The caves themselves are magnificent but by the time the experience was over, if there was one tourist destination in the world I’d tell you to skip, this is it! Frustrating, feeling ripped off, targetted and harrassed, outright mistreatment of foreign tourists were the feelings I left with. Hopefully, that will dissipate with time but certainly, the worst value for foreiners visiting india I’ve seen.
Starting point was the purchase of a 290 Rupee ticket to the island which appeared to be including the Entry price. Enjoyable boat ride out to the island, Expectations were high. Great fun watching kids feeding the seagulls by hand, they were so excited.
Upon arrival to the Island, there’s an optional Toy Train to save about 700m of flat walk. Was pretty cheap at about 10 or 15 rupees. I chose to walk because the train was nowhere near full and looked like it would take a while. At the end of the Toy Train, you start the climb. This is where my frustration began. There was a line of Trader market stalls, both sides, end to end, averaging 4-5m wide each. Traders from both sides attacked, relentlessly. They woyuld not take NO for an answer, no matter how you delivered it, starting politely, all the way to very bluntly. Frustration grew as you could see the locals just hold up a hand and shake their heads. I tried the same and it was as effective as poisoning mice with peanut butter. It just grew the harrassment. There were times I was locked down with 6 of them and couldn’t even take a step without Hip & Shouldering them. Pretty much a soul destroying experience with about a km of this crap! The whole time, watching Indians cruise by with just a “Stop” hand and head shake. Hardest km I’ve ever walked, including virgin bush or rough 4WD tracks.
Get to the Gate and there’s the “Entry Fee” sign. 40 Rupee for Indians and 600 rupee for foreigners. Yes, 150 times the entry price after the gargantuan mellee to get there. Well, here’s where it gets worse. Not knowing this, I didn’t have the 600 Rupee and was forced to pay a trader a large premium to get the cash.
Next came the hammering from the guides that at that point, all I wanted to do was tell them all to #@%k Off and again, my path was blocked. Tried Hip & shoulder, then they started grabbing you trying to tell you it was mandatory. Didn’t matter what you said, as a whitey, “NONE SHALL PASS!”. In the end, I SHOWED them I had no money left and they saw AUD. Well in the end I was telling them that was the money I needed to get home and there was only $10 spare (which was well below there fee). It didn’t matter how I explained I didn’t want a guide, I WAS GETTING ONE!
OUTRIGHT RUDEST, PUSHIEST PEOPLE I’VE EVER SEEN, EVEN IN MOVIES!
In the end, I realise I’m not going to see the place if I don’t do something, so in the end, I hold up the $10 note and said “This is it. You either want it or don’t. I don’t want a guide. Does one of you want this or not?”
One beat the others to snatching it from my hand and off we go, I now have a guide! Can’t say he explained too much I hadn’t read on line but he was good with the camera. His pics were better than mine. He was very friendly through the tour. Right up till the end, when $10AUD wasn’t enough and I needed to pay more. Wanted a $50AUD note. He wasn’t getting $50 (or $60) AUD for 20 minutes work. Let’s just say, in the end, after many “No’s” I was looking borderline like making threats.
Shit, Now down through the Pinball Arcade of Vendors again. I reckon 70% of them remembered what I said, either “Not carrying extra stuff up there” or “Haven’t got time on the way” and threw that back at me on the way down. Again, the local Indians just held up a hand and breezed through. In the end, I just put my head down so no possible eye contact could be made and Brittish Bulldogged my way through. I could have accepted it if the locals got the same, but to be singled out as the only whitey and attacked to that level, NO!
By the time I got back to the Ferry, I’d decided, very clearly, if this was what Indian Tourist attractions were going to be like, I was going to take Andy’s suggestion and head to Thailand.
The boat ride back was great. Had really engaging conversations with an Oil company Exec and some graduating Uni students. Restored the faith a bit on how good Indian people NORMALLY are.
Thankfully, this appears to have been an isolated incident. I’ve now seen several other attractions and struck nothing like this bad.
If your skin color is any shade of white, just look at the photos online, trust me, it aint worth it!