Log> Sights> India: we're working on it

This is me jumping into conclusions, I guess, but I fail to see what the India-hype is about. Granted, I've only been to major cities, some countryside in between and seen the main sights - I tried to get to Rishikesh but the main road was closed due to the holy month processions and the alternative road was closed due to flooding. Sitting duck in Bombay (wish I was a duck, would fit better on the flooded streets), I figured I could go and check out Goa for a few days, despite it not being in season - or alternatively allocate a bit more time to the South-East Asian trek. I decided on the latter. It's drier on the east-facing coast that I intend to go down, there's some business in Thailand before that.

Now, I'm sure this is a nice enough country to travel if you have a lot of time and are willing to figure out the ways to make your travel here cheap. I'm lacking a bit in both, and am left with a feeling of being ripped off and, like stated above, wondering what the hype is about. I've met so many people who're enthralled with India, and every time the riksha driver stuffs the hundred rupia bill in his pocket and ignores me until I get tired of demanding my change back, I wonder - what am I doing wrong getting this bad a picture of the country?

A few things that piss me off: entrance fee to Taj Mahal is 750 rupias for foreigners and 20 rupias for Indians. That's just 37 times as much. That's not a fair adjustment even if you'd base it on income per capita of the richer countries where the tourists come from. Oh, and you pay more if you have a camera with you in many places, yet some 'monuments', such as the Amber Palace in Jaipur, are just rubble and trash, and urine-smelling rubble and trash at that. Which in comparison didn't bother me too much, after a lady from a people-carrier driving in front of us vomited on our windscreen on the way there. Trying to leave the temple, I was asked for the entry ticket. I'd misplaced it somewhere in the receipt-burial pocket of my backpack, and the guard wanted to charge me the entrance fee again - upon leaving. I laughed them off and was pointed (not quite escorted) to the exit from the complex. After having enjoyed rather enlightening moments in temples in Japan and Indonesia, this was just a slap in the face.

The food is consistently very good, though. I've eaten only vegetarian here and had the best, most diverse meals. And the Taj is majestic indeed, one of the best monuments on Earth.

But I think the country, 60 years old now, will not stand a chance against China's economic might and scale. There's no question in my mind who will dominate the latter part of this century. A simple, albei anecdotal, consumer-level observation: China is on the verge of getting 100% Chinese brands on the Western mass market - they are all over rest of Asia already, from cars to clothes. On the other hand, name an Indian brand sold abroad? The world's largest democracy it may be, but it must start to relax protectionism to export anything else than VOIP services from it's BPO call centres and lines of code from IT outsourcing outfits.