The porters at Mumbai Airport never ask for a tip, they always ask for a contribution!!!!!

It's all relative really. 10% of a bill for food in India (which may be 600) is only 60 rupees. This is cheap by our standards, but so are all the commodities i.e labour, drinks, food ingredients.
At home 10% of a restaurant bill is a lot because everything here is more expensive, but we still pay it. Again we should not over-tip in India, so don't round off the 60 rupees to 100, give the extra 40 to someone else deserving of a tip or to disabled beggars. Remember this 'loose change' is the price of a meal for them.

I am sorry Moles, but the worst thing you can do is give it to a disabled beggar, before you have handed the money over, you will be surrounded by 20 others. The best thing to do is spend the 40rps on fruit, or food and then give it to the beggars. That still wont stop you from being surrounded by the others though.

Yer, I know what you mean. However with no support from the state (disability benefit), their lives must be hell. I wouldn't give to beggars per say, or to children who beg(on behalf of the parents that send them out), because it does just encourage more, and encourages the parents not to send them to school, but I make an exception for those who have a disabilty to add their poverty.

SMa.
just like to point out, taxi drivers work on a one to one basis. bus drivers often take several hundred passengers every day.
i consider myself a very freindly driver. like to have a chat and laugh with the passengers. but now comes the nitty gritty.
we are instructed by the company NOT to help people on and off the bus. this is mainly because of insurance problems. if ,say i were to injure my back while helping someone on or off the bus. i would not be insured nor would i get sick pay, the later because i've not followed company policy. i hope this clarifies our position because most of us would normally be glad to help people.
i do anything i can verbally to help people.
BOB

new season, same old arguments re tipping
Is this such a big deal?
I will give what I like, to whom I like, when I like.
If anyone has a problem with this............... hard luck.
It is.... my money
my holiday
my decision!
It is a long time since anyone gave me a tip for doing my job but I don't see any reason to let that influence my decisions, if an airport porter is prepared to carry our cases to the taxi stand and wait whilst I book a cab and then take the cases to the cab and load them into the cab and is happy with a pound then so am I.
If millions of others live in the backwoods of India and can live for a month on a pound then that is something I cannot alter.
For Petes' sake , it's a holiday not a evangelistic crusade to sort out the problems of a foreign country!

But , if it gives you pleasure to beat off the porters etc, and go on your way with a smile of satisfaction........... then enjoy, YOU too are on holiday.

I like nothing better than a good old beating of porter before my argument with the cabbie thats what makes a holiday

Hey , if thats what turns you on ......................................

myself , I like the feeling of Manyana. Manyana. Manyana ..................

and someone else to do all the fetching and carrying (even at £1 a time)

well said del

IMHO there are some new users of this forum who haven't heard it all before and may be going for the first time. This is a chat forum, so you can take or leave any advice. No one will lose sleep over it. Besides I think it has gone away from the original topic now, as tipping is hardly being 'ripped off again', it is a matter of choice. Sorry if anyone has been forced to read unwanted chat.

Correct, it had veered off topic. Please keep to the topic posted by the OP.

Thanks

luci

If you (or I) don't like the price.....walk away. We have ALL been ripped off for something or other when we have been to Goa which makes us more determined NOT to be ripped off again......but we will be Being ripped off sometimes makes a good story for when you get home though, my son-in-law paid an extortionate price to a kid for a beaded bracelet on his first trip to Goa.....we have ribbed him over it ever since

As for taxi's, porters etc, we have all been there......if you aren't willing to pay the price....then don't - same applies to anywhere in the world.

fizzy2 said

if you aren't willing to pay the price....then don't - same applies to anywhere in the world.

Well said

Some of the content on this particular thread has already scared off one potential visitor who I work with !

GM06
Ian

If they are put off that easily best they don't go !!!!!!!!!!
To be honest everyone expects to get "done" once in a while no matter where you are on holiday.
I remember a group of us newly arrived in Paris, straight to the nearest street cafe bar to watch the world go by. Large beers were large but they were over £10 each and that was nearly 10 years ago. The same has happened in Rome too.
How many times have you found out that the breadsticks on the table are charged as an extra ?
I remember one bar in Majorca that delivered our drinks order with a small dish of unordered crisps. My friend who was with me picked up the bar tab to study and when he saw the extortionate price of the "complimentary" crisps he prised open his young son's hand and removed the clutched crisp before the poor child could get it in his mouth. It was embarrassing as he called the waiter to return them but you could see his point.
If you do get ripped off in Goa it's not likely to cost as much as elsewhere, that's for sure. Well not unless you are really gullible.

Who made the c.d "Chillout Goa"? Think we may need it!! Sorry Fiona!

Just wondering if anyone has been really ripped off big time in Goa, apart from the very odd jeweller.
Or is it just small or petty things that don't really bother most of us.
Or has anyone been the victim of a crime there, apart from the recent headlines etc re Scarlett.

For myself , I started going to Goa for a winter hol after having my pocket picked and then being robbed in a filling station in Tenerife.
I have had not a minutes problem in Goa, with one exception of a jewellers (which I think may have been a genuine mistake but will find out in February for sure) so I feel very safe and secure there.

DaveWales wrote:

If you do get ripped off in Goa it's not likely to cost as much as elsewhere, that's for sure. Well not unless you are really gullible

My son in law sure was gullible - I think he paid 800 rupees for that bracelet we have never let him live it down.

I think for newbies it is quite daunting but we were all newbies once and we have all had to learn about the prices (mainly from other tourists). It's inevitable that we will be ripped off at some time or other. Just put it down to experience (if its nothing too serious) and ask other people what you should expect to pay for a given service/product. Once bitten etc etc

I think to be seriously ripped off you have to have dabbled in high cost items like jewelry, property, business investment deals,shipping large items like furniture and such back home. A couple of hundred ruppees doesn't really count !
Just remember too, virtually every designer label you buy is a counterfeit too. So every time you buy something both the original manufacturer and yourselves are being "ripped off".

Whether it's a few hundred or not, it's all relative to what you have available to spend and what you feel is a fair price, however I certainly agree with what you say Dave. A good point made about counterfeit items too although I would hope that most people will know that the Gucci handbag (or whatever) they have bought SO cheaply MUST be a copy - but I suppose there will alway be "one" who doesn't Fizz