The Lonely Planet – Indian commentary

India seems to be “grittier” than other countries in the developing world; I am not sure why. We have spoken to friends and family that have traveled extensively in Southeast Asia, and have been to other developing countries that are still poor. And yet India seems to be tougher. There is a lot of scamming here. I have shared our own little scamming stories, and how difficult it is to get a taxi or rickshaw to use a meter when you are white. I read the Lonely Planet guide, about ritualized scams for foreigners in India. I don’t know if this is as pervasive in other countries? There are apparently very common scams for foreigners, when they are looking for a hotel, or a travel office. A tout comes over and tells the foreigner that the place they are looking for has moved, has been closed, burned down. But good news – he knows about another hotel he can take them to. Or, he will take them to the newly built travel office that the foreigners didn’t know existed. The unwitting and grateful foreigner takes him at his word, and then gets overcharged at the new site, and the helpful tout gets a cut. There is some other known scam whereby foreigners are asked to work with a local to ship gems overseas, with the promise of a significant cut of the profits. The Lonely Planet blog had someone post query…”When I travel through India, are my internal organs safe?” I thought that this was a humorous exaggeration. Then I saw the Indian movie Ghajini where poor girls from a village were kidnapped and drugged, and a kidney was removed. I don’t know if art-imitates-life, but the Lonely Planet quip didn’t seem humorous after that…