Oye, you are not a foreigner?

1. I asked for a guide and autowalla in English. They talked among themselves in Hindi sure that I was a foreigner. The discussion was about how much to overcharge me. When asked about the fare I said - "Teen sau chalayga?" (Will 300 do?). Surprised and realizing I had understood the whole discussion I got away with Rs 350, unlike a Spanish guy who paid Rs750.

2. My autowalla knew I knew Hindi but was not sure how well I spoke it. Unexpectedly just before we reached the Queens palace he switched to Hindi "Lets talk a little in Hindi", he said. His Hindi was bad, worse than mine for sure but we went back and forth about the palace a little. "Good" he said in English. "Now madam when you go to buy a ticket, talk in Hindi. It will cost you Rs 10. If you talk in English you pay Rs 250"
Look foreign, talk foreign then you pay foreign :)

3. A crowd of young men were posing for photos. One walked over and asked me - "Ma'am, photo please." "Ok" I said, holding out my hand for the camera. I mean they wanted a group photo right? "No, ma'am. You take photo with us".
What???
This happened five times during the day."Don't take offence," the autowalla explained, "they have not seen foreigners before. You are a tourist attraction for them."
 I must say on refusing most walked away politely. I really did not want to be shown as the foreign 'Humpi girlfriend' in some village.

4. Walking through the Queen's bath - a 15th Century swimming pool - I was surrounded by children. I had been shaking hand with them all day (see point 3). Some had come voluntarily and some had been pushed along by their parents - "Shake hands, say Hello". Just then a really white woman - blond hair and all walked in. I was amused to see a crowd bigger than mine following her. And then some of mine deserted me too !!! ;)

5. At the end of the day I was sitting at the platform looking through photos of the day on my iphone. Suddenly I realized there were some five people peering and "wowing" at the photos. "Ipod hai" "Very nice shot" I heard it all. I was tempted to shoo them away. Then I gave in to my exhibitionist side - I mean there was ready audience that did not care that half my friends and their SLRs shot things way better than this. I showed them photos from Seattle, of Rainer and paragliding, of fireworks. They were amazed and I was amused for the five minutes before the train showed up and I was not such a foreigner anymore.

For details on the trip read - 32 hours Bangalore to Hampi and back