I am lunch …

June 19, 2016 Derek

I have mentioned a couple of times about my experiences arriving at new cities. The challenge of not knowing what the going rate is for taxis, new money, not knowing the area, plus carrying a large rucksack ... clearly I am a newbie and a lunch ticket for many touts and prone to scams. I read this post on travelfish.org which is a great site for independent travelers and referring to it more as I move to the more less "tour packaged" areas. But this is not the scam that I have across the most.  The one is buying a ticket and not getting dropped off at thee right location. On travel fish you can do a search for scams and come up with a few hits.  Here is another warning post, which is where I a heading next.  In Bagan .. I know something was up and started to walk.  I did not know it was 6km away, I thought we were in New Bagan.  Anyway ... I am lunch and we are lunch for many folk who are eking out a living.  This is the fact.   But a couple of parting thoughts and shares.  

1) One interesting comment from Jai in Ranong when she dropped me off for my cross border crossing to Myanmar was that her mother told her and she repeats this to her colleagues. If your are kind and helpful people will come back, and that is when you make your money. Not to take advantage of the first instance. With the internet and online review sites, the places I have been to are very conscious of getting good reviews on these sites. But the reality is ... I AM LUNCH. These places are developing and touts are employed to get traffic and business. They get paid for getting people into taxis and buses.  They also have relationships with other local businesses.  This is just how the business cycle and the food chain works.   However, I remember when I failed to convert to a tout for his bus to Thailand from Yangon. He later came up to me (while I was taking photographs of the bus terminal) and told me where to go for the right bus. Humanity is there, or maybe he thought I was a bit too professional with my photo-taking, it does not matter, we all know what is right and wrong.  As a traveler we just need to be more patient and more knowledgeable.

2) Come prepared and rely on your instincts ... which means ... ask where you are going to be dropped off and ask, and be prepared to walk.  There will be always someone else more than happy to take your money later down the road.  But hey .. this is what it is all about ... coming up with some unique experiences which you would not get and part of the journey and pleasure to share stories.

3) The amount of money we are talking about is a couple of dollars, but I know it is the principle. But the amount of scams in western countries be that politics or business is just a little more sophisticated and governed by laws and strictness, this is just a little raw and in-your-face.