| No, you do not understand. They were not bellmen or skycaps, just young men who wanted to find any excuse for a tip. And they were not normal street vendors, just guys who might have some pitiful few items that no one would want, who would persist in nagging until you paid them to leave you alone. The point is, a lot of tropical paradises are dirt poor, and earn very little outside of tourism. Frequently, a dollar goes further there than it would in, say, New York or Paris, so people traveling to such places often live quite well. And they often find the poverty of the locals picturesque, so long as it is not too squalid, rather like taking a tour of a human zoo, with quaint costumes and huts and whatnot....... |
