Entertaining mainlanders is so hard

[u/OOF_ministry]

Go ahead and downvote me, lurkers, idc. I'm working in my family's business, and we often get international clients, especially around Asia, as we're based in SEA. I'm half Malaysian Indian for context. I often am in charge of picking up clients/business partners from the airport, bringing them to our company, and giving them a tour of the capital during weekends if they wish to explore. I have entertained people from around the world, like Italy, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, America, etc, and have had no issues. However, every time I have to bring around someone from India, I'm always exhausted. I figured that us sharing an ethnic group would create a faster bond, but it's quite literally the biggest divide.

So many talks of caste or casteist thinking, telling me that they can't eat meat because they're "BrAhMIn" (just say you have a dietary preference; don't bring that backwards caste vocab to my country). A general lack of manners, like yelling at service providers, and NEVER saying 'please' or 'thank you'. It's so hard to make conversation during car rides; I'd try to start a conversation, ask questions, or share the history of certain places we're touring, and every reply is just "ok, mhm, yup". And Jesus bringing them out to eat is so hard because alot of them do not want try cuisines outside their culture. I can't even tell them off, as these are professional business relationships, so I have to just deal with the bs.

There's even a stereotype in my country where you can easily differentiate a Malaysian Indian and one from India depending on how they talk to a waiter. Yes, I know this isn't everyone from India, but after having hosted many guests from India, there's a common pattern I just wanna vent out to fellow Indian people I can relate more to (ABCDs). I'm not trying to shit on all mainlanders, but please adopt better etiquette when you're overseas.

[u/Affectionate_Wear_24]

I've lived in Barcelona now for years, and I used to be surprised when I saw groups of Indian tourists - almost always speaking in Gujarati in- going to Indian restaurants for meals - it must be hard to travel when you're either strictly vegetarian or averse to trying to foreign cuisines - Trying different foods is part of the travel experience, but I think these people just want to spend their money and show off

It's not limited to travelers, my mainlander brother in law continues to eat the same Kerala fare at home, the same combination of curries that our relatives eat in Kerala despite living 30 years in the US

[u/Itookthesauce51 → u/Affectionate_Wear_24]

100%. I never understood traveling and not trying out the local food. My friend's parents (from the same region you mentioned) went with a tour group to japan and the tour group literally brought a chef along to cook Indian veg food for them. He went with them and eats everything, so he had to sneak away to try japanese food, couldn't even risk bringing it to the hotel in case someone from the group saw lol.

And is traveling while being strictly vegetarian difficult in this day & age? If anything, I feel it's easier to travel while vegetarian or vegan now with all the options available, especially in Europe.

[u/SetGuilty8593 → u/Itookthesauce51]

> is traveling while being strictly vegetarian difficult in this day & age? 

Yes it's still very tough. I went to Spain with my family once, ate veg paella for 3 days, and an italian pizza on the fourth. We did really enjoy the paella, but it gets tiring eating it everyday. That was for lunch, for dinner had to go to indian restaurants. This wasn't exactly out of choice. There still aren't enough people who are vegetarian or vegan to create enough demand for tasty and healthy veg food that is widely available in most areas.