Having spent five days in India, the encounters with Indian people were mostly negative and sometimes I have to be very very rude to get away from them. Small things like constant hassling on the street, from ricksaw drivers, store person and touts. They are just way too keen to make money out of your pocket, and to assume ripping the tourist off is their duty.

It was very very annoying to deal with them, and then I learned ignoring them from my eye-sight. But still it drives me a little crazy sometime. People always short changing money to you, and when you go into goceries store to buy a bottle of water, being a tourist the price instantly inflated five times. The people in the Post Office demand a "marketing fee" to ship the parcel, yet they became slient once I asked for a formal receipt and they ran away when I asked their name and try to take pictures of them -- you have to be rude to deal with this people.

There is a "Government Tourist Office" in Delhi, and once you stepped into the street you found out there are twenty of this office, all look alike, and people standing outside keep yelling "You Japan? Korea? This is government tourist office! Come! See", and to follow you for next 200 meters.

And then in the train station, trying to book a ticket to Dharamsala, before steping into the "real" office, a guy dressed with a uniform, approached me to tell me the tickets are sold out and direct me to the "tourist office" to get the "special tourist ticket".

In the train there were few young Indian, try to dress like the coach attendent, asking me for money. After all the haggling I started to feel very very entertained to these whole "India Experience". And I cannot resist to laugh at them, their face turned red and they ran away.

On the up-side of all these encounters. I have never encountered any violence incident. They never threaten you even though will tell any story they can come up with. Like the ricksaw driver will try very best to direct you to his commissioned hotel, telling you that the hotel you wanted to go "is full", "is closed" or more amusingly, "is burnt down". And then they wanted more money from the agreed price for the ride. The only way to deal with this situation is to be very rude, with some pushing, and leave the scene quickly.

Akiko, the japanese girl I met in Tibet, once told me that India stands for "I'll Never Do It Again. And really, it is not for everyone and can ruin the whole travel experience.