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Grasslands Guilt Trip
Sunday, July 24, 2005-11:25 AM
Tour groups earn their money by squeezing every penny (or jiao) out of their customers throughout the tour. The park their bus in front of random tourist spots and give their customers a choice: pay to go in or sit in the bus for an hour.
Usually this tactic doesn't work on me because I'm profoundly cheap when it comes to that sort of thing. But, some tour operators have figured out how to get money out of even people like me.
On the second day of our tour in the Inner Mongolian grasslands, our itinerary had us horseback riding and seeing a couple landmarks.
The horseback riding was not included in our tour package. We would have to pay an additional 50 renminbi per hour to ride the horses.
That much I knew before I signed up for the trip. I knew I wasn't going horseback riding.
What I didn't know was that the only way to see the landmakrs was a three hour, 150 renminbi horseback ride.
That was fine. I wouldn't go to see the landmarks. I knew they probably weren't worth seeing anyways.
The tour operators had one more trick up their sleeve. In order to see the landmarks and take the horses, everyone interested would have to split the cost of a guide, another 50 renminbi per hour.
On this particular morning, there were only two of us. The other guy wanted to go.
If I didn't go, the excursion would be too expensive for him, and he wouldn't go. If I did go, he could afford it.
Somehow, I ended up making the decision whether both of us would go or not.
I'm upset that I broke in and went (at a negotiated price). Three hours on an uncomfortable horse exploring places I could have went ot on foot was not worth it.
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