Footprints on the Mountainside

The Tourism ministry insists that they want to promote adventure tourism in India. Like cultural tourism, etc. Basically what they want is more tourists.

There are fancy initiatives and Incredible India and what-nots. Yet, how much attention is paid to actually facilitating tourism? How much attention is paid to ensure that the tourists come? Sure, tourists come. India has been a hotspot for travellers for thousands of years. But, if we want more, what do we do to ensure that the people who we invite are able to come and have a good experience?

What we have in the name of tourism is fancy packages. Sure. That is one element of tourism. Yet, somewhere down the line, we forget that we are actually inviting people to experience the country. We have invited them. They are our guests.

Seth Godin shared an experience in a visa office and talks about several, really easy to manage things that could make the experience more inviting. Not just inviting, it could translate into better revenue from more tourists, convenient airline bookings, welcoming interaction…. I can empathise with this post so much. How many of us really enjoy conversing with a person behind thick glass, waiting in a place with inadequate seating that is in disrepair……. would we want to do business with such people? Perhaps…. if we needed the product. But tourism is not a need. It is a dream we are selling. Could selling dreams become more interesting in a condusive environment that says we are interested in you?

When I set up Wide Aware, I had a talk with my CA, who needed to know the nature of business for figuring out tax and things. It was a rude awakening to know that the Tourism Ministry’s invite for people to provide adventure services hasn’t made it to the Tax Office. There IS no category for adventure services. It was a pain figuring out “what we were”. We are not travel agents, we do training, but we are not consultants - we do outbound training and fun programmes as well, We do outdoor education, but we are not an educational institution…….. If the memo had made the journey to the  Tax office, it would be a simple matter of “adventure services”. So, we want to promote adventure tourism, but of course, there is no adventure service provider in India. Really! Please bring your own rafting guide with you. We have the rivers. And yeah, travel agents conduct wildlife tours.

Rafting reminds me…. the river rafting that we do uses water from the dam at Bhire for the rapids. There have been numerous attempts over the years to try and bring some kind of predictability to it, so that the adventure tourism that the tourism ministry wants can happen. Nah! The dam officials don’t work in the tourism ministry, therefore it is not their problem. Thus, there is no way of knowing if water will be available, or you refund your bookings until the rafting run starts. Granted, the water is released almost everyday, but try explaining to a tourist waiting with gear ready that “oops! You get a refund - remember the cancellation clause that refers to events beyond our control?”

Last year, Amita wrote about a similar problem she had with Brightlands resort in Matheran. The hotel had overbooked, and she didn’t get the room she had booked. She took a refund, and when she called up the hotel owner, he told her that refunds were against their policy!!! There needs to be some kind of a regulation for this. I am not speaking of consumer courts, but enough issues in consumer courts reflecting in your licence.

There are tourists, there are locations, there are providers. What needs to be done is making that confluence easy and enjoyable.

Tagsadventure,adventure-professionals,tourism,travel,travel-services,trekking,Wildlife Toursare applied to this post

I don’t know if this can really be called road rage, but something happened today, that got me concerned about how we act….

I was travelling to Powai from Borivli in  rickshaw for a session by Sankar on learning styles (that’s another post). I enjoy interacting with different people, and I was chatting happily with the rickshaw driver, when a motorcycle zipped past and overtook us from the wrong side. As the car in front of us slowed (for reasons unknown), the driver braked in panic, and this poor motorcycle guy was hit by our rickshaw.

I am not aware of the exact sequence of happenings, but it was abundantly clear that the guy lying flat on the road was suffering the consequences of his own “reckless driving”. The rickshaw driver and I got out of the rick as the guy struggled to disentangle himself from the bike. Thanks to the crawling pace of Mumbai’s traffic and the additional braking spree that happened just before he was hit, he was relatively unhurt except for a very bad scrape that was bellding quite heavily on his left forearm and  the matching side of his trousers damaged beyond repair. I’d call it getting off scot free compared with what could have happened.

Seeing the guy bleeding, I stepped forward to see if I could help, but my driver reached him first, and it was then I realized that the two of us had come out for different reasons. The driver collared this biker and hauled him to his feet and was just about to beat him up, when I interrupted him.

“Boss roko!!! Ise maar kyun rahe ho?” I asked - Boss, wait!!! Why are you hitting him?

“Madam, aapne dekha nahi, kaisi gaadi chala raha tha? Accident kota to?” he replied - madam, didn’t you see how he was driving? What if there had been an accident?

