First Trip - Spoiled by Street Sellers

[Rocky]

We have traveled all over the islands and central america. Sosua will soon be our home. Some times when we are being bothered by street vendors or kids that want to take you around and be your "guide" we will pick the scrappiest kid and offer him some money with the promise of doubling it when we are done if he would do nothing else but keep the other kids and vendors away. It works ever time and we become his responisibility. It is funny to watch these kids puff out thier chests and take charge. We are rarely bothered by vendors again.
We will do the same thing when parking our car in a less then desirable spot and pay a kid to watch it. Usually then then sit on the hood and keep all others away. Sometime when we go to pay them they want my baseball cap instead. WE always travel with extra ball caps.

Bob K

Living proof that adaptability & ingenuity are worth a lot more than whining and "beeching".

 

[miguel]

Indeed!!

Living proof that adaptability & ingenuity are worth a lot more than whining and "beeching".

Nicely said.

People should adapt to their surroundings. If you can not, get out!.

I lived in NY for over 24 years and when it bacame too noisy and crowded for me, I got the hell out. NY was not going to change just because Miguelito was unconfortable therefore Miguel did what he needed to do to make himself "live" better, I moved to what I considered to be a better place. I am still a New Yorker at heart and I would never complain about the homeless, the street vendors, the beggers, and all those people that did what they had to do to make it "another day". Can you imagine if I complained about them, I would had commited suicide by now!. There are so many!.

I will say it again, with all the crap that is happening in the world, to deal with a street vendor is a piece of cake. I would take on 1,000 vendors if that would make the world a better place.

If a few street vendors are "strong" enough to make me be unhappy while on vacation, I can not even think what would I do if I ever confronted with a more difficult situation in my life, like a death in the family or being dumped my a wife or losing a child.

SOME people should just "grow" some balls and stop being such babies!!. ADAPT or get out!!. Plain and simple!!.

 

[dogstar]

tee shirt ans

I was in Havana 2 years ago and the street vendors ( for taxies and cigars ) were driving me crazy. I printed a tee shirt in spanish that said on the front, NO I DON'T WANT A TAXI and on the back NO I DON"T WANT CIGARS. but I do want chicas.
It got a lot of laughs from the vendors.
joe

 

[laurapasinifan]

miguel... I sort of see your point, but when i break it down to spending MONEY one place or another...WHY would I choose a place loaded with things that bother me, over a place that doesnt have any of that?..I wouldnt... the DR isnt so much greater than a dozen other places that people will put up with things that "bother" them..and you can fill in any term for "bother" that you like...to some people just SEEING a vendor , may bother them...its their life, and their money, and they are free to choose.....so who does it hurt inthe long run... the country itself.. the buisness that supports any city, and employ its citizens.... So while I feel people in general should such up their little peeves...I dont think they should have to while on vacations that cost 10X's more per day than they make during the year per day.......and comparing a starving person on their last hope for making a life, problems to the choices a vacationer has to make is absurd......bob

 

[Rocky]

miguel... I sort of see your point, but when i break it down to spending MONEY one place or another...WHY would I choose a place loaded with things that bother me, over a place that doesnt have any of that?..I wouldnt... the DR isnt so much greater than a dozen other places that people will put up with things that "bother" them..and you can fill in any term for "bother" that you like...to some people just SEEING a vendor , may bother them...its their life, and their money, and they are free to choose.....so who does it hurt inthe long run... the country itself.. the buisness that supports any city, and employ its citizens.... So while I feel people in general should such up their little peeves...I dont think they should have to while on vacations that cost 10X's more per day than they make during the year per day.......and comparing a starving person on their last hope for making a life, problems to the choices a vacationer has to make is absurd......bob

Your point is good & valid, specially for a vacationer, however, it is a small price to pay for all the benefits this country/island has to offer, as opposed to others.
The DR is realtively inexpensive and way more diverse than almost any other island.
The vendors bother me as well.
I understand it clearly and wish I could do something about it, but I can't, so we try to not dwell on it, or let it ruin our days, as the other benefits are outstanding.

