Independent India??

Last full day in India tomorrow - yep, time flies.... Did something a litte unusual on this trip and hired a driver to do the outside of Delhi excursion to the "Golden Triangle" - Agra (Taj Mahal), Jaipur, Delhi. Usually I do my backpacker thing - take public transportation, stay in local family run hotels, eat at local restaurants and try to absorb into the place as much as I can. What I didn't know is that this is a big holiday weekend in India, so all the transport was booked months ago. Our hotel in Delhi offered to arrange a driver, hotels and everything in between for us. A 'package' trip. Didn't have much choice and figured why not....

Ironically a writer friend of mine recently wrote a piece on the pros of cons of independent vs. group travel. I helped with the critique and struggled to remember what organized travel was like.... now I remember.
We have a great driver, Rakesh, and nice car with a/c. Huge benefit as everyday had been mid 90s/30s and humid - and women need to be covered shoulder to toe. The downside is I feel like I'm experiencing the country through a vaccuum sealed viewing pod. Every restaurant, hotel, shop has been pre-determined by a highly elaborate ring of commission and kickbacks to both Rakesh and the hotel in Delhi who organzed the trip.

The restaurants are purpose built for tourists - not a scrap of Hindi on the menu, but plenty of club sandwiches. The shops are designed to accomodate buses full of Euro-Yankee travellers, complete with inflated prices and limited room for negotiation. We're corralled and lead through room after room of mass produced products unable to escape. Each stop commands an hour of our time. Rakesh gets paid $4 for bringing us there and 2% commission on whatever we buy. How do I know this? He told me.

I like the guy and understand he has a family to feed, but I feel like a puppet to the king pin of India's tourism trade. They are controlling most of our moves and watching where Rakesh's car travels to ensure he takes us to assigned stores and does not cheat the king pin. It's twisted - we are 6 hours from Delhi, but Rakesh recieved a call this morning asking why we missed a stop yesterday that was in the middle of nowhere. Yes, we missed it. Yes, we had a flat tire. Yes, Rakesh was questioned. The network is vast.

It appears that tourism in India is about controlling where the money is spent and ensuring your network is the one benefitting - something that sucks when you're here to learn about the country and experience the life. Marketing and consumerism are wiping out India's abilty to showcase is history, culture, people with a sense of passion an ethnic pride. Instead I am held captive by an invisile man who wants my dollars and nothing more. I guess that how the word works today, but form now on I'll stick to ackpacking.

Don't worry though, I've found ways round the system and my independence is still intact. Just this morning I hired a rickshaw, hit an outdoor market (with no room for tour buses), bought a painting directly from the artist and, dog-forbid, ate tandoori chicken from a man who spoke no english. Mmmmm delicious.