“Accident to hua. Galati uski thi, par bhugat bhi wohi raha hai. AAP use kyon maar rahe ho? Use pehlehi chot lagi hai.” I said - The accident did happen. It was his fault, and he is suffering the consequences. You or your vehicle or passenger suffered no damage. Why are you hitting him? He is already injured.”

The driver stared at me in amazement. It was clear from his expression that he honestly had no clue why he was hitting the guy beyond that that “it was what was supposed to happen” - in Mumbai, mobs sometimes bash up the offender when reckless driving endangers lives. Worse, my tone with him was also not that of anger… which was the standard tone of the innocent party after an accident…. I was sounding merely curious. He had no clue how to proceed in such a situation.

The cowering biker who was mumbling “sorry…. sorry” looked at me in equal amazement. It didn’t really fit his framework of “public behaviour” to be shown concern when he had caused an accident. His entire body language spoke of the acceptance that he was going to be beaten up.

I stood there, wondering what was wrong with this world, if people don’t even need to have a reason to hit a person who is already injured. I could see how shaken the poor chap was, and didn’t see the point moving his attention from the magnitude of his consequences toward being defensive in some conflict. Plus, how would hitting him add any value to what was happening? He had experienced the consequences of rash driving first hand, and I doubt if he needed anything explained at that point. What he did need was first-aid.

Such incidents happen in our lives daily. Be it aggressive people in buses, or riots after taking offense. I really see no meaning to this behaviour, except a declaration of a total lack of caring for the people around us.

Once, I got into a train to get off at Borivli. It was a Virar train. For those unfamiliar with Mumbai, Virar is further than Borivli, has fewer trains which are invariably crowded, and their passengers tend to be hostile to passengers who could use more frequent trains using these unnecessarily. It being a holiday and all, I thought it wouldn’t matter, and the train seemed to have space. This is the ladies compartment.

As I neared the door when Borivli came closer, one of the women grabbed my arm and pulled me back roughly. I asked her to let go, and she returned abuse. Her point was that I need to be punished for using that train. Standard punishment is that the person is not allowed to get off the train until Borivli is crossed, which gives the offender an experience of the inconvenience of the train frequency and a fear/understanding of the situation for further reference.

I do respect and fully appreciate the difficulties these people go through, but I didn’t see how this mattered in a train with plenty of space on it (by Mumbai standards). When this woman tried to manhandle me, I broke out of her hold, and simply pushed her away from me. I look deceptively tiny, and this woman was a heavy weight, but I have a whole load of pushing experience from 7 years of grooming and working with horses. She was lighter than a horse, she moved very easily, which put her off getting physical with me, and she satisfied her “outrage” by screaming abuse at me for the next 5 minutes till I got off.

Other women around rolled their eyes and made faces - all regulars on the same train. This woman stood there sweating and looking so unreasonably angry that she looked insane. She refused to respond to anything I or the other women said and just spewed hatred. That’s how I remember her as the train pulled out of the station…… sweating, red in the face, screaming abuse, and dressed like a middle class conservative woman…. I just wondered how frustrating her life must be, if she needed strangers to vent on…. travelling for about 3-4 hours everyday just to reach work and back…… I couldn’t find anger in me for her…. I was concerned.

Where does this anger come from? Why do we care so little about the people in out world?

Tagsaggression,anger management,behaviours,conflict management,experience,people,travelare applied to this post

This is the monsoon - the best time of the year to head into the outdoors near Mumbai! Before you lose that temptation striking your mind, let me give you ideas to put into action!

1. Go to Kanheri Caves (a couple of hours): No, I don’t mean to visit the ancient Buddhist Caves, though that can be a side interest. What you are to do is really look at the road as you drive through the National Park, keep an eye out for the numerous streams on the way and find a fun spot for a picnic. Get into the stream, splash all you like, and then go on to Kanheri Caves. Post links to your pics in the comments for all to see. Or tey any of the many picnic spots near Mumbai, like Manori beach, Aarey Milk colony, Elephanta Caves… the rain is not enough to stop boats yet. THIS is the time!
2. Go to Kondana Caves (full day): Drive to Kondivde village in Karjat, do the short hike to the caves, and have a bath in the curtain of a waterfall across the mouth of the Cave. Hike back and tell us about it.
3. Go White Water Rafting (one day, or overnight): While you can do this round the year, the water levels in the monsoon make the rapids on the Kundalika a specially thrilling experience.
4. Go to Matheran (weekend): The monsoon being the off-season, you are never going to find Matheran like this, misty, cool, dreamy and utterly charming. Travel around on horses, stay in a fancy resort an dget drunk….. do all the whimsical things your sanity doesn’t allow in the city and in dry weather.
5. Go and stay on a historical fort in some caves (overnight or more): Try Lohagad, Rajmachi, Naneghat……. Pack clothes and food in plastic bags, and just go ahead!