 

[talbot]

Good Post - and final word

.

An actual visitor comes on the board and posts why it is he won't be coming back and so far all the responses are about why he's in the wrong.

I thought that the DR was a developing country and the purpose of my feedback was to tell anyone who reads these boards with an interest in DR tourism our experience and feelings of our first visit so that you guys can address what we, and others in our AI, considered to be a problem.

The aim was not to moan or bitch about the place - just to let you guys know that some of us aren't used to this type of hassle and don't want it on vacation.

What i didnt expect were the personal attacks on this board - which are acutally far more revealing about DR attitudes to tourists than the those of the vendors i orginally complained about.

So I am a wuss.. no balls.. don't understand third world countries...should only visit to give my money to beggars and people selling crap and go on vaccation somewhere else.

Ok guys - i will.

I'll spend my money in Florida.. shop in the Malls..and enjoy myself a hundred times more. I'll go to Vegas and have fun. I'll go to Europe and see better sights and buy their tourist crap which is infinitely superior to the dross i saw on the streets of DR.

Joe makes the point superbly - we can choose to go and spend our cash wherever we want and that's what i'll do.

I didn't need the crap in the streets of DR and i dont need it on this board - but the reaction to my original post has turned a disappointed tourist into a bitter one and I for one will tell everyone I meet to give the DR a wide berth.

 

[suarezn]

Talbot: As an FYI, 90%+ of the people on this board are NOT dominicans, but expats who have either lived down there for a couple of years or people who have just visited like yourself. Just to let you know that the opinions you're getting here may not necessarily be the opinion of most Dominicans.

Like I said in my previous post, I (A Dominican BTW) understand your point and believe that if we are trying to continue to lean in tourism as one of our main industries then we must do more to make the visitor feel comfortable...otherwise we will not be competitive and be left with only the type of tourist that will not go outside the AI (not much benefit for the local economy) and the sex industry tourist.

Even if you don't ever come back (a mistake IMO) I think it is unfair for you to tell everyone you know to avoid The DR. As you know people have different tastes and what you considered a hassle others may consider charming...Why not let them see for themselves and then decide whether they will return or not?

 

[Chris]

The aim was not to moan or bitch about the place - just to let you guys know that some of us aren't used to this type of hassle and don't want it on vacation.

Then it is better for you to choose another place to vacation and this is not a sarcastic comment whatsoever... Street vendors are a way of life here where we are and they will not change for you, or for me. The only thing that can possibly change, is that you learn to handle them so that they do not hassle you any longer.

I didn't need the crap in the streets of DR and i dont need it on this board - but the reaction to my original post has turned a disappointed tourist into a bitter one and I for one will tell everyone I meet to give the DR a wide berth.

Why don't you tell everyone that you tell, that you could not cope with the street vendors and no-one was sympathetic? Some others can and do so very quickly and never get hassled again and come back time after time. This was your experience -- You are the one that could not adapt. I personally cannot deal with Disney... But I don't tell anyone not to go there, I simply tell them I cannot deal with it. It surely is not necessary to throw a little vindictiveness in there just 'cause people tell you to pick another place to vacation. Did you expect anyone here to hide away all the street vendors if you wanted to come on vacation next?

Geez, sometimes I cannot understand people. Go off and have a good vacation somewhere else, without street vendors... Disney is good for that... Here, we have street vendors, beach vendors, wash your car window vendors.. little kids with peanut bar vendors, vendors of every kind. Many people like it that way. I'd much rather have it this way, than watching an actor in a grizzly bear costume trying to create an authentic experience for me.

 

[Rocky]

Why not let them see for themselves and then decide whether they will return or not?

Let me answer that question for him.
Because he is an "infeliz".
I have seen many of them, throughout the years.
The only people he knows, to share negative reviews of the DR, with, are other "infelizes".
Birds of a kind, flock together.
This country is not for everybody, and those who only see the negative aspects can go elsewhere.
If everybody loved the DR as we do, we would soon be overpopulated.

