"Mike......." wrote in message
news:hq30s3lbmfoje4ala13a0vc2b1kkgek80r@4ax.com...
> Following up to "William Black" wrote:
>
>>I sometimes wish that India would lose its almost fanatical desire for
>>small
>>numbers of luxury 'high end' tourists and try and get some mass market
>>stuff
>>going because small numbers of rich people spending shed loads of money at
>>Tata's hotel chain and round at the odd converted palace isn't actually
>>doing their economy that much good.
>
>>Mass tourism isn't pretty but the only place it happens in India is Goa,
>>and the Goan state government is working at its hardest to kill that
>>because
>>it isn't the politicians that are getting rich...
>
> Is mass tourism going to be practical in many places? The average
> holiday maker doesn't want to see anything nasty. Is that practical in
> India?
Oh yes.
I spent a few days in Ahmadabad last year and there's very little nastiness
there at all compared to Bombay or Delhi.
I went there on business but our hosts insisted we (I travelled with my
wife) did the tourist stuff as well.
It's reasonably clean, the beggars/poor tend to congregate in a single area
where they can be hired as contract day labourers, there don't seem to be
any professional beggars or cripples hanging about, there's absolutely
loads to see, all of it free of charge. Example include Ghandi's original
ashram site, now a museum but still with the paper and spinning wheel
factories he founded, the famous Mosque and the incredible Akshardham and
loads more. Interesting food, lots of picturesque camels and ox carts and
even a reasonable number of decent hotels.
We saw exactly one European family, at the Mosque, but they didn't go in
for some reason, don't know why, the staff were very welcoming...
Downside...
Ahmadabad is dry and dusty and on the edge of a desertified area, the centre
gets polluted in the rush-hour and it can get very hot there if you go after
March.
There are lots of places like Ahmadabad in India. It's stuffed with temples,
museums and interesting things, along with, as usual, good food.
But people have to learn to live with 'Indian stretchable time' which is a
sort of Indian version of the Spanish 'manyana' only more so.
Very little in India happens on time, but when something does happen it's
"no time to waste, don't you know I'm a busy man".
To me this is part of India's charm, to some people it's why they hate the
place.
--
William Black
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.
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