"End of the tongue for a guide" is an old saying that is still relevant today. Sometimes a request for help results in the interest of a person who does not want to help us at all. Then what?
A holiday trip abroad gives us the opportunity not only to rest and gild our skin with the rays of the sun that warms more than in Poland, but also to buy various kinds of souvenirs. We often want to buy something valuable very cheaply, which is fully understandable - just like the fact that the seller wants to earn as much as possible on the transaction. If we lack knowledge and assertiveness, we will most likely realize that we have just overpaid for a counterfeit, service or item that we did not intend to buy.
Watch out for fakes!
We can come across a fake absolutely everywhere - not only in China, which is famous for counterfeiting everything, from clothes to electronics. It is worth being careful and not losing your mind after hearing the proposal to do the "business of life" , that is, to buy a product at an extremely favorable price right here, at this seller who sincerely wants to sell it cheaper and not earn money. The effect of such a market is the purchase of nice, but completely worthless tinsel instead of pearl jewelry or "original" silk, which will scatter in your hands after a few washes.
Counterfeit traders are looking for tourists in Thailand, India, the aforementioned China, and also in Europe, everywhere. In Egypt, we can buy a papyrus made of banana leaves and an alabaster figurine made of plaster. In Thailand, rubies and sapphires - not only unpolished, i.e. those that cannot be exported abroad, but also fake. In Hong Kong and Singapore electronics, or rather a box in which, instead of a camera or a cell phone, there is something else. "Opportunities" lurk at every step , unfortunately most often they are a chance to waste a large amount of money, and often trouble with the local police.
We can buy fake gemstones even in factories and shopping centers - the certificate attached to them is not always a guarantee of authenticity.
The magic word - assertiveness
In India, Thailand and Morocco, tourists are besieged by various sellers, guides and people who offer their help. In Tunisia, visiting a pottery shop for 'free' tea may entail the choice between buying a plate with your name engraved on it, or breaking the seller's heart and condemning his entire family to starvation. Alternatively, we will hear a story about collecting money for an expensive son's surgery or some other story aimed at softening the heart of a tourist .
The same may be the case with the offer of "disinterested" help to a person who got lost. In India or Morocco, in most cases, we will be taken to a family member's store and persuaded to buy the products he sells or directed to a place completely off the way to our hotel. Regardless of the fact that the help turned out to be unnecessary and we only lost time, we will still see the outstretched hand. Such situations can be listed for a long time, and the conclusion is one - let's be careful, because in the cruel world of "tourists vs sellers" nothing is for free .
The art of persuasion
Nobody has the strength of argumentation as a powerfully built man, preferably two. If we have been persuaded to use some free service that turned out to be not free at all, we may have a problem withdrawing - especially if the seller has fearsome-looking colleagues. In China, it can wait for us after a pleasant evening at a karaoke bar, when it's time to pay the bill . Suddenly, it turns out that our drinks were joined by a dozen or so expensive drinks of new companions and we have to pay for them. In Thailand, when leaving the club with an attractive show, we find out that we only paid the admission fee - we still have to pay for the opportunity to watch the show. In India, we will pay for cleaning shoes as part of "repaying" for, for example, giving a shoe-shoe a brush that he supposedly accidentally dropped while walking down the street. If we don't want to, both he and his colleagues may stop being nice.
The citing of such examples is not intended to force tourists into a state of paranoid suspicion of every person they meet of cheating, but merely to urge them to be careful. Let us not agree to anything that we do not need, let us not trust anyone who wants to help us very much, let us not allow ourselves to be led to a specific club, hotel or office. When shopping, do not hand over money until we have the product in our hands. Let's be vigilant.
A writer by profession, a passion of a cat. One day he will see what is behind the Urals - good to Vladivostok. So far, when he can, he enjoys the sun of the countries of southern Europe. And it's also fun;)
