No more India!

India is just about OK. I think the telling thing is that I've spoken to about 20 other travellers, 15 of whom -all first timers- hated it completely, couldn't wait to get out. The other 5 hated it first time, but found themselves coming back (one guy was on his 5th trip). That makes sense - its getting easier to do simple things now (I actually caught a rush hour train into delhi! The sleeper dropped me at delhi jn which wasn't even on the map, must have been the equivalent of croyden). Now I know to ignore everyone who initiates a conversation (contrary to their opening line, they do want your money), and only talk to people on trains/restaurants/tourist sites.
Its a real shame, because you come over here with a smiling face, wanting to talk to people. Its not that the scams against you are particularly ingenious (taxi drivers telling you your hotel's burnt down, gem exporters, people not giving change/ deliberately giving wrong advice etc), its that they are 100% persistant. You can't do anything unless you know how its done, which you can't the first time around. Someone will work this out, and deliberately set out to confuse you. I can't really blame the Indians - the average wage is $350 (US) - so there must be 500 million people on less than that. Quibbling over 50 rupees (about 70 pence) seems silly, but if its your average daily wage and you can double it by lying to a foreigner (who can put together $1000 for the air fare, so isn't exactly badly off), then why not?
I really wish I had more positive things to say about India! Shimla was nice, so was Udaipur - watching Octopussy on the lakeside and seeing the same views as in the film was great (how that rickshaw driver got past the Jagdesh temple I'll never know).
Its cheap - I've spent under 200 pounds and I've been living in hotels, eating in restaurants and travelling around for 4 weeks. No complaints there.
A couple of impressive temples, forts (Jodphur especially) and the Taj Mahal, a few conversations with students (one precocious 10 year old who'd already learnt english and wanted to talk to me in french was good fun)... that's about it.

Thailand tomorrow. I've survived India, what can they possibly do to me in Bangkok?