Ulterior Motives

Ulterior:  Beyond what is obvious or evident.

We are beginning to suspect that everyone has an angle here, that we are being sold something at all times.  I have begun to mistrust everyone.  I don't like feeling this way but it seems like I'm being maneuvered into position constantly.  It feels like a whole shitload of ulterior motives is falling on my head like acid rain.

Tour days follow this pattern: a monument or two, then a stop at a collective or a factory or a workshop to "see how things are made in the old ways by true craftsmen."  Or widows or poor rural workers or war orphans.  There is no pressure to buy.  You can just look.  You are just like a guest in their home.  Absolutely no pressure to buy.  

Where are you from?  Oh, Vacation City, do you know Mr. So and So?  He is from Vacation City and he bought 12 of these things to give as gifts or he got home and then contacted us and bought 48,000 of them because he was so astounded at the price.  Here, look, in my guest book is a letter (from 2004) that Mr. So and So sent.

Once in the shop the vendor sucks in a huge breath of air and talks non-stop until there is no oxygen left in the room.  The item in question - usually carpets or scarves or wall hangings or blankets - are piled three feet deep in front of you with rapid descriptions of the item in question.  No prices are given and there is no pause to let you ask.  It is incredibly stressful to polite Westerners, although as the trip has progressed I confess to have gotten quite good at bringing the proceedings to a close.  Abrupt, you might say.  Brusque.

Our driver, Sitaram, is a quiet young man who mostly drives.  His English is decent but we don't think he needs to chat us up - he really is a quiet guy, although he has the driving skills of the most venomous demon in hell and the aggression of Jack Lambert.  He swears us to silence.  He makes us shake his hand on this vow, without telling us what secret that he is going to divulge.  He looks into our eyes to make sure our word is our bond.

"The guides work with the expensive shops - they make a commission," he says.  We had suspected as much.  We weren't being shown any shops that sell trinkets or cheap collectibles.  I think being from The States probably marks us as having the wealth of Midas, and I mean the muffler guy.

Getting very good at the brusque thing.