At least go out, splash in some puddles, drink hot tea on a roadside stall and have steaming pakodas with it!

Tagscaves,experience,monsoon,outdoors,rafting,travel,waterfall,weatherare applied to this post

Heh. This is an easy one for me to write, and if you really think about it, it is all stuff you know anyway. How many points for betting that you may not have thought of things like that?

One of the best ways of knowing if the promotion material’s claims and the experience match is hindsight. *ducks under the table*

Ok. I’m serious now. What follows are the real ways to tell.

1. Count the number of destinations offered, deduct 2 and divide by the number of days of your tour. If the number you get is greater than one, your tour is going to be too hectic to really see anything. The lower the number, the better. I like 0.7ish
2. Sleeping in a new hill station every night is not seeing the Himalaya. If you don’t have the time to do something special in each place, the pace is too fast.
3. Does your guide love the place he is showing you? If he doesn’t, you’re missing out on insights collected over years of experience - which is something you are paying for when you ask for a guide.
4. Ask to meet the guide before you pay. If your guide doesn’t go all enthusiastic about the place in ways not mentioned on the brouchre, you might as well save the money and travel with a road map and brouchre.
5. Does your guide speak the language of the place - even a little is good - but do you have someone handy to communicate with the locals?
6. Read what is being offered in the tour carefully. How much of it is statistics and luxury descriptions and how much is local information? You can be sure that the same will be reflected in your tour most of the time. So, if you want luxury, or if you want interesting stuff, or something else, reading up befopre paying up can be a good idea.
7. Ask questions. Before you pay, make an effort to read up about the place and ask questions in the meeting. Knowledge shows - even if it means admitting ignorance, but having a good idea on where to find out.
8. Do the people have a sense of fun? Self-explanatory.
9. Find out about other people on the tour and ideally, attend a group meeting to make your payments to get a good idea of whether you will gel with the group or not.
10. To find out if an operator is reliable - simply show an interest in an unlikely variety of tours anthropology and pilgrimage, for example. If they want to sell you anything you point at, get out fast. They don’t really care what your interests are, as long as you buy a tour.

Or come to Wide Aware

Tagsdestinations,experience,news,people,travel,writingare applied to this post

Getting out into the outdoors is not as tough as it sounds. Honestly, even though I provide the service, I don’t do any rocket science. Most of the enquiries I get are for outings in the Sahyadri from Mumbai. So here, I provide a detailed method of going about it.

1. What do you want? Is it a challenge, relaxation, exploration……? What do you want to do when you have this itch to get out of the city.
2. Narrow it down - For example, if you’d thought of exploration in the previous step, go a step ahead. Is it exploring forts, caves, sea forts in particular, fishing villages……?
3. Figure out other stuff you want - how would you like to travel…. bike trip, local buses, private vehicle…? What would you like to eat - local food, self-cooked stuff, full-royal resort meals…? Stay where - in nature, resort, caves, local homes……?
4. Once you have this, you’re ready to begin preparing. Simply put together all requirements and make a list of everything you will be needing. Fuel arrangements, resort bookings, routes, stocks of food….. whatever. Make this list as detailed as possible. Feel free to ask other travellers for tips.
5. Most resorts can be booked online or through agents. If you’re planning to stay in a village or cave, there are no booking needs of course, but you may wish to find out details on the village or condition of fort etc. Most of this is readily available online.
6. Put one day aside for shopping and preparations. Get your act together and be sure to go through your entire list.
7. That’s it. Leave on time and have a blast.

As a general guide, if you have figured out transportation, food and accommodation; there’s little that can go wrong. However, be sure to cross check all information you get, as once out in the rural areas, it is not uncommon to find unmarked roads, or those that have been too damaged to use, etc. Similarly, a trekker who visited a fort a few years ago may confidently tell you that the village is 10 min from the fort, when in reality it may be 2-3 hours. Information that seems the same from a few different sources is generally reliable.

This is probably the only place where an organized trip is stronger, as we have strong contacts in most places we operate in, and checking any changes in status of information are a matter of routine. However, many trekkers and regular travellers know enough of the place to help verify information.

So why am sharing this? Because my objective is not to sell tours so much as to get more and more people venturing in the outdoors and developing a love for the land they live in. If this helps people get into a car and head out of town more easily on a weekend, I’ve got what I want.

The people who come to me easily become capable of this within a trip or two, so its no real secret anyway. I think they pay me just because they like the company, or would simply like me to handle the hassle reliably.

Tagsadventure,travelare applied to this post