My 'friends' didn't show up. It was however also not possible to cancel my entry. But a Swiss guy I met in the lobby promised me that such things happen on a daily base and I shouldn't worry. It's over.
So, yes, what annoys me most in India is that you never know who you can trust and who you can't. If you ask the same question to 5 people, you get 10 different answers.
And, it's all about money here. Money NOW. Money immediately. Many people here don't realize that a honest and long-term relationship often results in more profit and less hassle for everyone.
But I have to say that as soon as you leave the touristy places, people change A LOT. I met many nice people on the train. People are very interested in you and anways want to talk to you. Great.
I'm still in Rajasthan but leaving to Goa tonight. A 30h train ride is awaiting me!
I will write more later and upload a few pictures later.
