travel talk can get tiring. toilet stories for example are rather uniform in their content. i try to ask pointed questions – don’t give them too much leeway to be factual. yes the guidebooks are helpful but oh do they bias the experience of every traveller who uses them.
we the talkers are ... a young man travelling with mom aspiring to give her a three week taste to take home to the girls in Jersey ... an eastern European woman hoping her daughter will get excited about speaking English .... two Himalayan based tour operators wintering in the south visiting family in Bengaluru and scouting Gujarat ocean front property.
one needs to be a little careful about letting the tourists run the narrative. though that is in fact the tour operators biggest drawing card – making the space inhabited by tourists as responsive to them as possible while still respecting some urge “to rough” it or “experience another culture”.
our favourite restaurant – shines with consistently good spice and ingredients – is 12 years old and now owned by brother number 2. he cruises tables and picks up vibes and offers the occasional opinion about local tourist issues like growth and garbage ... like out host Godwin he grew up on the beach. perhaps he too marveled as a young boy when visitors would come and stare at a sunset. "it was just a soccer pitch in those days."
we took a local bus a coupla weeks back – partly to say we did it – nice field trip into the easily managed metropolis of Chaudi ... i got careless and left my camera out of its waterproof container and the ensuing downpour put it out of commission for two weeks – testimonyy to the heat here it has finally dried out and is back in action ...
do not take one’s travel talk tools for granted.
