Page and Me in Jaisalmer.... it went wrong

FIFU GUESTOSE MOTTO……..Hospitality With Honesty

”In the heart of the Thar Desert is the amazing city of Jaisalmer; we welcome you to our part of the world, NAMASTE!”

FiFu Guesthouse.

Being a tourist in India has its ups and downs. The lowest I have experienced was the complete disrespect that I experienced my last two days at FiFu guesthouse. After living in India for going on 7 months now I experienced a different side of the Indian culture. While some will read this that have visited this country and may use it as a case and point for their experience here, I have never had this type of interaction.

Set the scene:
- Two American girls check in on a Monday afternoon, 2 hours late from the train station after a fourteen hour ride. They are first questioned about there reservation which was book 3 weeks prior by my pseudo mother and travel agent in Chennai, who sent an advancement of 8,000 rupees. (the contact they made through out travel agency is the first from Chennai) Finally a phone call is made and was shown to our room. The room was exactly the same as an image of what was sent earlier via email to the travel agent. Pleasantly content with the environment set by the room we ventured to the roof top restaurant. There we are approached by the brother of the owner and asked about our stay duration and what we wanted to do while in the city. Expressing some reservations about the over night camel safari that we had booked we were bombarded with the lines such as, “Its okay you can trust me, we have been doing this for 11 years, I spoke to you agent and she also seemed to think that it will be okay. Even if it is just the two of you, you will have myself and another male guide to take you out there and bring you back safely, just please trust me.” After speaking to the man for twenty minutes, after only knowing him for 40 mins we decided that we would only do the day safari and that was conditional on the fact that we would be occupied by other guest of the guesthouse. Receiving the responses of “I guess we will see tomorrow,” with no guarantee that we would be able to do the safari we continued with our lunch.

- Next morning we awoke and were approached again and told that the nice Indian couple also staying at the hotel was interested in the safari and with that we agreed to go. We hen saw the city for the day and prepared for the day of desert fun for the following day.

Safari Day
- With the morning upon us we were now part of a group of eight people, including one British “bloc”, Will, who had been on our train and we had enlisted to also join us for company. The safari day was a blast split up into a morning of sightsee and then lunch after which the brother of the guesthouse owner decided to take a 1.5 hour nap and then set us on the camels and watch us ride of with 10 year old as our guides. When we reached to camel safari departure area we were greeted by a group of boys ranging from 8 to 20 years of ages, mine being the youngest (in 3rd standard). We then take off in to the desert and ride for an hour out to what seems a deserted village that at this time in the day only inhabited by 30 children and 4 mothers. We arrive and the children swarm us like bees to honey, which in another circumstance would be fine. However with no formal guide and following an 8 year old standing 4 feet high to his family home where there are no adults in sight we all got a little apprehensive and I myself saddened for the children. Once we reach one hut in the back of the village we stood around and were basically talking to ourselves. Finally the children were too much after one blatantly smacked Page’s ass. She was surrounded my children and suddenly I hear “NO” in her voice and look back and see all the children scattering. “That little boy just smacked my ass and put his hand into my butt crack.” With this we all left the village with children begging for school pens and money for the picture we had taken of them. It was a sad sight and with not formal guide to come with us and explain their life or their culture I had no interest in staying. To give a pen or anything our of my purse to those children would be showing them that the behavior they were exhibiting was correct and would allow them to receive something for nothing. I had nothing to give.

We then got back on the camels to take off into the dunes. I had to note that the time spent on the camels was amazing and I fully enjoyed to company of my guide. He allowed me to hold the rains as long as I fed him bubble gum and taught him American songs and how to say hello in a polite manager so that he would be able to get the attention of people far better than the hassle hello that this children of the village were taught. After watching the sunset we were taken to a lovely picnic dinner, were we finally meet our guide again with much frustration about his business logic on the sand dunes and then taken back in the jeep to the guesthouse at 10pm, to pass out.

We awoke the next day and I had ask to be take to a wholesale shop that I had read about where you can buy from the local makers. It is attempt buy the local community to take out the middle ma when selling to tourist. We were taken by the same guide (should of known better). We arrive at what is his “brothers” shop. A three story shop in the middle of the city, a larger rendition of all the other shops that are scattered around the city and take over the Jaisalmer Fort, the main tourist attraction. We arrive and I tell the people we are with to be careful of what they buy. One of the British guys we are with enquires to ask the price of a simple box made out of camel bone. He is told that the price of the box is 3000.00 rupees. We all do our conversion and start to laugh. Him taking us to this type store is a common tactic that is used by auto and taxi drivers a like but ever expected from the owner of your guesthouse.

