One Way Ticket

Here in the Maldives on Omadhoo island, 50 meters from our Muslim mom and pop Guest House, we sit. The rhythmically, gentle sloshing waves, with an accompanying cooling breeze, is creating an atmosphere which enhances our thinking about the two group travel experiences just completed. We now have the luxury of time to do this thinking, but did not while on group tour where we experienced a different luxury as the resorts and hotels were five star or more. We have experienced contrast in many ways.

The definition of a ghetto is a minority culture surrounded by a host culture while being confined and with limited access to the host culture. In our group travels, even though our group was small being only 12 people, we stopped at tourist destinations crowded with buses, cars, and other tourists. The only interaction with locals is as they wait on us with a smile and say “good morning sir” or “mam”. Upon arrival at destination hotels, the greetings are sincere, and we feel warmly welcomed by the locals.. For us, an important purpose for travel is to meet people and be somewhat more than an observer. We want to interact at a local level. Megatourism has the opposite effect, stifling a local reality to cater to and create a fake place and environment for the tourist. And, stopping the bus just to take a picture is not worthwhile nor meaningful for the most part.

There is a positive economic impact, of course, by this tourist industry. Jobs are being provided, but we wonder if there is adequate compensation to the workers. Do they and their family still live marginally with profits going to global hotel chains? We feel like we have been on a cruise ship without being at sea. The bus has been our ship, entertaining us, over feeding us and controlling our time and destination. That being said, we would not have been able to visit all the places we did with an experienced knowledgeable guide. In India, we learned so much about Hinduism and the south Indian culture. In Sri Lanka we were given an in-depth look at about 1/2 of the country side in a short period of time. Our guide was so personal and caring. We felt truly welcome to be in his country. These things we could not have done by ourselves.

While on tour there were times when we could venture out on our own. Free time was limited, but when available we used it to go out into the local scene. For example, wandering down the street to eat dinner in a small mom and pop restaurant where we felt like we were contributing directly to the local economy, and therefore being a more helpful tourist. This also gave us the opportunity to meet and interact with locals. It was real. Once we shared our table with a young Indian couple who were to be married. Their’s was an arranged marriage. We had a candid discussion about that type of an arrangement. The couple were enthusiastically looking forward to their marriage. On another occasion, we again shared our table with a young couple who were visiting Sri Lanka from the Netherlands. The conversation with them focused on different methods of travel. They were traveling Sri Lanka on their own which made the conversation very interesting.