Goan Police Problems

Driving a moped without a legal drivers permit in India? No problem...

Despite the fact I know it was illegal to drive without a license, I did it anyway and continue to do so.

Last night I went through a road block and they wanted to give me a ticket for 950 Rupee for having no International Drivers Permit or Indian Permit. That is nearly 20 dollars Canadian, amusingly I started to laugh at the officer. I don't know why but I did.

So I told the cop that the guy who rented out the bikes didn't tell me the laws or anything of the sort... which he replied well he is supposed to do that etc etc but they normally just take the money and give you a bike. He then made the "offer" to take 500 Rupee instead of issuing a ticket.

Bing Bing Bing, the door is open for bribery and cost negotiation, I said 200 Rupee, one hundred for each of you. They wouldn't let up for about 5 minutes and afterwards they said 300 Rupee. At this point I'd had just about enough of this anyway so I said that if you are acepting bribes you can't be picky when you don't get your cost. It's two hundred or we can go down to the station and speak about this further with your superiors.

I handed him two hundred rupees and just walked away. He didn't say anything or stop me.

This is the second time since I've been traveling that I've been required to bribe someone over something silly. The last time was in Budapest.... Oh well, 200 rupees is like 6-7 dollars Canadian.