We walk out while the guide is trying to explain to me that the sore is not the same as all the rest and goes into the villages and tells the local to make certain thing and then re sales them. I tried to explain to him that this is the definition of a middle man. He then is the confused one. It then ask to be taken to a man shop that we had meet earlier that makes his own jewelry and comes the Smithsonian every year to teach people about the jewelry of India. He takes as there while still trying the convince me otherwise about the pervious store and introducing me to random man on the street, trying to explain their life story to my. I get so upset that I walk away from him and follow the group. Once we arrive to the man’s house the guide leaves. I say nothing and walk into the house.

Check out time

- Once we arrive back to the guesthouse, it was time to pack and get ready to depart from the city by train. We are approached by the owner of the guesthouse FiFu, he seems ‘concerned.’ He is asking us why we are checking out a day earlier. We explain to him, as we had him brother before, that are booking was wrong and that we are checking out today and not stay the last night. We then ask to have the financial break down of our stay. This being the normal procedures of the hotel check out. He then tried to explain the break down, not using numbers just the number of night stays, to us in the hallway of the guesthouse. He uses statements such as “I don’t want you relationship with you travel agent to get messed up, “please don’t be concerned or confused,” and “all is paid up.”

- We finally decided to get out a pen and paper and ask him to take the conversation to the porch next to our room. There we have him write down the price of the room according the dates that we stayed. He also tells us that we had received a discount on our room because we booked through a travel agent. “The original price of the room was 1800.00 and you received it at 1550.00.” Which is a lie because or British friends down the hall were paying 1500.00 a night for their room and they booked it by themselves via email.

- Once all the number had been presented we figure out that from the 8000.00 that we had paid up front we had been ripped of 2400.00 rupees in total.

o 2000.00 from the room rate because we were charged the night in the desert that we didn’t do, because we didn’t feel safe doing so. Also night’s stay that we had had instead of the night in the desert. Along with a night stay that we did have because we felt early.
o 400.00 for the price of the day safari that we had been a part of.

- With this discovery we expressed that we felt “cheated” and explained to him through our experienced this is not how business is done. No voice had been raised till we had made that comment.

With this he got extremely upset and began yelling at us for being American.

FiFu: You are just thinking like an American
Page: Did you just insult my country?
FiFu: You deserve this because you are an American. You are only acting like an American.
Kelly: That is because I am an America

With that we went into our room and slammed the room. With in minutes our friend down the hall came in and asked what happened.

With a ride to the train station out of the question we packed up our bags and lugged them down the four flights of stair and walked out. (Strong American women) As we walked in the middle of the desert down the dusty road to the main road which was ½ mile away. Page with her huge bag on her back and her small bag on the back my wheeling bag, we walked. We were then approached by two men on a motorcycle. FiFu was on the back. He was yelling at us to pay for our two dinners that we had eaten that came to a total of 825.00 rupees.

Kelly: “Take it out of the 2000.00 rupees that you ripped us off from. Also I know that we got no discount deal on the room and were paying the full price.”

Page: “You insulted my country, forget it”

FiFu then threatens us and says “see you at the train station in 30 mins with the cops” with that he gets back on the motorcycle and his subordinate drives him back to the guesthouse.

We finally reach the main road and call an auto. On our way to the train station we decided that instead of taking the chance of a police confrontation and also wanting to be the honest ones that did pay for what we had, we turned the auto around and headed back to pay our dinner bill.

We arrived back to the guesthouse. I got out of the auto and asked him to wait. I stood out side the entrance and was greeted by the cleaning boy. I asked him to get FiFu for me. He went in side and came out saying that I need to go upstairs and pay my bill. I said no and that he needed to come down. Then a man from the rooftop restaurant popped his head out and looks down at me and asked me to pay the bill. I said no and said the bill need to come to me. Then another man, I had never seen before came down and said I need to go up to speak to FiFu. I said no and if the bill was to get paid I needed there outside were I was. Finally FiFu presented himself and the bill.

FiFu: Do you want to pay your bill?
Kelly: Yes so that I am not the cheater

I gave him the money and he presented me with the exact change that he had in his hand already.

Kelly: Thank you

I got back into the auto and he storms to the auto and is standing next to page sitting inside.

FiFu: You deserve this
Page: You insult my country and us personally and don’t know how to run an international hotel business.

I asked the auto man to go as we are yelling at him and the auto man drive as away. Best 40 rupees I have spent for a ride.

We are writing this explanation of our experience so that other tourist with not become prey to FiFu guesthouse policy and service in Jaisalmer. It was a horrible experience and that no one else will have to go through it, especially for two young women traveling alone through India. We had travel for 18 days in over 6 hotels, and this was the first experience of this kind.