I’m glad Egypt came first for me. India doesn’t feel so stressed now. I still got approached multiple times while walking the streets, but they didn’t feel as desperate when they asked or talked.
One young man, 20 years old, started cleaning my ears, in public, when I walked past. Yeah, I’m sure you’re wondering how someone starts doing that while you’re walking past. I wondered the same thing afterward too.
From I recall, he motioned at me like I had something in my hair right above my ear, like he wanted to brush it off. One thing led to another, and yeah, he was sticking metal things in my ears to scrape my ears clean and supposedly pull out stones that had accumulated in them. More likely he just wanted to clean my wallet out with each stone he supposedly removed. Either way, the whole deal was a first for me, very unexpected.
Does anyone actually give him money after this? I wondered.
Other than than him, though, the rest of the routines felt like the normal rigamarole that happens everywhere: shoeshines, beggars, walkie-talkies, and everyone quoting high prices, often with printed brochures to back them up.