 

[Escott]

This thread, more than any other, illustrates the sort of attitude that contributes to the fact that the small-town tourism model is struggling in the face of mega ai destinations.

An actual visitor comes on the board and posts why it is he won't be coming back and so far all the responses are about why he's in the wrong.

I know this should be pretty basic stuff, but travellers have a choice in where they vacation and spend their dollars. If you want travellers to come to towns like sosua, cabarete and the like instead of just to the ai-complex-destinations like punta cana (or worse, the ai-complex-destinations of Cuba, Mexico, Jamaica etc) you have to make the destination attractive to the tourists, not the tourist attractive to the destination.

This idea that everyone should be able to do whatever they want, sell whatever they want and in whatever manner they want without regard for the long-term effect this has on the image of the destination (and by logical extension, the marketability of the destination) is short-sighted.

Many business owners in Sosua, for example, are concerned about the lack of tourists going out for dinner, buying in their shops, etc and I don't blame them a bit. But if we want a vibrant local economy outside the ai's, we have to present an environment wherin our guests can feel comfortable walking around, not blame our guests for being too touchy about being approached by vendors, timeshare salesmen, shoeshine boys, hookers, beggers etc.

If visitors really wanted to be constantly pestered by sales people, shoe shine boys, hookers, and the like, then why isn't that a service offered in the larger hotels? One would think that the evil empire of AI's would have clued in to the fact that there's so much money to be made out of the tourists this way and hired droves of vendors, shoeshine boys, braid ladies etc to wander around the pools. Maybe they don't do it because they realize it will kill their business within a year. If it doesn't fly IN the resorts, what makes people think it's suddently so much better OFF the resorts?

Of course, in the short term, it's nice to think that the insistant vendors bothering the tourist so badly that the tourist won't come back is just feeding his family. But in the medium term, that's one less repeat tourist. In the long term, the destination gets a rep for this sort of thing and loses much of its appeal, leaving us stuck selling the destination based on low price instead of high-service and attracting the type of client who books ai and comes with $20 in his pocket for rum and cigarettes to bring home. How is this helping the local economy?

Of course, many will hold the opinion that we can attract in droves the sort of guests who will come year-round with tonnes of extra money for dining out, shopping in nice shops, etc while at the same time pestering them with constant sales pitches of one sort or another. My response to that is only to ask: how's that been working out so far?

No doubt many on this board will disagree with me on this point, and a few will even indulge in the sort of personal attacks that generally follow anyone who questions the status quo, and that's ok -- everyone has a right to their opinion (even when it's wrong) and I've long since given up trying to change minds on this or any forum.

To the original poster, thanks for your feedback, and I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy your stay enough to come back. It's truly too bad, because this country and it's people have a lot to offer. Oftentimes when you're based in a strictly tourist location like Playa Dorada (or even Sosua sometimes) even when you get out it's hard to get out of the tourist mold. There's so much to see and experience in this country that goes on 'off the reservation', but it takes a bit of an adventurous spirit to find it.

Joe, although I like your posts and respect your opinions I would just like to say that the DR is not for everyone. Most of the tourists I run into come back all the time and wouldnt even consider another destination.

There are others such as the OP who can NOT deal with these vendors who in my opinion are way calmer than lets say Negril Jamaica where they lecture you if you don't listen to them. They actually think you have a obligation to pay attention to the nonsense.

I have NEVER had the problems that these people have going to the beach in Sosua. One time in the many years I have been here a Haitian got in my way and blocked my path to stop me and I looked up at him and said, "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY OR I WILL KNOCK YOU DOWN" and he JUMPED back. Normally I don't react that strongly but that is harassment I refuse to tolerate and won't. I will ignore anyone that even tries to ask me into see their junk even if I wanted to buy something.

Perhaps there is nothing that can be done about these vendors other than try to get the Politur involved but that would be asking the police to actually DO something

Escott

 

[miguel]

Man was I right!!!!!!!!!!!

