About This Site…
SO if you’ve read the first page then you will know that this site has not been created by “Rickshaw Rain”…
I’d better introduce myself hadnt I… My name is Graeme Webb, and I live in the Scottish Borders.
Now follows the long story about how we met “Rickshaw Rain” (as he became know to us), how he saved us a fortune and how he helped us have an amazing holiday.
My friend Dave and I went to India in Sept 2011. Our trip would take us to Delhi, Jaipur and Agra (with the most time spent in Jaipur). Our hotel was prebooked a good quality place outside of the town. What we didnt know was that there was nothing near the hotel, except colleges and student accomodation.
But not to worry we had also prebooked a car with a driver and guide for one day and we would increase that to 3 days. I called the tour company and added the extra days. After a day of relaxing in the hotel complex and not leaving, we were ready for the next day, with our organised tour guide. The following morning we met with our tour guide and driver. Both seamed nice, and off to the Amber fort we went. The first thing that I noticed about our guide was that he appeared to be disinterested in actually showing us around, he would take us to a point and say walk up there along the top section and down the other side I will meet you there, take as long as you want. Determind to enjoy the tour we did take our time and enjoyed the amazing views. After the Amber fort we went to the Albert Hall Museum, recommended by the guide as it was raining and the museum was in doors, giving us shelter from the torrential downpoor outside.
After this we asked our guide to take us to get some food, stressing somewhere that the locals would eat – this was to be our first mistake.
No, not because he took us somewhere dirty and horrible, NO because he took us to the opposite A HOTEL!!! Where he knew the manager, and got commision for taking us there! (the food was OK if a bit expensive), then we asked him to take us to some shops – Second mistake. He walked us out the hotel car park and into two sets of shops, he walked in and said “this man will show you around”, he then joined other men sitting at a table and proceeded to have a cup of tea with them. Later we asked him if he knew the shop keepers, to which he replied “yes, I used to work with them”. We didnt buy anything in the shops, it was expensive, and the guide was getting commision. We asked to be taken to other shops and produced our guide book, pointing to the bazar that was recommended saying we wanted to go there. The guide looked at the book and said “no, we must get back to your hotel or if you like we can drop you here and you can get a taxi back” We went back to the hotel, and found we were being dropped off an hour earlier than we had paid for, but to be honest it was releif to be out of the car.
That night we walked to a small shack at the main road, which was a local restaurant (the food was amazing). On the way back we were stopped by a Rickshaw driver (most of the time we just said we were not interested and they would drive past), but this Rickshaw driver got out and introduced himself as “Rain” he offered to take us anywhere, a whole day tour listing the places in Jaipur. Dave and I both looked at each other and said we would think about it (I needed to see if I could cancel the other arranged days with our car, driver and guide). He said please think about it and call him if we wanted him, there was no pressure.
We cancelled our other days with the tour company and called “Rain” he arrived on time as promised.
The first thing we said to him was that we wanted to go where we wanted, no taking us to his friends shops/restaurants etc, no saying we cant go there etc. If he did what we wanted we would pay hime a good bonus, if he didnt we would only pay him for the day.
Rain took us everywhere we wanted!
Showing us and advising us where the best places to go were. For example, we wanted to go for massage, we showed his the guide book and he said I can take you here but there is a better one close by where local indians use, we agreed and he was bang on with his recommendation. The place he took us too was recommended by lonely planet and was very resonably priced. The whole time we spent with Rain we kept saying how lucky we were to have met him and how we wouldnt have done half the stuff we did. He took us to meet his family, whilest on route to one of the sights.
In India, some people have a fortune and some have nothing. Due to the class system people are very limited in what the can do in life. The only reason I have set up this site is because I want to help Rain have a good life for his family and himself.
He was the kindest person we met in Jaipur.
He didnt try and rip us off.
He showed us what we wanted, and recommended places.
He made our holiday.
He became our friend, and I would love other tourists to have the same experience as we had.