{"id":86,"date":"2008-01-11T16:32:04","date_gmt":"2008-01-11T16:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itravelabout.com\/dealing-with-touts-in-india-and-just-about-anywhere-else\/"},"modified":"2008-01-11T16:32:04","modified_gmt":"2008-01-11T16:32:04","slug":"dealing-with-touts-in-india-and-just-about-anywhere-else","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.itravelabout.com\/dealing-with-touts-in-india-and-just-about-anywhere-else\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with touts in India, and just about anywhere else"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everywhere there is tourism there are touts, especially in developing countries, where the incentive to make money to survive is greatest.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some tips<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you stop walking when a tout approaches you it can<br \/>\n  be hard to get going again, if you don&#8217;t want help keep going. <\/p>\n<li>If someone follows you go into a book store or<br \/>\n  somewhere where you can loose them. If they are really persistent walk towards<br \/>\n  police or an official, the tout will normally disappear before you get there. <\/p>\n<li>If somewhere like an airport or ticket office, and<br \/>\n  you don&#8217;t need help, take charge of buying tickets or arranging things. Don&#8217;t<br \/>\n  let the tout take over, as they will expect a tip (and will have started to<br \/>\n  earn it). <\/p>\n<li>Be polite, but if you don&#8217;t want help tell them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure of the best responses to these guys.  I never want to offend, but I am also never interested.  Here&#8217;s what I do:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When touts approach me I never stop walking\n<li>If they approach from the side and rear I ignore<br \/>\n  their first calls, as they often walk away <\/p>\n<li>When they ask where I am from I normally make<br \/>\n  something up, or I tell the truth and say I am from Cornwall (in England),<br \/>\n  which is fairly unknown. Despite this they know where I am from, have friends<br \/>\n  there, and they are often &#8216;quite famous in London&#8217;. <\/p>\n<li>I&#8217;m always polite, but firm, I don&#8217;t want their help.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here are some of my favorite lines<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>&#8220;I am quite famous in London&#8221; <\/em>\n<li><em>&#8220;Why do you travel by train, I can take you by<br \/>\n  car, you can have hubba-bubba pipe in the back while I drive&#8221; <\/em>            <\/p>\n<li><em>&#8220;Is your shirt from India?&#8221;<\/em>\n<li><em>&#8220;Are you Indian? I thought you were.&#8221;<\/em>\n<li><em>&#8220;Why do you spend so long here? I can take you to<br \/>\n  better places.&#8221;<\/em>       <\/p>\n<li><em>&#8220;Hey remember me?,I&#8217;m Raj, from last year.&#8221;<\/em> &#8211; particular obvious on&nbsp;your first visit to India\n<li><em>&#8220;Do you want to buy the crap I have in my<br \/>\n  shop?&#8221;<\/em>       <\/p>\n<li><em>&#8220;Do you want to give me your<br \/>\nmoney?&#8221;<\/em>              <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everywhere there is tourism there are touts, especially in developing countries, where the incentive to make money to survive is greatest. Here are some tips If you stop walking when a tout approaches you it can be hard to get going again, if you don&#8217;t want help keep going. If someone follows you go into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itravelabout.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itravelabout.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itravelabout.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itravelabout.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itravelabout.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.itravelabout.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itravelabout.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}