Please note: The people of Kashmir cannot be trusted. There
is simply no other grouping of people in the world who will
go to greater lengths to cheat you of your money.
[There are 9 posts - the latest was added on Tue 25 May, 22:42]
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Keep your subjective misinformation off this helpful site.
hello
have you been to kashmir..????
please tell me, us your story...
cheaters can be found all over the world,
more or less.
do not talk bad about the entire population of
kashmir.
i have met some of my very best friends there.
bye bye
Sorry, I know it is racist to say that all people from
Kashmir are cheats. But in my experience most of them are.
I agree with Barge. Also it is a very simplistic, naive
statement from perhaps a naive or inexperienced traveller. I
had one minor problem which I resolved as it was just a
matter of being alert and knowledgeable about local prices.
In general I found the Kashmiris to be honest, hospitable
and generous.
Kashmiri touts in Delhi are absolutely ruthless,
befriending people and screwing them out of every cent they
can. Mind you they have to pay a lot of money to the local
mafia to work in Paharganj but they certainly aren't aiming
on word-of-mouth recommendations to get business. They suck
you into going to Kashmir and then keep you practically
prisoner in houseboats until you pay some extortionate sum
for carpets. In fact Kashmiri handicraft sellers across the
tourist spots of India are nearly identical in their hard-
sell tactics and ruthlessness. Why are Kashmiris like this?
Paetly I think as Muslims they're a little more aggressive
business-wise. Partly because the war in their state has
reduced what was once one of the richer parts of India to a
human-rights-abuse hellhole. Young Kashmiris have to leave
the valley to make a buck, and the skills earned during
Kashmir's tourism heyday leads them to making moeny off
foreign tourists.
The usual knee-jerk PC `folks are folks' argument doesn't
count here. The Kashmiris that tourists are likely to meet
are almost without exception out to take you for a ride.
You think they're bad? Try the Israelis
It may be going a bit far to say ALL Kashmiris are
scoundrels, but there sure are a lot of them that can run
with the best con artists in the world. When you consider
the history of the region, and that they've been double-
dealt to so many times by everyone around them, I guess it
makes some sense that they feel it's legit to rip off
whoever they can, whenever they can. Comes from being the
pivot point of power politics and living with a siege
mentality for too long. As for all the gabble about it
being racist and so on to make such an assertion, what
rubbish. Anyone who is stuck on the political correctness
of the matter over the experience of so many travelers over
so many years is guilty of sloppy thinking and the denial
of common sense. It's the kind of fashionable cant that
makes Westerners look like idiots in the eyes of many third
world people. What you do is what you become known for; the
world is what it is, not the idealistic construct of some
flatulent limousine liberal.
I don't think Kashmiri history has anything to do with the
fact that they are conmen supreme. I doubt if any of these
scam artists is educated enough to know their history. I
think it's cultural. I think all of us know and understand
that the world is not an ideal place. The problem I have is
with the fact that these kashmiris don't realize that they
are biting the hand that feeds them. In this day and age of
internet, it's only a matter of time that people will be
aware of the shennanigans of the touts, and just pass up the
hassle of going to Kashmir.
Jim seems to think I'm making an excuse for Kashmiri
crooks. Not at all; a possible explanation of HOW they got
to be such notorious scamsters, sure; but not an excuse.
Jim thinks it's "cultural." I guess I was assuming too much
to think that everyone understands that history is a major
influence on the "culture" and national character of a
people, regardless of whether or not the people in question
are formally educated in their own history, or even
literate in thier own language. Ho-hum, Jimbo; let us know
when you get your mind up to speed, will you, old boy? And
do try to restrain these outbursts of common vitriol.