Although I have only been in Kathmandu a short time, I have already noticed the difference in prices for my Indian friend, Ronson, and myself. If he asked for a cab, he gets one price but if I ask for a cab I gets another price. My price is usually about 75% more expensive than his. What’s funny is that Ronson and I make about the same amount of money per month. The only difference is the color of our skin and where we are from.

Over dinner this evening, Ronson had a connection that was going to help us get flights to Pokhara and maybe fly over Mount Everest. When we looked up tickets, they came to around 3,000 INR each. I though that is awesome to be able to fly to two different place for about $50 USD each. So, this gentleman comes to meet us for dinner and starts talking to my friend in Hindi. This already puts me off because he speaks perfectly good English and was being selective of when to speak English and Hindi.

Then, we are at dinner and all the man wants is a Sprite. I found this odd and started to distrust this man. I started asking questions about what he does in the Napali film industry because why would a film maker be in the tourism market and be so aggressive in trying to get us to buy plane tickets through him. He had stated previously that tourism was only his passion or hobby or perhaps both. He started to talk about Yoga and then I really started to distrust him. After telling him where I was studying, he said that our gurus are the same people but when I asked about Hansaji, he seemed to not know the daughter-in-law that is now the director of the Yoga Institute.

I guess he was just trying to connect with me because like all my other emotions, I do a poor job at hiding them. My distrust had to of been present on my face and in my body language. just a hint: In today’s sales world, people don’t want discounts. They want the best price you can give upfront because a transaction shouldn’t last longer than a minute. You either want to go or you don’t. So, I found out that my friend’s place ticket would still be around 3,000INR and my plane ticket would be about 10,000INR. Not only that, but I would have to pay in USD. I had Sri Lankan, Nepali and Indian currencies only.

I thought I would make one more attempt at trusting this guy before I said a hard no so I order three shots. My thinking was that this would break the ice and allow this sales guy to relax and let myself relax as well. I was sitting at the restaurant thinking how does an airplane know the difference between me being an American or an Indian. Long story short, he didn’t take the shot and that killed the deal. I wasn’t about to hand over money for some crooked flight deal with a man that wouldn’t break bread with me or take a shot. Deal closed.