RE: A big namaste from India
sunanda. It's lovely to hear from you all the way from India. Glad you found an internet cafe to 'talk' to us from.
Your holiday 'home' sounds fascinating and I bet the weather is better than this dismal stuff in the UK. But today is DRY where I am and that's a pleasant change.:D
I look forward to hearing more about your travels - in due course. Have a great and relaxing time.
Moonfairy
x
RE: A big namaste from India
Hi guys
Thank you all for your greetings. Isn't it amazing that we can keep in touch across so many thousands of miles!
I just wanted to say a word or two apropos of David's complaint about 'tourists' taking over from 'travellers'. I have to say, David, that your feelings are quite common amongst the old backpacking crowd...and very understandable. But if you do a bit of soul searching, wouldn't you say there's a touch of superiority complex in there? Sorry - don't mean to offend - but why should you have that beach all to yourself. It's a bit selfish IMHO! Furthermore, have you considered that the local people, who are usually dirt poor in all these undeveloped locations are probably super happy to see mass tourism arrive, given that it brings in the dollars which can raise their standard of living, allow them to educate their children etc. I know that in the places I go, which used to be backpackers' havens and are now either 'overcommercialised and spoiled' or 'clean, hygienic, comfortable and with good broadband connections' (depending on your POV) the local people would rather have tourists than travellers any day!!!
Sorry, I don't want to be mean to you, but your view is a bit NIMBYish to be honest. And I bet you'd have a whale of a time in Goa! (Not that I've been there either - but people I know just love it.)
Lecture over. Have you booked your ticket yet?
Love
Sunanda xxx
RE: A big namaste from India
Hi Sunanda,
I quite agree with you! (1) Why shouldn't anyone or everyone travel???? (2) Tourism does help the locals, yes!!! It was purely from a personal viewpoint upon how things impact people like me.
In the example I gave, there was a beach of over a mile in 1990 with NO-ONE on it (well, 2 guys in the far distance). Five years later it's all discos and beach chairs. So right back at you :Dthere are many places like this that once were, as it were, "my" (or other peoples') secrethaven. They are now gone - simply gone.
It's like turning a lovely English forest into an ugly housing estate. I think everyone will have seen that happen and know how awful it is to see. You don't really think that those people needed homes or that it paid builders' wages. You see a blot on the landscape.
But I accept the process. ;)Things change.
On booking, I was actually online now to choose my date if I can. This is a detail, but I'm not in London and was going to get a visa via an agent ... but I can't release my passport. I need it for vital ID, for other things,for over a period of9 days yet. :eek:So another few days of delay.
Enough of that and me. I'm sure all would like to know anything you can tell about your time there and experiences, though it may not be new to you. 😉
Well, I will if I may use your thread to tell of a book I just picked up and began. "Indian Summer" by Will Randall (2004). A true and recent story. He was a teacher working in a terrible London school where he couldn't teach but spent the whole day getting abuse and - you know the kind of school. A deprived area. On a schooltrip to a museum the kids just ran riot. He was shellshocked each day.
Anyway, at that museum an old European lady approached and said, "You seem to need help, and I used to be a teacher when young." She had the knack of bringing them under perfect control, but no-one else could. He hated the job.
She said, "I can see that you hate this work. I am going each year to India with much luggage. If you can help with my luggage I will pay you." He agreed and landed at Mumbai with her. And gets utterly shell-shocked by the noise and crowds of course. 😉
Once he's delivered her to an inland place (where she has a rich, old boyfriend), he's free. What to do? Run or fly right back to England? Probably! But he sits in a cafe and a young lad sits across from him. After the usual question of "Where are you from?" comes "What do you do?" And Will Randall tells that he's a teacher (a profession he's ashamed of, actually).
"I have a father, and he has a school. Well, not exactly my father, and it isn't exactly a school. Please would you like to see it? I have a scooter."
Will really doesn't want to go but ends up going. To cut a long story short, a good man who works as a sweeper uses all his money to run a "school" for homeless young children in the Pune slums. And Will ends up taking over and making something really great of it.
I tell this story as it's amazing - he never made one decision! The old lady grabbed him at the London museum, and then the young boy grabbed him in the Pune cafe. From living in hell daily to being utterly fulfilled! How wonderful ... 🙂
V
RE: A big namaste from India
Great story V.
My prediction - as world travel becomes less respectable and more expensive (give it 10 years - Global warming/ the Russians controlling the oil supply) the world will calm down again and only the dedicated will travel - oh and thevery rich. Andwe will return to a world where there are only two gays on the beach. The rest of us will be lucky to afford the train fare to Bournemouth or we can rediscover the joys of long distance cycling. My Dad was regularly packed off ON HIS OWN from the age of 11 to cycle to visit his aunt up in Bedfordhire. He livedin Streatham. It seems absolutely extraordinary. He was a great cyclist until he was 19 or so and had an ambition to cycle to La Scala in Milan - that meant over the Alps -and back in 2 weeks. Thatcured him of his love of cycling.
But I digress.
Dear Sunanda, it's great to hear you are safe and well and happily enjoying your visit.
LOL,
Sharonxx
RE: A big namaste from India
Hi all
My reply to Venetian was sitting a little heavy on my soul as I knew it was a tad holier than thou. As is so often the case, I was sort of playing devil's advocate, because actually I have been 'guilty' of experiencing the same feelings as David i.e. bemoaning the advent of mass tourism coming to some little backwater that was previously 'all mine'. David's reply to me clarified things - of course it is horrible when a pristine beach is covered in concrete boxes and taken over by Sun readers knocking back the beers. And my point about the locals needing the money was ill thought out too as so often they go for the quick buck and ruin a place, rather than consider the future. That is why sustainable tourism is so important - and so often not implemented! I have never been there but I have an inkling that Costa Rica may be getting it right with its emphasis on eco tourism. I do hope so. Actually, you don't even need to go to the third world to find people screwing up the environment - on the coasts of Spain and Portugal so much water is being diverted to the hotelswimming pools and posh golf courses that the farmers inland are suffering drought conditions and failing crops. Indeed people are short sighted.
Anyway, having got that off my chest and breathed a sigh of relief that I haven't offended anyone, I am going to start a new post to tell you about what is going on where I am right now!
Love
Sunanda xxx