The "Is This Your Ring?" Scam in Paris

The approximate location where she tried to scam me.

If any Gypsy looking women come up to you holding a ring or jewelry that they magically found on the gruond and ask if it's yours...ignore them and walk away! Chances are that while you inspect the supposed "lost" property they'll pick your pockets clean. I was walking alone towards Les Invalides around 09:30 when a Gypsy lady walking towards me suddenly bent down within a metre of me and pretended to pick up a ring. Mind you, there wasn't anyone else around. She then walked towards me and tried to pretend like she suddenly found it but I just ignored her and walked on. Just 10 min earlier I saw a different lady try the same thing on someone else. 

My Australian Broadband Saga

When I told my mate Ariel back home that it took me 23 days to get my broadband connected her response was "where the f*ck are you? the jungle?". In terms of telecommunications, I may as well be in the jungle. I got free high speed internet in the middle of the Thai jungle; you'd be hard pressed to find free high speed in Sydney.

The main reason why it took so long to get hooked up is because of Telstra. They have a monopoly on all physical lines and has done a great job overcharging Australians as well as stunting the advancement of telecom technology in the country. As as result of this, the telecom situation in Australia is horrible. My provider TPG put in an order to Telstra to setup my phone line on 12 April, the day I ordered my broadband service. Telstra didn't respond till 18 April to inform TPG that the installation would be done on 28 April. There are two things that really bother me about the initial order:
1) It took Telstra 6 days to respond
2) TPG is perfectly fine with that fact that it takes Telstra 6 days to respond to an order

When I called to inquire why it was taking so long TPG had the audacity to tell me to call Telstra and find out what the hold up was. Hello! I'm not Telstra's customer, I'm yours!!! To this day, TPG has yet to respond to my written inquiry which I lodged back in April. TPG is not the only provider at fault here. It's like Telstra has them all in headlock that no provider can break free of. Everyone's scared of challenging Telstra. It's pathetic.

Finally Telstra did their bit and despite TPG's verbal guarantee that we would be connected on 28 April, we were NOT connected. What followed after this was me negotiating with TPG to get us connected. Seriously, I had to negotiate with them to get them to complete the installation job that they had already billed us for back on 12 April. I don't understand why no provider will take ownership and simply say "you do business with us and we'll guarantee that we'll connect you". It's such a simple concept that would easily make your business look more attractive and yet no one will do it. In Hong Kong it takes 1 day to get connected. In Bangkok it takes about 10 days. Sydney, 23 days.

While most travelers won't have to go through this ordeal, those with working holiday visas be aware if you get your own flat!

First World Country, Developing World Telecommunications

The telecom situation in Australia is appalling. Some things you can't help like the size of the country versus the population distribution. But seemingly simple things like setting up a landline are absolutely infuriating. I've done a bit of research and it's pretty obvious to me that there are 2 parties to fault for this sad situation, Telstra and the government. Telstra used to be the government owned national telecom company. Over the past 15 years or so Telstra was privatised in stages. The Australian government still owns a share in Telstra today. I can't say whether it was the craftiness of Telstra or the general failure of the government but today Telstra has a monopoly over all physical telecom lines. If you want a line setup, you have to call Telstra.

You would think that since the government owns a part of Telstra and the fact that Telstra has a monopoly the government would implement some oversight and regulatory authority over Telstra but that hasn't been the case. It seems that Telstra merely does whatever it wants when it wants. And due to this situation, Australia is extremely disconnected due to Telstra's monopoly and exorbitantly high rates. The government here has authorized billions of dollars to build out a national broadband network (NBN) with one of the big mandates that it connect over 93% of the Australian population. Telecoms were invited to submit proposals to win the bid to participate in creating the NBN. Telstra's proposal only included 90% of the population so they were not included in the final list of proposals that were accepted. Ever since then Telstra has been making moves to stall the NBN and screw over customers further by raising rates.

Telstra is known throughout the country for charging outrageous rates and having very poor customer service. They also have the most reliable service and best mobile coverage, however this mainly due to their monopoly and never-ending efforts to make it extremely difficult to use other service providers who are forced to use Telstra's lines since there is no other option. I really can't see why the government hasn't broken up Telstra's monopoly already.

I've been trying to get broadband access in my flat for weeks now and finally was able to one setup without having to contact Telstra. The order was put in on 12 Apr, our provider then requested Telstra to setup our phone line. Telstra didn't respond till 18 Apr and said the earliest they can setup the line is on 28 Apr. 6 days till Telstra responded only to say that they couldn't come for another 10 days! WTF! The fact that this is standard practice in Australia is downright appalling. I know people who live in developing countries who got their broadband lines setup in half the time.

Telstra, thank you for screwing over the Australian public and leaving the country's telecom infrastructure in a very sad state. 

