Traveling withing India can be both adventurous and deceiving. You will meet all kind of people when you travel from one place to place ranging from very naive to very sly. While you encounter people who would go out of their comfort zone to help you, you would also come across people who will befool you just for a few extra bucks.
I visited Jaipur in the month of January and I had an experience which made me sad for the travel industry of our country. I had gone to Jaipur to attend a wedding and hence I visited very few tourist attractions, courtesy the paucity of time.
Jaipur boasts the possession of three world class forts which are Jaigarh, Nahargarh and Amer Fort. So this incident happened when I was going to visit the Amer Fort. I was duped by few people by furnishing wrong set of information. On my way back I decided to make sure that I spread the word and throw some light on this art of deception. Below is the list of pointers to consider when you are visiting Amber Fort.
- Don’t hire the Jeep available at the entrance of the fort: As you reach Amer Fort, you would be approached by few people offering you a jeep ride till the main entrance of the fort. They would try to convince you by saying that there are 365 stairs till the main entrance and climbing them would be an uphill task for you which is clearly misleading and incorrect. You can easily climb those stairs and reach the main entrance all by yourself, don’t get too worked up by the count of the stairs.
- You can take your personal vehicle till the main entrance: If you arrive by your own vehicle the same group of people will try to convince you by saying that you won’t get a parking at the main entrance which will compel you to park your vehicle in their parking and take their jeep ride offer. This piece of information is also not true. There is a proper parking and a drive able way till the main entrance. So if you have your own car then drive till the main entrance and park there. Don’t get tricked by these frauds.
- Choose a Government authorized guide: In case you are hiring a guide make sure you hire a Jaipur Tourism authorized guide who has the permission to enter all the parts of the fort. The guide we hired refused to go inside the Sheeshmahal as he wasn’t having enough valid credentials. I will suggest you hire a guide as it will enlighten you with a lot of facts and trivia. Make your choice wisely as they are blessed with gift of gab and can easily make their way through.
- No shopping in the fort: You will come across a lot of vendors inside the fort selling Jaipur’s local arts and crafts. Don’t buy anything from them as they are priced very heavily. You can easily get the same items in half the prices at the local market. Hold your shopping horses inside the fort else you will end up digging a hole in your pockets. This point is an observation rather than an experience.
I wanted to share this post so that I can help the tourist in exploring the places without getting cheated. If I had known these facts I would have acted wise and wouldn’t have fallen in their traps.So next time you visit Amer Fort do keep all the above mentioned points in mind.
I would request you all to share this post so that the word is spread more efficiently. Let me know if you have the same experience before. Also drop off your comments in case this post was helpful to you in anyway.
The post was pretty helpful. Thanks for sharing Ruby 🙂
Thanks Anoop. I felt it was a rightful duty of mine.
As a traveler, YES 🙂
Good tips Ruby. At many other tourist attractions too, people make a business out of musguiding others.
I know and it makes me so sad and helpless about it, so I though I can do my bit my writing this post and helping others.
Had a similar experience in Agra and Mathura a few months back.
Shared your post on my Fb page https://www.facebook.com/ManagementDaily
That is such a nice gesture. Thank you so much.
Thanks for the tips Ruby; and so unfortunate that one of our best tourist destinations in the country has such issues! But I faced similar problems even at the Taj Mahal!
I can totally relate to it, I have been getting this feedback from everyone. The only way to put a check on this would be to spread the word as much as we can so that we can help to stop this.
This is vital information to know for a newbie tourist. Many of the same practices occur in the states at landmark sites.
This post is really helpful. When I was a child, I went to this place with my parents. My father planned the trip well in advance, so that we got a good guide which was helpful at that time. I like the trip to be little adventurous. So I will follow these tips. Thank you!
Vidhya
Thank you Vidhya. This is just a small step towards spreading the word. Appreciate if you could share it so that more and more people can benefit from it.
Ruby, in the long history of travelers, their is also a long history of unscrupulous people to take advantage of them. It’s a sad but true fact, but posts like this will help others be aware and make preparations in advance. Good tips and post. ~James
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