Those are the people that even if they had the greatest time, just for a simple negative episode, they would go back to their countries and bad-mouth the DR to all their friends.

Was I right or WAS I RIGHT?????.

I am quoting my own post since he proved me right.

AMEN!!

 

[jackquontee]

I am going to offer some comments and observations here, even under the threat of alienation, because I think enough of the DR to do so.

As some of you know, I have travelled to the DR over the course of the past couple of years and have really come to love the island. Part of that has been as a result of the sense of freedom I feel when there, and part of it has been as a result of the really friendly and wonderful people I have met, both native and expatriate. The only thing that has bothered me has been the vendors, though I admit they aren't as bad as some other places. One place that comes to mind is Montego Bay, Jamaica. I was there several years ago and decided when I left that I would never return. I haven't, and I won't.

I firmly believe that the vendors have a right to earn a living, as we all do. But I think it's their approach to earning that living that is a real turn off for many people, myself included, though I don't believe that it will ever change. On the other hand, I believe that a vacationer has a right as well to enjoy their vacation and not be pestered by anyone for the duration of that vacation, if they should choose not to be. Most people who travel to another land do so, in part, to get away from all of the stress, pressure, and BS at home, and certainly don't desire to deal with it while they are on "vacation". After all, isn't the whole idea of vacationing to "relax"?

The impression that I've gotten reading through this thread is that those of you who aren't bothered by it or who, at the very least, don't see it as being a big deal, are those who either live there full or part time. It's great that over time you've either become accustomed to it or have simply learned the fine art of dealing with it. But, my understanding is that the OP was a first time visitor. Were I a resident and, particularly, a business owner, I would be extremely concerned. Tourism seems to be one of the primary industries for the island and if vendors, as well as those of you who live there, start to run these tourists away, I guarantee you that you will ultimately pay the price, not the tourist. That's not a threat, but a simple fact. Many of you who live there, whether you realize it or not, are in some way dependent upon the tourist.

And, finally, I think we would all agree that we are all entitled to our opinions. But, it is, I think, the "presentation" of one's opinion that makes the difference. Speaking personally, I do well with those who offer friendly and intelligent advice. I don't do so well with the name calling and belittling that sometimes takes place. And I don't mean that I curl up into some little ball and whimper either.

Talbot, though I don't blame you for being bothered by the vendors, I would strongly suggest that you give the DR another try as you would seriously be missing out on a great place if you didn't. There are places you can go where you wouldn't have these kinds of experinces or, at least, not to the extent you've experienced them in some of the places you've been. I would also suggest that you make some connections with people on this board who live there. They can show you the ins and outs of getting around and how to avoid some of the pitfalls of the island, understanding, as some people have pointed out, that there are pitfalls anywhere you go. Give it another shot, and if it doesn't work out, then maybe it really isn't for you. I wish you well.

 

[Dragonfly32837]

It's fine with me if he doesn't come back. We need more happy go lucky people to visit the island instead.

 

[sokay]

Can One Even Think About Positive Solutions?

I haven't been to the DR but plan to go immediately my current family obligation is over (care for aged mother). This thread is a record of a lot of thinking about the bother of street vendors. I should think it were possible for some locality, one town or city, to make itself more attractive by dealing wth the problem in a positive, caring, but effective manner. That must be possible. The clever T-shirt might be on the right track. If we can opt out of spam, telemarketers, pre-approved credit offers, why not opt out of street vendors? In a given town, say, T-shirts, hats, wristbands etc, are sold that clearly and cheerfully indicate that the wearer has paid US$100 into a certain fund exactly 100% of which is used for food for licensed street vendors. There are limited licenses issued and unlicensed vendors are not allowed. People wearing the opt out indicator are not pestered and if they are they simply hold up their wristband and keep walking.