Overland from Koh Tao to Phuket

The ferry portion of the journey went smoothly. We paid 820THB at Lotus Travel for the entire journey. Songserm was the ferry provider and the boat left pretty much on time for Koh Phangan. At Phangan we switched boats for one heading to Koh Samui and the Don Sak Ferry Terminal. At Don Sak, there were buses waiting to take us onward. All going smoothly so far...till we got to Surat Thani. We were taken to a transfer station outside of town with almost no stores or restaurants around and told we'd have to wait an hour there. The staff at this place was incredibly rude and unhelpful despite their fake nice demeanor. I asked a guy if I could see a map of Phuket which they had shown us earlier and he tried to ignore me even though I asked 4 times after which I just picked it up off the table that he was sitting at and he flipped out. Wanker! The one hour wait turned into a 1.5 hour wait and when I asked what the holdup was they produced some more bullshit about there not being a bus available yet and that we'd have to wait another hour. Others ended up paying an additional 300THB to hire a minibus to their destinations because they got tired of waiting. I reported this news back to everyone and sensing the mood changing the staff rounded us up into a songthaew and took us to a random petrol station where a government bus eventually showed up to refuel and we got on. While we were waiting for this bus they were "joking" that we'd have to spend the night in Surat Thani. Not funny. We finally reached Phuket Town at about 11pm and walked down to the main road to get a tuktuk since the ones at the bus park were trying to rip us off. 14 hours total travel time. Unpleasant.

The Red Cross Scam

A really common scam in Vietnam is someone coming up to you saying that they are a student or a teacher and presenting you with a little laminated card saying that they work for the Red Cross and are collecting donations. Or they might be selling exorbitantly expensive toothpicks for the Red Cross to raise money. Whatever they say, don't give them any money, it's a scam! In Hanoi, a girl claiming to be a student tried it on us. She had handwritten cards in multiple languages talking about raising money for the deaf and disabled. We refused to give her money and she kept saying "Why? Why?" and took on a very nasty demeanor. Earlier today in Hoi An a guy saying he was a teacher had me fill out a survey for tourism research and then tried the Red Cross laminated card thing on me. When I told him I wasn't going to give him any money he just waved me away in an irritated manner. Red Cross is a highly professional organization and they send people around with handwritten cards asking for money so I was almost insulted when these people tried to scam me with this crap. If anyone in Vietnam says they work for the Red Cross and asks you for money, maybe you should ask them "Do you think I'm stupid enough to fall for your scam?"

Dear India

The Taj Majal, Agra

Dear India,

I’m writing this letter to let you know that you’re beautiful. And mesmerizing. And enchanting and inviting and exotic and the stuff of dreams. But at the same time you can also be dirty, rude, crass, and infuriating. I’ve only known you for 6 weeks but I think I might be in love. You’ve shown me so many beautiful things and teased me with so many more. There’s been more than a few times when I was on a bus or train and saw something absolutely incredible but was already on my way to see something else you had in store for me.  Regarding your transit system, it’s really well run and gets people to where they need to go. In particular the rail system is outstanding when compared to many countries. It is light years better than Amtrak; Nepal doesn’t even have a rail system as far as I know.

Main Ghat, Varanasi

You’ve shown me the ultimate monument to love, religious festivals like nowhere else in the world, colonial forts, kama sutra stone carvings, modern cities, ancient settlements, and chilled out beach towns. You’ve drenched me with monsoon rains and dried me with subtropical rays of light. You’ve blocked my path so many times with cows that they became a part of my life. And no matter how hard I tried to avoid it, stepping into massive piles of cow dung also became a part of everyday life. Now that I think back to our time together, I think you’ve changed me in some subtle ways which I haven’t yet realized yet. You’ve opened my eyes (figuratively, not literally; my eyes are still tiny) to different cultures, customs, and religions. You’ve introduced me to loads of awesome people. Oh, and you can cook like a goddess. Yes, I was sad to say goodbye to Nepal and my first impression of you wasn’t positive, but in the end you won me over.

Sunrise over the River Ganges

But I’m easy to please. And I was still absolutely infuriated with you at times. The overt poverty, the filth, the flies, and the malodorous fumes that are present in so many places. The aggressive beggars, rickshaw drivers, jewelry sellers. The scammers and touts. People who pretend to be my friend and then ask me for “help”. It’s annoying and infuriating. You’ve really got to do something about it. No means no. Why can’t you take “no” for an answer? If you approach me in English, then you should know what “no” means. I can only imagine how many women here get date raped because their pleas of “no” are ignored. Yes, I’m going to see you again, but I’ve heard about lots of people who are fed up with you and never want to see you again. What will you do?

Riding the Indian Rail System

India, I don’t know if you’ve seen Forrest Gump but you’re the Jenny to my Forrest. Or maybe the Peggy to my Al Bundy. Or maybe the Azamat to my Borat. Anyhow, we’ve gotten along so far and I hope we’ll see each other again.

