Tourist Syndrome

Today I was thinking more about the tourist versus locals situation here or anywhere else that's a tourist town for that matter.

This evening I was sitting near a store painting. Some of the store people were selling their wares to all the people passing by. "Cigarettes, Internet, Postcards, Nice Shirt, Shoes, Books, Stuff, Junk, Clothes, Come spend your money, etc."

Most people probably don't like to have to sell this way. But in Jaisalmer, the tourists usually stay for only a day or two, so the money comes in quick, but leaves just as fast. Many tourists don't deal with this type of salesmanship very well so they look down and walk on by. The salesman then gets rejected then feels a little bad for two reasons. One, he just had to lower himself to such a practice and secondly he got rejected.

This double shot of annoyance brings up some animosity towards the tourist who caused this feeling in the first place. So it's a double edged sword. The tourist is the means to thier livelihood, but at the same time, a destruction of their past way of life.

But everything changes and the tourists are here now, but they won't be forever. The smart ones plan for the days when they're not here.