Sept 27, 2008
2 days ago back in Jaisalmer, I stayed with Regina at my original reservation Shahi Palace , while M&D stayed at the tour’s hotel.
In the evening, as we got to know the Mali brothers/family that owns the hotel and they tipped us off as to HOW MUCH our “tour “ is ripping us off in costs, squeezing 3ppl to a room, 4ppl to a car, how every shop/rest-stop is our driver’s commission. As they put it, if we gave saddhu just 1/10 of what we’re paying for on this trip, the saddhu and his entire family would pray for us for the rest of his life! I knew our tour was a scam, but local insight surfaced more injustice. Now I knew why my intuition gravitated to Shahi.
Early off, I had felt I compromised my trip for group harmony. This was my 2nd chance to change my directional bullshit to make this trip the one I’d always dreamed of. I wanted OFF – no “ifs”, “buts” or “maybes”! M&D agreed to fight to get their money back with me.
Long story short, standing for principle always wins even when it loses. 20 min before we met with the tour agency in Delhi and 3 hours before our flight to Nepal, Dan went pink with panic raving- we all signed a contract!we all signed a contract! (Now, I don’t remember signing a contract- but I had also relegated myself to Deaf, Dumb & Numb to ease my pain). Then he said I should pool together with him and Margaret,
… to get an upgraded tour! ”. Yecccchhh!!! The last thing I wanted was to do more touristy shit where I met NO locals that I didn’t pay to meet. I didn’t buckle and he said “Me & Margaret are fine with staying on the tour ! If you want to try to get a refund, we can part ways here and you can negotiate it on your own”. (echoes of pre-trip & Regina tell me this was inevitable…unfortunate, but inevitable)
Like that, the marriage of Team M&D was consumated and I became a FIRST TIME SOLO TRAVELER (well, in a developing country that is)!
5 minutes into our meeting with the tour agent, Team M&D caved in without a fight. I stood NYC resolute towards TOUR TERMINATION and a REFUND. I’m a big gambler of ALL or NOTHINGS – I ruined my trip with a $500 knife, I wasn’t about to give in to an upgrade for a machette.
