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Title – Tourists in India samosa shockSource – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 17th November 2008
Here is a tip you can have for free. When travelling anywhere in the world ALWAYS agree the price before you buy. If you don’t you have not got a leg to stand on when you are charged the ‘tourist price’ afterwards.
Often even when you agree a price it will be claimed that either a different price was agreed or that it should be more because of some ‘unforeseeable’ change in circumstance. Ask any traveller if they have felt ‘ripped-off’ at any time on their travels and you’ll meet few who can honestly say they haven’t.
On many of my travels I have argued (sometimes heatedly) that I was only going to pay the previously agreed price or that if a larger bill couldn’t be changed, I was going to refuse to pay; I wouldn’t be the first person to arrive in a new city and take a meter taxi to my guest house which takes 45 minutes from the airport, but when I agree a prearranged price for the return trip, the drive only takes 5 minutes…. It is one of the ‘joys’ of travel.
We need to have some perspective. The key is to do your best to get a ‘deal’ but not to get obsessed over the best deal. Pay what you are comfortable paying and be satisfied with that, don’t fret that you could have saved 10,000 Dong (Vietnam), after all 10,000 Dong is only 38p… how many times will we spend 15 minutes arguing over 38p when we are at home?
I have to say I admire many of the people who try and ‘rip me off’ when I travel. The best sales people I have ever met are in countries like Cambodia, Indonesia, Madagascar etc. These are people who make the candidates from The Apprentice look like real amateurs; only the circumstance of their birth prevents them from joining the ranks of truly successful business men, business women and often business children!
Think also about what that 30p means to you, as opposed to what it might mean to them. Obsessing about the cost of every little thing can really ruin a trip; it can end up being the focus of everything you do. Being confident and relaxed about your purchases will result in you getting better deals generally, it will allow you to enjoy the haggling rather than dreading it. If you end up paying a little more than the bare-minimum sometimes, think of it this way; someone who most likely struggles each and every day to earn enough to feed their family will be a little happier, it’s not a high price to pay…
Travel should be about what you can get out of the country you visit and what you can give in return, it should not be about how much you can exploit the country you are visiting.
At Beyond The Blue (Safe Gap Year) our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop (GYITSA) provides candidates with the information they need to travel more safely and to make the most of their experiences. We examine issues such as Travel Safety, Travel Documentation (insurance, currency, cash and visas etc.), Cultural Awareness (including a session on haggling) and Responsible & Ethical Travel amongst others.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com or join us on Facebook. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.
Date – 17th November 2008
Here is a tip you can have for free. When travelling anywhere in the world ALWAYS agree the price before you buy. If you don’t you have not got a leg to stand on when you are charged the ‘tourist price’ afterwards.
Often even when you agree a price it will be claimed that either a different price was agreed or that it should be more because of some ‘unforeseeable’ change in circumstance. Ask any traveller if they have felt ‘ripped-off’ at any time on their travels and you’ll meet few who can honestly say they haven’t.
On many of my travels I have argued (sometimes heatedly) that I was only going to pay the previously agreed price or that if a larger bill couldn’t be changed, I was going to refuse to pay; I wouldn’t be the first person to arrive in a new city and take a meter taxi to my guest house which takes 45 minutes from the airport, but when I agree a prearranged price for the return trip, the drive only takes 5 minutes…. It is one of the ‘joys’ of travel.
We need to have some perspective. The key is to do your best to get a ‘deal’ but not to get obsessed over the best deal. Pay what you are comfortable paying and be satisfied with that, don’t fret that you could have saved 10,000 Dong (Vietnam), after all 10,000 Dong is only 38p… how many times will we spend 15 minutes arguing over 38p when we are at home?
I have to say I admire many of the people who try and ‘rip me off’ when I travel. The best sales people I have ever met are in countries like Cambodia, Indonesia, Madagascar etc. These are people who make the candidates from The Apprentice look like real amateurs; only the circumstance of their birth prevents them from joining the ranks of truly successful business men, business women and often business children!
Think also about what that 30p means to you, as opposed to what it might mean to them. Obsessing about the cost of every little thing can really ruin a trip; it can end up being the focus of everything you do. Being confident and relaxed about your purchases will result in you getting better deals generally, it will allow you to enjoy the haggling rather than dreading it. If you end up paying a little more than the bare-minimum sometimes, think of it this way; someone who most likely struggles each and every day to earn enough to feed their family will be a little happier, it’s not a high price to pay…
Travel should be about what you can get out of the country you visit and what you can give in return, it should not be about how much you can exploit the country you are visiting.
At Beyond The Blue (Safe Gap Year) our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop (GYITSA) provides candidates with the information they need to travel more safely and to make the most of their experiences. We examine issues such as Travel Safety, Travel Documentation (insurance, currency, cash and visas etc.), Cultural Awareness (including a session on haggling) and Responsible & Ethical Travel amongst others.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com or join us on Facebook. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.
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