 

[MrMike]

I haven't been to the DR but plan to go immediately my current family obligation is over (care for aged mother). This thread is a record of a lot of thinking about the bother of street vendors. I should think it were possible for some locality, one town or city, to make itself more attractive by dealing wth the problem in a positive, caring, but effective manner. That must be possible. The clever T-shirt might be on the right track. If we can opt out of spam, telemarketers, pre-approved credit offers, why not opt out of street vendors? In a given town, say, T-shirts, hats, wristbands etc, are sold that clearly and cheerfully indicate that the wearer has paid US$100 into a certain fund exactly 100% of which is used for food for licensed street vendors. There are limited licenses issued and unlicensed vendors are not allowed. People wearing the opt out indicator are not pestered and if they are they simply hold up their wristband and keep walking.

This would be a beauitiful plan if:

Everyone in the DR was an anal-retentive beaurocrat.

So things being how they are and all your plan basically sucks.

 

[jackquontee]

It's fine with me if he doesn't come back. We need more happy go lucky people to visit the island instead.

With all due respect, did it ever occur to you and others that people arrived to the island, and this board, as happy go lucky people, and left miserable and disillusioned?

 

[MrMike]

And, finally, I think we would all agree that we are all entitled to our opinions. But, it is, I think, the "presentation" of one's opinion that makes the difference. Speaking personally, I do well with those who offer friendly and intelligent advice. I don't do so well with the name calling and belittling that sometimes takes place. And I don't mean that I curl up into some little ball and whimper either.

I don't think it's the OP's presentation that's getting him the non-complimentary feedback, it's that his post betrays a level of self-importance that is pretty much disgusting.

He basically feels he's to good for street vendors to talk to him. He reminds me of one of those people that is devastated if a stranger makes eye contact with them. Feels violated if his existence is acknowleged without prior written consent. Wants everyone else in the world and particuarly the DR to take responsibility for seeing to it his delicate sensitivities are not offended. Even if it costs a small army of street vendors, every one of them supporting families their livelyhood. I a word, evil.

He's not posting his opinion out of a need for self expression, he's deliberately trying to harm the tourist industry here in some way as punishment for their not confomring to his bloated idea of himself by allowing the unwashed villagers to approach him.

There are AI's for people who want to travel without feeling like they actually went anywhere.

 

[MrMike]

With all due respect, did it ever occur to you and others that people arrived to the island, and this board, as happy go lucky people, and left miserable and disillusioned?

They arrived with preconceived notions of themselves and the world and were forced to view the world without the network TV filter and were forced to see themselves through the eyes of others.

I can't remember who said:

"Though you travel the world to find the beautiful, you must carry it with you or else you will find it not"

These people need to pack better next time they travel, the destination is unimportant.

 

[sokay]

Mr. Mike wrote:

So things being how they are and all your plan basically sucks.

Thanks for the reply. Actually, the idea I vainly hoped would gain me local immortality, if not a statue in a public square someplace, is that, after four pages of thread here, and years of street vendors chasing away tourists there, that there might be some discussion about genuine improvement to a situation that, after all, may not even be a problem. Probably we all know lots of people who actually like being badgered for money by desperately poor people. Especially on vacation. There's you, for example, and uh, well heck and lots of other people too. Nice people.

 

[MrMike]

Mr. Mike wrote:
Thanks for the reply. Actually, the idea I vainly hoped would gain me local immortality, if not a statue in a public square someplace, is that, after four pages of thread here, and years of street vendors chasing away tourists there, that there might be some discussion about genuine improvement to a situation that, after all, may not even be a problem. Probably we all know lots of people who actually like being badgered for money by desperately poor people. Especially on vacation. There's you, for example, and uh, well heck and lots of other people too. Nice people.

Well I don't doubt the DR could be a better tourist destination but there are many issues in line before street vendors that deter visitors and need to be worked out. Like the rampant prostitution, drugs, corruption and lack of a stable electrical grid.

What I was saying in a sarcastic and probably unkind way (excuse me) is that in order to put solutions in place that require infrastructure and organization it is necessary to first have the infrastructure and organization. We don't have it.