Currently, it’s about 39 rupees to the dollar. You can get a small chai tea made on almost every corner for a couple of rupees. On a side street in Delhi, there is a samosa cart that sold a delicious potato stuffed pastry with a little bowl of sauce for four rupees. 50 rupees should get you almost anywhere in a motor-rickshaw-but we always end up arguing with the drivers over their prices which are extremely inflated for white people. At a nice restaurant, entrees are about 100 rupees. The first place we stayed in Delhi, Hotel Namaskar, cost 450 rupees for a double room - this gets you hot water in your attached bathroom but no window to the outside world. In Jaipur, where we stayed last night and plan to stay tonight, we splurged on a nicer guesthouse for 500 rupees. We have tile floors and a sit-down toilet, a small television, a clock in our room, and wide windows which look across the street onto a rooftop where monkeys play with discarded kites. Although everything is relatively cheap when you do the dollar conversion and compare it to US prices, it’s amazing how quickly one becomes accustomed to local economics and starts budgeting accordingly. On the other hand, it is also incredible the extent to which local vendors expect to screw travelers spending foreign money.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 2:58 am and is filed under india.