US tourist hitches rickshaw, weds driver

A 26-year-old American tourist travelling in India hitched a ride in a rickshaw last week and married the driver a few days later, a report said today.

Whitney from Chicago met her prince charming in Jaipur in Rajasthan, a state west of the capital famous for its stately palaces, after hailing a motorised rickshaw and hiring the driver for her stay in the city, the Mail Today newspaper said. Read More................US tourist hitches rickshaw, weds driver

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Wild elephant kills French tourist in India

CHENNAI, India – A French tourist was trampled to death by a wild elephant while trekking in southern India Friday, a forest official said.

Del Yotel Annie, a retired teacher from Neuilly Sir Marne, was taking pictures of a herd of wild elephants at Bokkapuram, adjacent to the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Udhagamandalam, about 500 km from Chennai, when a jumbo and a calf charged her. Read More................Wild elephant kills French tourist in south India

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India curbs tourist dollars

In an interesting move Indian authorities have ruled that tourists visiting the country's monuments must pay at a fixed local rupee rate rather than in dollars.

Entrance to many local tourist sites is priced in dollars and then converted to rupees, causing authorities to lose money as the dollar slid more than 12 per cent against the rupee.

The Ministry of Culture said that the latest move was "to avoid any anomaly on account of falling exchange rates of dollar vis-a-vis rupee and consequent fall in revenues".

The government had fixed a $5 entrance fee for World Heritage sites like the Taj Mahal and $2 for other monuments at a time when the dollar was worth about 50 rupees.

The dollar is now worth around 39 rupees. The new rate for World Heritage Sites is fixed at 250 rupees ($6.50).

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Monkey steals tourist's glasses

Just imagine , if during your visit to a foreign land you find that your costly reading glasses have been stolen from your hotel room. You shall be frustrated but more if the pair of glasses have been stolen by a monkey!!!!!!!. Exactly same thing happened with a South Korean tourist while he was visiting the Hindu holy city of Varanasi in northern India.

Kim Dang Hoon has filed a formal complaint against a monkey he says stole his reading glasses during his visit to the Varanasi.

Kim Dang Hoon says he opened his hotel room window for fresh air when the monkey made his move.

"He headed straight to the table where my glasses were kept and took it away," Kim said in the statement.

Part of the frame later was recovered by hotel staff and Kim said he filed the report so he can make a damages claim on his travel insurance.

Thousands of wild monkeys roam Varanasi, dotting the trees on the banks of the Ganges River and scampering through the city's many temples, where they are venerated as manifestations of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman.

On Tuesday, police combed Varanasi's alleys searching for the monkey.

"It is difficult to trace the monkey but I am trying my best to locate the rogue," investigating officer Inspector Govind Singh said from Varanasi, some 185 miles southeast of Lucknow.

"But we can't do anything. We cannot shoot them or beat them as Hindus worship monkeys," he said.

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