Thank you for an incredible time.

Cheers,
Steve

See the full gallery on posterous

Khajuraho

Orccha

Teej Festival, Jaipur

Sunset over Udaipur

Thar Desert, Jaisalmer

Pushkar

Amazing fish tikka, Goa

Anjuna Beach, Goa

Partying in Goa

Hampi

Jaipur - City of Victory and Gem Scams

We arrived via train and thanks to the prepaid rickshaw booth didn’t have to barter our fare. This time we booked ahead at Hotel Kalyan so there was no walking around in the middle of the night looking for a place to stay like we did in Agra. Jaipur is the gateway to the state of Rajasthan, the western desert state of India. In this bustling city of about 2.3mm the main attractions are the old walls and gates of the Pink City, museums and palaces, and loads of bazaars. We got lucky in that we arrived just in time for the Teej Festival, which is held once a year and marks the arrival of the monsoon. Although in reality the monsoon hasn’t actually arrived yet.

We decided to do the guidebook’s walking tour of the Pink City, which was about 1 hour total in walking time and hit all the major sights. At the start of the walking tour we passed by 2 bazaars, one selling marble statues and the other fine textiles. As with any other Indian City or town, we were constantly being pestered by sales people and rickshaw drivers although they were not as aggressive in Jaipur as compared with anywhere else I’ve been in India so far. This one younger guy was trying to talk to us but we brushed him off. He wouldn’t let up and we started to get real annoyed but he asked why Westerners didn’t want to speak to Indians so we told him it was because of the constant pestering and touting. He seemed to understand and asked if he could talk to us some more so we could exchange cultural knowledge. We agreed but partially only to prove to him that we weren’t against talking to Indians. We stopped for a soda, chatted for a bit, his buddy came by, and we agreed to meet later on for a drink and possibly food after the Bollywood movie we were going to watch at the famous Raj Mandir cinema in Jaipur.

The heat was once again stifling so the walking tour ended up taking up the entire day. I had to keep stopping for breaks in the shade to escape the oppressive heat. I completely forgot to eat lunch so I stopped at the McDonald’s next to the theatre for a quick meal before the show started. Walking out eating an ice cream cone was a bad idea; I had to shoo away the overaggressive beggars who were reaching for the cone and trying to grab it. The theatre itself was a throwback to the old days, it was beautifully restored with lovely chandeliers and décor that made you think you stepped back in time. The movie was quite entertaining although the plotline was hard to follow since it was all in Hindi and there were so many things going on in the movie: fatal tragedy, business blowups, evil syndicate, betrayal, murder, corruption, a love story, song and dance, downfall and resurrection of the hero. In true Bollywood fashion, the show lasted for 3 hours with a 10 minute intermission.

I was really exhausted and wanted to go straight to bed but didn’t have a way to call those guys to tell them I didn’t want to meet. We ran into them at the designated meeting place outside the theatre. Rhiannon was tired as well and excused herself from hanging out so I went with them to Aishh’s flat in the nicer part of town for some drinks and food. I made it a point to tell him that I was really tired and would only stay for about an hour. His older brother (Ajay) was in the car as well and we made conversation. I noticed that he was doing most of the talking; the others were noticeably silent, perhaps out of reverence for the elder. When we arrived at his flat, there was one other foreigner there, the rest were local guys. They were really hospitable and insisted that I make myself at home. After speaking with several of them, all of whom kept speaking highly of Ajay and what a successful person he is and how he helped them all out. Before I knew it, it was just Ajay and I in the room, he was talking to me about his business and how I could make some money working with him. Basically he wanted me to carry jewelry out of India and deliver it to his clients in Western countries, saving him customs duties but putting me at risk. I saw through this scam pretty quickly but feigned ignorance and said I’d consider working with him in the future. He wasn’t aggressive about it but I didn’t feel comfortable in that situation. Not long after he finished speaking I said I was really tired and was going back to my hotel to sleep. For all I know it may have actually been a “legit” operation; he showed me documents and photocopied passports of other foreigners he had worked with, mainly Europeans. However in the morning my strong suspicion was confirmed. At one point Ajay asked if he could copy a map from my guidebook. It was an innocent enough request so I said yes and someone took the book into another room to make a copy. In reality the page describing the gem scams in Jaipur was ripped out. Sadly, I can no longer trust any Indians I meet on the street who live in whatever place I happen to be in. Indian tourists have all been very friendly and trustworthy as well as many shopkeepers.
The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent sorting out onward travel and catching up with emails. After a laid back lunch we headed over to the Pink City for the Teej Festival. There were probably about 2-4 thousand spectators at the junction north of Ajmer Gate, we managed to get a decent position in the middle of the junction. The festival started off slow with some teenagers dancing and beating on drums but not long after that local bands came out in full costume with elephants and camels. it was a really good parade!