Checked in and once in the room checked out the internet connection only to find it is running at snail speed not enough to upload any reasonable sized post with photos today nor tomorrow until we arrive at Jaipur in a couple of days.
I’ll limit today’s to what other titbits we have gathered from Ashok during the drive.
He has two buffalo on his farm which produces enough milk for his family and some to sell
His driver’s license to drive commercial vehicles expires at aged 60 and can’t be extended
As a tourist driver he earns 10,000 rupees per month ($200)
Every day he is with us he has to pay for his meals and accommodation around 1100 rupees per day
So if he is driving for a full 30 day month he earns 10000 rupees but has to outlay 33000 rupees and our unions think workers have it tough
So the tips he receives has to exceed 770 rupees per day just to break even!
Our travel agent who incidentally also owns the company Ashok drives for in the pre-travel blurb suggests that a tip of 300 rupees per day is sufficient and that is what we have followed for the first 6 days.
Imagine how we felt on hearing this - it was total embarrassment.
He is a lovely guy, is available to us 24 hours a day, will sit in the car for hours while we look at a monument or go for dinner. I told him I had asked the guy at the lunch stop to exchange some large rupee notes for smaller ones but he said he didn’t have any so Ashok took my note went inside and came out with a handful of smaller notes.
I have a cold at the moment so just before we arrived at our accommodation he stopped the car went to a shop and came out with two small bottles of 7 year blended whisky telling me to have those tonight and I’ll feel fine in the morning.
Long story short we will up the daily tip so that at least he is not out of pocket but it is bewildering why the car company doesn’t build those costs into the cost to the user after all what’s an extra $22 per day when you have outlaid a bundle for your holiday already.
He always addresses us as Sir & Mam something that we don’t like as it infers we are more special than him but he says it is a sign of respect- we are trying to break him of the habit but we think it might be too ingrained. He says we are the same age as his mother and father so he is a son to us and deserves his respect.
We have also tried to get him to have his meals with us but so far he has refused we think because he will eat in the traditional Indian style of using fingers only and he would be embarrassed to do so in front of us - it is a battle we are determined to win, even if for only one evening meal.
We passed an army compound so the conversation turned to army life:
A low rank soldier earns 75,000 per month
A top ranked earns 2 lakh per month (200,000 rupees)
Army personnel don’t pay GST
Their army accommodation is commercial rates less 20%
If they are killed while on duty the Government gives the family 1,000,000 rupees, and
The state government gives 25 lakh (2,500,000 rupees), and
(Don’t laugh) a plaque!
Sherry had the pleasure of using a squat toilet today and suggests that it would have been easier for younger woman and also if she wasn’t wearing trousers!
On this trip so far we have been in 3 states of India - Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan
As we drive through the country some hotels give a very different meaning to the words palace and resort even more so when they are both used to describe the hotel e.g. Agra Palace and Resort as usually they don’t present as either a palace nor a resort!!!
As said at the start of the post we might be “off grid” for a day.
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