There are some days when I get really frustrated with the tuk-tuk guys. Their single goal in this life is to rip off every single foreigner. No. Joke. We have two in particular that sit right outside the gates of the hotel. They charge at least double and won't budge. One we call 'crazy eyes' because his eyes are so misaligned I don't even know what the correct term would be to describe it.
Just because I'm white and I'm female, does not......let me repeat... does not mean you can rip me off. I know how many kilometers it is to from point A to point B and I know that I should not pay more than 10 Rs/Km - which is even more than the meter would charge if they would happen to use it which they do not because it "doesn't work". Of course it doesn't work. I've called these guys out on it so many times and they eventually come down when I give them my price or tell them to use the meter (okay, that's only happened a couple times, but it sounds good, right?). Some days I give in simply because I hate arguing the price. I might sound like a prude or really shallow to be arguing less than $1, but it's the principle of it. They come to America, they pay they same price. We go to the Taj Mahal, we pay $20, they pay less than 50 cents. How does that work out?
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| Notice it's "not working" |
One night, Krishnan went outside to negotiate a tuk tuk rate back to our hotel. The drivers got very angry once they noticed he was with us. They admitted that they would have charged more if they knew he was with foreigners. How nice of them.
Now that I've completely bashed the tuk-tuk drivers, let me point out that we have a group that takes us back to the hotel from the school. They are always really nice and ask if we will be needing a tuk tuk the following day. We don't have to negotiate the price anymore, they know how much we pay. It's a nice change of pace from arguing.
1 comment:
Once I learned the local rates on things like that I just hand them that and walk away...you know since I don't understand them or anything. LOL Also in china I would demand they use the meters...if said no I got out...a couple times opening the door of the car while moving. (I wasn't going to jump I promise) but its amazing how well they work when you leave! And in cambodia we hired a tuk tuk thing for early am so we could see the sunrise on the temple, he tried doubling the price we agreed to so we got off the tuk tuk and then paid the next guy less than the original price to the first guy...because he was happy to have work! then we tipped him more than the jacked up rate of the other guy because we liked him. :)
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