If there is one thing to be said about the auto rickshaw experience in India, then it's that it’s an art in itself deserving anthropological studies if remote pacific island environments aren't interesting enough.
Ok, let me set the scene. You got the driver and the passenger. They both vary in certain traits. The driver: mood, friendliness, coherency, patience and honesty. The passenger: mood, tolerance, awareness, fatigue and gullibility. (Note the correlations).
And the settings vary too, from my experiences in North (Delhi) and South (Bangalore, Mysore, Ootacamund, Madurai and Pondicherry) India. However, the authorities are aware of these murky aspects of public transport. To contain the volatile pricing nature of the business of auto rickshaw fares, most cities set up pre-pay booths at strategic points in the city, such as shopping centres and train stations. The passenger agrees to pay at a regulated rate, and retains a slip, containing payment and destination information, from the booth. This is meant to be shown to the selected auto rickshaw driver but must be retained by the passenger until the end of the journey. Let me illustrate with an experience Owen, my course mate from uni, and I had.
Now, I had mentioned different conditions for different people. On arrival to Mysore, by train, from Bangalore we went to the train station pre-pay booth. In the case of this location, one pays a small admin. fee and then pays the agreed amount to the driver at the end of the journey. At this point, it is worth mentioning that costs of transport is comparatively cheap in India but variations in quoted prices brings to question the integrity of fair play in this liberal transport market. However, even regulation of cost does not catch dirty tricks.
Back to the Mysore situation, there I was organising my auto rickshaw under the weight of my rucksack and fatigue from a tiring train journey. I specified the hotel of stay and picked up the slip. So far so good. We bundled our stuff into the tuk tuk (i'm tired of saying auto rickshaw!!), and took off. Midway through the journey, as the tuk tuk weaved through the dense traffic of 2, 3 and 4 wheeler vehicles (motorcycles, tuk tuks and cars for the vocab. challenged), the driver ask for the slip to verify the destination (usually halfway through the journey, they ask for your specific destination, if not mentioned before, but this is sometimes to gauge the passenger awareness of the area).
After a while, he returned it to me and we just sat back enjoying the approaching vista of the grand avenues leading to the Maharajas Palace...plop (that’s the sound of the tuk tuk after brakes are applied)...before we could say " that's the wrong stop", we found ourselves in front of a 4 star hotel (remember, we are running on a low budget system, with each rupee like a spec of gold dust), with the doorman ready to take our bags and the rickshaw driver (cool as u like) announcing our arrival. I looked at my slip; the destination printed was the 4 star hotel!!!
We paid up for the journey and walked away as soon as the scam was clear. Later on Owen and I debated 2 theories of this con trick. Owen suggests that slips were switched when the driver reviewed it during the trip, but my theory is that the trap was set at the prepay both. Basically, I think that because of the mad rush to get accom., we didn’t bother to review the slip yet we were aware of tuk tuk drivers posing as hotel booking agents.
Without knowledge of place of stay or average costs of journeys one is vulnerable. The tuk tuk driver / freelance touts might as well plan your holiday. They are not all that bad. Most are relatively friendly and you get the odd one who swears, in Hindi, too much. We were fortunate but I'd love to hear stories of travelers who've been fleeced cold!
I hope this story wasn’t too dull. I’m not used to this blog thing. I will write more about Delhi and South India soon....
K.
2 comments:
Great story, Kyrea! Thanks for the warning.
You've already gotten the hang of this 'blog thing'. Keep writing and I'll keep reading.
K
Absolutely True.
Eventually you learn to deal with them on a daily basis. I even got hold of the enforcement agency telephone number (regulating the rickshaws) in case I had to call them to complain. I never used it, but could be used as a weapon when needed! I had a Indian friend in CSE obsessed with them. She would call them often!
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