Both of us had kind of a negative reaction to our service experiences on the houseboat, which is a little silly considering we had a staff of four and basically had all our needs taken care of. First the good things: our guide gave us all the explanations we wanted, brought us water, fruit and tea regularly, and served our food to us on banana leaf plates. We had asked to see some farming, so he arranged a walk through a rice paddy and told us about how rice is farmed, and about agriculture in Kerala more generally. The cook prepared three fresh, very good meals a day of local cuisine. And yet, we felt that we could have done without much of that pampering, in exchange for a different kind of customer service. I think the missing element was candor or directness.
Broadly, we have both found-- me even more so through the time I've spent in Bombay so far-- that Indians are often reluctant to say no. In the United States, if you ask for a service, you are either told it is possible and given the details, and then you expect the promise to be fulfilled... or else you're told that it is not possible. Here, people more often say yes to things, almost, it seems to me, without considering the reality of the situation sometimes. It is one of those things that happens so many times in small ways-- and with all sorts of people-- that it is difficult to recount specific instances after a while.
Still, one that stands out lately is our attempt to arrange transportation to our next destination, after the houseboat. Our guide told us it would be a snap to catch a rickshaw, then a taxi, from the point where we disembarked. Leave the details to me, he said. But when we got there, there were no rickshaws or cabs anywhere, and we found that our guide hadn't yet attempted to arrange the transportation. So we waited for about half an hour, with very little communication as to when transportation may or may not arrive. It didn't actually turn out to be inconvenient, but we were perplexed that the guide had so confidently told us he would pre-arrange everything when he didn't seem to have any intention of doing so.
To top it off, he asked to share our cab, repeatedly saying that his destination was on the way. We were fine with, but the driver ended up taking a significant detour, and the guide didn't offer to share the cost. We could tell that he considered all this quite normal... after all, he had just spent two days looking after us on the houseboat. I think if we had complained, he might have been surprised and maybe would have considered us spoiled. And maybe we are spoiled in a way. Although we don't require or even appreciate servitude that much, we do get out of sorts when things aren't communicated clearly or don't happen according to plan. I'd rather pour my own tea and be fully informed about my travel arrangements.
Another experience on the houseboat that highlighted cultural differences and divergent expectations between ourselves and our crew: the water tanks on our boat were empty soon after our journey started, we think because the crew had forgotten to fill them. It wasn't such a big deal, because we were floating down a river with very clean water that could be used for things like flushing and washing hands, and we would be able to stop at a village the next morning and refill the tanks. And because of this, the crew also didn't treat this as too big of a problem.
Still, I felt that we had paid a fairly high price for a "deluxe" houseboat with modern facilities, so I let our guide know that while we didn't mind the situation too much, we did want to speak to the tour company about the oversight. But the guide really didn't like this idea. First, he asked us if it was possible that we had used a lot of water already that afternoon... for example, had we taken long showers? It was a disingenuous question because he was well aware that we had spent all of our time sitting on the upper deck. After that, he informed us, this is a houseboat, not a hotel, and these things happen... so maybe we could just adjust. That attitude bothered me more than the actual lack of water because of the unwillingness to accept responsibility. But I'm sure the guide was also a bit taken aback by my apparent inflexibility.
Interestingly, Tristan was less bothered than I was, though you would think I would be more used to this sort of thing. I was overanalyzing my customer service related feelings, and he was telling me to chill out :) On the other hand, he was far more bothered by the bugs on the boat than I was. While we are getting to be more flexible travelers, in different ways, we still have a long way to go on the laid-back scale.
Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 12:26AM 
