Tipping in Bangalore

It’s another rainy day in Bangalore, so the traffic jam is even worse. Well, at least I have my laptop with me to do some blogging. As for the stomach incident yesterday, I guess I am finally feeling okay, but just don’t feel like eating much.

From the first day till now, I still get nervous about the tipping part. I don’t know how much is considered okay for them. It is a complete culture contrast as compared to Malaysia where people open the door for you, or serve meal or willing to help you without the intention of getting anything back. When you add in tipping to these scenarios, you will suspect that they do it just for the money.

My cousin told me a story about her husband going to Bangalore and her company-hired cab driver became really helpful when her husband gave him some tips. Before that the driver was just a boring guy, trying to do his job as if no one was in the cab, excluding the part where he started talking to himself or start singing or even dancing (Yup, I do that even I am driving alone)

Normally, I would tip the doorman, room cleaner (if I bump into them) and hotel staffs that assisted me 10-20 rupee. Taxi driver I tipped 10, 20 or 50 rupee, but not everytime (don’t plan to tip today’s driver, he not only switched off the air-con but left his driver seat window open, inviting those endless honking sound. Gee, it’s really stress to hear these sound early in the morning!)

Although, tipping could be claimed through the company but I still try avoiding it. For instance, pretend to rush into the hotel room or sneak in and out of the breakfast area or busy reading the newspaper till they walked past me.

No matter what, I would still try to tip them in some occasions, especially the hotel staffs; because I do read about what happen to diners that don’t tip well. So for this one month, I would try to avoid unseen disasters by tipping them. But till now, I still don’t know if my tip is considered enough or not. Sigh…..