India Travel Blog

Delhi has a brilliant taxi/auto-rickshaw service - day or night you will be able to hire one. But the big problem is that they never take you where you want to go.
A secondary issue is the fares which vary widely - usually depending on how nice your clothes are and how posh the place is you are going. They are supposed to use meters or 'rate-card' fares but I've never been able to persuade a driver that such things are not just a joke told to western tourists.
Anyway back to 'where you want to go.' We got scammed big-time on Wednesday - we asked to go to India Tourism and, not entirely unexpectedly, at some slightly official looking place that was a travel agent, possibly run by a relative or just someone paying commission for the delivery of the gullible.
Getting underway in any for hire vehicle starts with repeated assurances the driver knows where you are going - and then a repeated conversation about buying clothes, watches, or finding a cheap hotel room. Quite often the driver has no idea where seemingly important (to me!) places are - such as the National Hockey stadium. And to be fair, western pronunciations of street names bear little resemblance to those used locally - so always take a map and be prepared to write down the address you are going to.
It's best to negotiate a fare in advance - at least you know what you are letting yourself oin for. As for me, I'm on taxi/auto-rickshaw strike. It's not the money - by London standards they are still cheap, 5-7 quid will get you anywhere - it is just the interminable hassle. I'd rather walk, and an the end of the day the drivers would have done very nicely out of me - I am a big tipper - but they only have themselves to blame.