"Kidnapped" by a Tour Guide In India

How, exactly, does one get "kidnapped" by a tour guide?

Not knowing the language or local customs has a lot to do with it.

I use the word "kidnapped" loosely, of course - I'm here to tell about it, so it wasn't all that bad an experience. More annoying than anything else.

I went to India on business, traveling with a colleague. Other co-workers, who are from India, warned us not to trust anyone. How do you travel anywhere without some level of trust in the people you have contact with?

I took this advice with a grain of salt. I would be a bit more careful than in other places, but I'm pretty careful anyway, so I didn't plan on making many changes to my routine.

Generally, when you visit a vendor (which is what this trip was about), they take care of you from the moment you arrive to the moment you get on your return flight - usually you can't get away from them for a second! Our host in New Delhi was not as social as most.

In India, it would have been nice to have an escort for sightseeing or shopping on our downtime, but our vendor was not available. He did, however, provide a car and driver for our use.

On a slow afternoon, we asked the driver to take us shopping. Our host had told us about a great Indian craft market in Delhi, several stories of crafts from around the country.

The driver dropped us off in the general vicinity of the market, but we didn't know exactly where it was. After wandering for a few minutes, a nice gentleman approached us and offered to take us to the market, "just down this street". We followed him to a very small shop - clearly not the large market we were looking for. We politely looked around, and even bought a couple of trinkets, but we still hadn't found our market.

In the meantime, our host called my friend, and when we explained where we were, he gave us directions to the market (it's across the street from McDonald's. In India. Go figure.).

We eventually found our destination, although we had little time to shop. But after being led astray by a "helpful" local, we began to worry about being picked up by our driver. Would he show up? Did we understand what he said about the time? Did we even remember exactly what he looked like?

Luckily, we were picked up on time and our driver recognized us (my friend is blonde - pretty easy to pick out in Delhi).

So that wasn't the kidnapping story - it just made us aware of our vulnerability in a strange land.

The next Sunday, our host offered a car to take us to the Taj Mahal. We jumped at the offer.

Now, the trip to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is located, is an experience in itself. It's about 125 miles from Delhi and takes about 4 hours to travel. By car.

It is, in many parts, just a dusty road; in others, a paved highway. You're sharing the road with other cars, trucks, buses, ox carts - and camels. On the highway. So, it goes pretty slow.

There isn't a lot to see, but we did pass a few towns and settlements. And we saw a couple of bears - apparently trained bears (like in the circus). Sitting outside of a shop, there was a person with a small bear on a leash. We saw this more than once. (I have no idea why.....)

Anyway, at one point, the driver stopped at a large building, and we got out to look around. We had no idea where we were - it clearly was not the Taj Mahal. A man came up to us and offered to show us around - he was an "official" tour guide of India, and he showed us an official-looking card. Thinking nothing of it, we followed him as he explained, in very good English, the history and significance of the monument (which, unfortunately, I can't remember).

As we started to leave, the guy hops in the car with us! We were a bit taken aback, but the driver seemed OK with it, so we thought perhaps it was an arranged meeting. The "guide" was going to show us around the Taj Mahal, too.

We arrived at the Taj Mahal, and, as promised, the guide did show us around - in a kind of hurried manner, but we did get to see it, and he got us through without waiting in line.

After the tour, he hopped in the car again, and gave the driver directions to take us to all of the little shops that he apparently had "deals" with. We went to a carpet shop, and a stonecutter who made tabletops in the same technique as the detailing on the Taj Mahal. It was all very interesting, but not really on our agenda. When we asked to be taken to the restaurant recommended by our host for lunch, he was pretty upset that we were not going to his friend's restaurant.

He had the driver drop us off where we wanted to go, but again, we had to wonder if we were going to see him again, and how we'd get back to New Delhi if he disappeared.

They did return, however, an hour later - wanting to take us to more shops. We insisted we had to head back, and he finally left us alone - after demanding money for his services.

So, we were "kidnapped" by a tour guide (who was apparently getting kick-backs from local shops). We got back to New Delhi safely, and actually had a pretty good tour out of this whole deal - but only found out the next day that our driver was as confused as we were about the guy in the car.

I'm not going to let this stop me from trusting people - I just look a bit more closely or ask a few more questions before letting a stranger drive me around the country!

Have you ever had a harrowing expereince while traveling? You've lived to tell about it - so

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