We gradually move into Northern India, and things are changing. Visiting Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat, then Udaipur and Jaipur in Rajastan, and finally Agra, city of India’s most important tourist site, makes it a path from travelling to tourism.
In Ahmedabad we were the only white faces around, and blankly being stared at before getting in touch with a local guide who showed us the city from hidden fascinating perspectives which turned this into a good experience.
The city of Udaipur has beautiful palaces but in the old town a simple local restaurant is impossible to find and the visitors have to eat in proper isolation from the locals (and their prices, of course), having the benefit of Pizzas and Hamburgers on the menu. Unfortunately it is also the tourists themselves who have established this situation by asking for food they know, I guess? Here, also the shouts like ‘hello’, ‘yesss’, ‘excuse me’, ‘sir’ in order to sell anything from paintings to guided tours become much more frequent and very annoying, and you feel nothing but a walking ATM.
In Jaipur, tourists even more than usually become prey for pushy auto rikshaw drivers who feel fully entitled to ask three times the normal price. This concept of a ‘tax for whites’ is partly caused by tourists who insensibly throw around their money without caring much about where they are, but also sanctioned by the tourism administration all around India who asks entrance fees to monuments from foreigners which are four to 40 (!) times the fee asked from Indians. While this might seem justified by the difference in income in most cases, we wonder if that is the right mindset in terms of attitude towards visitors and appreciation of sites by Indians.
If the idea of travelling is to get in touch with local people, learn about their normal lives, their ambitions, their view of the world, you are wrong in places like Agra or Jaipur. Take a bunch of nice photos – and there are truly amazing sights – ignore all the shouts, avoid the worst ripp-offs, and move on from tourism to travelling again.
