It’s not easy to get alcohol in India, although it is readily available in the hotels. I bought a small bottle of vodka for a few hundred rupees from a hole-in-the-wall outlet in Amritsar, but it was small, and didn’t last long.
When I travel, I like having a couple of drinks as I tuck in for the night, otherwise I have a crap sleep. I started doing this about three or days into my Vietnam trip in 2010 and it’s served me well ever since. Provided, of course, that alcohol is available.
By the time we’d reached Delhi, I’d drunk my small bottle vodka. So I was delighted to see that the hotel in which we were staying offered room service, and even more delighted to see a shot of vodka was only 200 rupees. So I ordered a glass, then a couple more, signing for an amount that was in the thousands, but thinking I’d read it incorrectly.
I hadn’t. It cost my $60 for what amounted to three shots of vodka. I was super annoyed, not because I didn’t have the money—I did—but because I felt like I’d been ripped off, which clearly, I had been.
In Jaipur, I thought I would be proactive and just get myself a bottle of whisky (good for the immune system) rather than having to rely on room service, so Indira (our guide) located at an outlet just near our hotel. Another lady on our tour (another Diane) also wanted a bottle of wine.
I was told the price for my bottle of whisky was 700 rupees, so I handed over 1000 rupees in the form of two 500 rupee notes. It was very chaotic in the shop and the man who served me handed me back a 100 rupee note and said 700 rupees, not 600. In all the chaos of the shop, I didn’t argue and handed over another 500 rupees.
But then I thought, no, I was 99.9% sure I’d handed over 1000 and was expecting 300 change. Diane then said the same thing happened to her, so we told Indira, who questioned the men, and of course they denied it. What could we do? We had no proof, so we left the shop with our respective bottles of alcohol.
As we walked away from the shop, a young man told us that we had each paid 500 rupees extra. At least we knew we weren’t making it up.
The funny thing is if the price had been set at 1700 rupees, I would have paid it. I just hate the fact that these vendors thought it was ok to rip us off.
Sounds like this behaviour is all part of the adventure 🙂
Of course, Gary—it makes for a great story 😉