|
India – the land to travel to, a haven of
tourism delights, a civilization to tour
through. Tourists come to India for its wealth
of sights, cultural exuberance, diversity of
terrain and in search of that special something,
an extra punch that only India promises and
delivers. Teeming with over a billion people who
voice over a million concerns in fifteen hundred
different languages, India is where people live
with variety, thrive on diversity and are too
familiar with largeness to let it boggle them.
Mud huts and mansions face off across city
streets. Lurid luxury and limp living are
inhabitants of the same lane.
From the smoky mangroves of the Sunderbans to
the steaming Thar Desert, sizzling cities like
Mumbai and Delhi to the scintillating villages
of Khajuraho and Hampi, from the heights of the
Himalayas to the deep blue waters around the
Andamans, India is travel heavan – a tour
package that frustrates and delights, as
demanding as it is rewarding.
It demands that the traveller be prepared for
its own strange forms of tourism offerings - the
crowds at Pushkar, for pushy mendicants at
Haridwar, for high commercialism at spiritual
retreats. But equally, it means that he be
prepared for an overwhelming warmth in the
people, ease of conversation, and to be stunned
into speechlessness by the beauty, sometimes the
manmade and often the natural.
But what exactly is it that gets two and a half
million people to pack their bags, book their
tickets, buy industrial size cans of suntan
lotion and enough toilet paper to supply the
entire population of Liechtenstein for a month,
and wing their way to India? Given that this is
the land of the Taj, granted too that tea,
tobacco, tempestuous democracy and terrific
travel are a great combination but surely that's
not reason enough.
There must be more because between truisms and
half-truths, India has inspired more than any
one place's fair share of travel lore. And,
perhaps that's what it is - the legends of India
- that's what inspires people from far and near
to travel here, to sort out for themselves
what's true and what's just a whole lot of
tourism pamphlet hype.
If that's what you're going to be doing, here's
a bit of India tourism mantra to help you on
your way: expect nothing and everything will be
yours. |
|
|
