The excess is only 500 Aussie Dollars, not too bad we think until just after signing the contract when we realise that this amount only includes accidents involving another car. Therefore if we were to hit a tree, or a kangaroo or a Car Rental shop owner then the car excess would actually be AU$4000. Slight difference. No worries, if we have a prang all we have to do is force another car off of the road as well to make ourselves a healthy saving!
How can a hotel which only cost us £4 for the night be a rip off? Well, it was double the price of everywhere else in the country with half the amenities, and was rather too similar in style to a prison cell to really make it to the top of the Michelin guide!
Now don’t get me wrong, there isn’t really any fee that isn’t worth what you get inside but the mark up from 10 Rupees for locals and 700 Rupees for tourists is a little bit steep. Especially as the English guys of Indian descent in front of us get in for the cheap rate. I am sure there wouldn’t be any sort of trouble back home if we charged one rate for white people and one rate for anyone else! Mind you if Shah Jihan had built his testament to eternal love in the centre of England it would undoubtedly now be the Vodafone Taj Mahal with a branch of MacDonalds just inside the entrance!
Great city, very expensive beers. £7 for a pint of Guinness would suggest that the barman is actually having it poured in Dublin and then flown over on Concorde. Still, they do have some funny happy hour times which mean that you can in theory move from one bar to another without paying full whack anywhere. There is a reason why a lot of travellers have come straight from the Student world!!!
“Fifty Baht each to get back to our resort”. That sounds reasonable so me, Nicol, Gareth and Sara climb into the taxi and head on back…or so we think until we end up in the middle of nowhere and the guy wants another fifty baht to get home again. Clever, huh? After much arguing with him and his two brothers who just “happen” to be along for the prolonged ride, we agree to this money only to give him nothing other than the finger when we get back to the resort. As he threatens to come back and sort us out, we think no worries, we will just go and hide in our beach side accommodation…now then, who has the keys? Doh!
Coming out of a station onto Indian streets that are not exactly well trodden footsteps of the western world, we are clearly fair game for a fleecing and so Taxi drivers are cueing up to take us to the hotel we have requested. “Only 100 rupees for you sir” It’s only 100 metres down the road as well!!!
Bananas and Oranges, not a gold ingot. Five weeks of India under our belts and they can still stitch you up. The brilliant thing is though, the most you get ripped off for is about £1.50 - half the price of a Saturday night kebab back home. You have to love it!
Some people are just experts. This guy could openly charge one of our quartet a shitload of commission on currency exchange and another one nothing at all. He could also organise car trips at extortionate prices and then claim extra when you get back late because his driver has held you up as he tries to steal your watch!
Ok, this one kinda doesn’t count as we somehow out-fleeced the fleecer but still…15 cents a mile. You only need 6000 miles to get across the USA and back, no problem. That statement could only be true if one was using the Lonely Planet map (whatever fecking use is a road map that only has straight-line distances!?). Anyway, we took 10,500 miles from Pacific to Atlantic and back again and good ol’ Tony had whacked one too many stiffs that week and had forgotten about the extra miles charges. Some people are just not experts.
£40 for a ride from the airport to the hotel sounds bad enough. At £40 for a taxi from Mumbai Airport to the hotel (which we are also being ripped off for courtesy of STA) the price is bloody incredible. An hour minibus ride should not cost the same as the combined total of 20 nights accommodation!!!