India and Nepal (Day 2)
Highlights/Lowlights:
- Fitting 7 grown adults (and the driver) in one Rickshaw
- Introducing the guys to bartering
- Samosas and Chai
The day started slowly with a delicious breakfast of Samosas, Indian Bananas and Chai. This allowed the team to recover from the previous night, before all seven of us crammed into one Rickshaw and headed to Palika Bazaar. The driver couldn’t help but smile as we piled in and almost had his Rickshaw rolling on it’s rims.
We arrived safely at the market where the team were promptly guided into various stores and introduced to the ‘White Tax’. A compulsory price increase for having white skin ranging anywhere from 50-2000% of the original price. It was fun listening to the guys retell their bartering heroics knowing they had still been ripped off!
After this, some of the boys came back to the airport to pick up our final team member Josh. Keen to see the look on his face as we dodged cars, bikes, animals and pedestrians on our way into Delhi.
On our way back another driver spotted us, made his way over, wound down his window and handed Josh a bottle of soft drink. I’m sure it would have been okay but it had already been opened. I told Josh not to drink it, so when we had stopped at a set of lights (sometimes people do obey traffic signals!) he gave the bottle to a beggar. A minute later the same driver pulled up beside us, livid that we had given the bottle to someone else. He shouted some angry words and then sped off…
This was one of the more tame driving experiences we had!
How much would you have paid for outfits like these?