When I first got to india people kept saying its important to bargain otherwise indians think they can always over charge foreigners. I sort of believed it but always bargained just to get the cheapest price possible. Now I've come to see how right those people were.
I've heard pondicherry is a lovely place to visit so it was a stop over on my way to sadhana forest which is part of the auroville community. I took one of india's infamous overnight buses to pondicherry from the ashram. It was not nearly as bad as I expected. I had a decently comfortable bed and a friendly bus driver (though going to the toilets is a bit of a mission and a bit gross). We arrived at 6 am and instead of being dropped off at the bus station, as you'd expect, i was dropped off on the side of the road somewhere in pondicherry and then suddenly bombarded by tuk tuk drivers. Now not even having decided on a hotel and having tuk tuk drivers around you is never a good combination! Talking a mile a minute and invasion of personal space are to be expected while they try draw you towards their rickshaw.
This particular rickshaw driver wanted to charge me 150 ruppees to get into town, way more than it was worth. He then blatantly admitted to me that pondicherry is small so drivers overcharge. After much arguing and debating (with me not having much of a leg to stand on because I have no idea where I am) I get him down to 90 to take me to the one hotel name I remember from my book. As expected he tells me its a very dirty hotel and he has a better one in mind. I tell him to take me there anyway and the rooms were dirty so as I'm walking out, there he is waiting to spring on me. I finally let him take me to his hotel which is marginally cleaner and a lot more expensive. I'm so tired I take the room and go to sleep. A very expensive start to pondicherry.
The next day I make sure to enjoy all the luxuries involved in being in a massive tourist destination. I eat pizza, drink coffee, find bread and devour a croissant. I also manage to do all my shopping at good prices. There are loads of westerners wandering around the town and I'm wandering if its their fault tuk tuk's are so expensive.
After an extremely early night I wake up ready to leave the tourist trap. I head off to the bus stand while being followed by loads of rickshaw drivers. A tourist with a back pack is like carrion to these vultures. I successfully manage to find the bus stop without help. Pondicherry is a place where you won't find help doing anything the way a local would. There's just no money in it for them. I get charged double on the bus for having a back pack which I know is not normal but the bus driver is about to drive off with me still in the bus so I have to let it go. He's going to accrue loads of bad karma!
The bus station is nightmare and I'm sent from one end to another until I finally find the bus to get on but the conductor shoos me off shaking his head and suddenly I'm surrounded by rickshaw drivers. 300 to moratandi, where I need to go. I find out later that the rickshaw drivers and bus conductors are in on this together. They chase you off the bus then the rickshaw driver offers to take you where you need to go because the next bus is only in 2 hours. Well being stubborn and not willing to pay the now 200 ruppees to get to moratandi I step to the side and look on at the bus that's only leaving in 2 hours. The bus driver is sitting in his seat. Why would he be doing that if he's not leaving for another 2 hours. The rickshaw driver is still pestering me. I've already told him to fuck off, which I never do! Eventually I turn to him and tell him that even if I did take a rickshaw I wouldn't take his because I don't like him. This finally gets rid of him and as he turns to walk away he bumps into someone and explains why he's angry. Instead of sympathising this guy comes to my aid, yells at the bus conductor and gets me a seat on the bus. The bus costs me 5 ruppees.
This is by far the worst I've been treated as a tourist in india. I guess the north is just as bad but I've never been blatantly lied to by bus conductors. If I hadn't been in india for a while I might have fallen for that. Its terrible how badly tourists are ripped off. It makes it hard to trust anyone in india.
This has been a rather depressing post. Hopefully the next one from sadhana forest will be more optimistic!
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