India / Thailand / Cambodia / Vietnam - CHAPTER 3 - The Scam

My first version of this post was a long, detailed account of the day and everything that happened at a travel agency in New Delhi. But I decided to use this space and time to instead notify others of the experience I had AFTER the travel agency visit, in hopes that they can avoid the same thing happening to them.

So apparently, all the guide books say "whatever you do in New Delhi, DON'T GO TO A TRAVEL AGENCY IN CONNAUGHT PLACE" ... well, I didn't know that. And through unplanned and what I thought were positive circumstances, I was led to do business with one.

BACKPACKER TRAVEL CENTRE

The guy that runs it goes by Ali or Raj. Or both. Or more. You'll know him by his neck tattoo and bald head. Clear red flags that I did not see, or chose to ignore.

I was offered several month-long packages, all of them including all transportation, lodging, several meals, activities, and 24/7 customer service. With 24 hours notice, any date or any leg of the trip could be changed without cost. Basically, a full month of every logistic handled. There were three price options, each reflecting the level of quality. Low. Middle. High. The high was ridiculous, and the guy even said it wasn't for backpacker solo people like me. It was for wealthy people, politicians, etc (he has a LOT of pictures on his walls with celebrities and politicians). The low was a good price, but he said it was all one and two star places and not good. We agreed on middle. It was ten percent more than I thought it should be, but I was willing to pay it because it would make my life a lot easier to have them working for me. So, I bought the middle package, and left the agency that day excited and hopeful for the trip to come. It was expensive, but if it's as nice as Ali says it is, then it will be well worth it!

Well, I quickly realized it was NOT what I was expecting. And definitely not what I paid for. The first place they sent me was Srinagar, in the disputed region of Kashmir, near the India / Pakistan border, promising green foothills and fun hiking and lazy campfires with tea and an acoustic guitar. All the pictures I saw were straight out of The Sound of Music. That's why I agreed to start my itinerary there. Little did I know, it's where this agency starts everyones trips: cell phones don't work there unless you buy a sim card specific to kashmir, which works nowhere else and is a huge pain for foreigners to get. And the house they put me up in (it was a home stay) didn't have electricity most of the time, let alone wifi. So by the time you realize what they're up to, you're unable to communicate with them...

i'm already digressing. this chapter is not about every fucked up detail of the trip they sent me on. it's about how hard they were to deal with afterwards. i quit the itinerary after one week, and even that was hard to do because they took forever to respond. But I gave them plenty of chances to make things right, and they wouldn't. So I canceled the charges and got reimbursed by my credit company and booked the rest of the trip on my own. But it was all the shady and personal back and forths in the aftermath that really drove me crazy. And it was only after all this bullshit that I did my research and found out they've done this a lot before. They used to be called India Travel Matters. They will probably change their name again. Just don't go to any travel agency in new delhi. That's easier and safer. And fuck Backpacker Travel Centre. And good luck and god bless you if you are out on one of their trips right now. You're probably googling their name and "scam" and finding some good stuff. Maybe this post! Yay!

The next chapter will be back to the actual trip, which I made amazing, no thanks to the travel agency from hell. It affected me with a lot of negative energy very early on in a long trip, and it stayed with me for the whole experience. Trust. Vulnerability. Respect. Money. Ego. I'm sure its ramifications will reveal themselves in the coming chapters. Enjoy! up next... Srinagar, the crown jewel of Kashmir!