Maybe it’s just me but when you travel to foreign locales isn’t there some kind of charm to having the “commoner” experience? Of going somewhere and moving (as my father says) “with the people”?
The Wall Street Journal called it “VIP Travel on the Cheap” but I think a better name might be (with all due respect to the anonymous maharaja in question) “People Who Want To Visit Foreign Countries Without Having to Interact with Anyone Who Actually Lives There”.
One of the hottest concepts in travel right now is the “insider” experience, where travelers are promised a chance to hobnob with celebrities, go behind the scenes where other tourists are barred and be treated like visiting dignitaries.Companies are selling tours of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s entertaining room, visits with Olympic athletes and drinks with an Indian maharaja — complete with an elephant parade.
Now, I’m not saying you have to go to India and tan in the Dharavi slum or drive an auto rickshaw around Queen’s Necklace during rush hour or do a load of whites under the oppressive third world sun. But, if you’re going to sit in a plane and make the commitment and fly all the way around the world to India, shouldn’t you actually try to see some of it?Candace, I ask you: Isn’t there some charm to riding in a cramped, crowded train car at the end of the day, even if you have to face the occasional indignity of being molested? Isn’t there some adventure to drinking contraband coconut water from the side of the road, even if you have to face the certain indignity of being cross-examined every time you leave the bathroom in your grandparents’ house as to whether or not you have loose motion? Isn’t there some connection to be made in an open-air market among the sights and sounds and smells, even if, lost in the dialects and language barriers and unfamiliar gesticulating, you don’t understand a word?
This “insider” experience, on the other hand, sounds kind of like the upper-echelon equivalent of going all the way to Bombay to order a Papa John’s Pizza. Which you can do now.
Part of me wonders if I’m being too sensitive and overly protective about the charms of a country I’ve never lived in because, despite that small irony, it’s always evoked a sense of homecoming I’ve never felt anywhere else in the world.
And to that end, I might have been able to look the other way, too, had Candace Jackson’s travelogue not meandered from the pages of the Journal to Talk of the Nation last week.
CONAN: Hmm. Looking at it for the other end of the telescope, as it were, for a moment, what’s in it for the Maharajah of Jaipur to offer a dinner?
Ms. JACKSON: Well, I mean, in that case, you know, the maharajas in India, a lot of times, sort of use their palaces as tourist attractions. There you’re, the special access you’re getting is, you know, a possible meeting with the maharaja himself. So, you know, on some level I think, for that one, the screening process to even be able to do it is quite high. So, he might just be interested in meeting high-profile Americans himself, or, I don’t, you know, I don’t want to speak for him.
Back at the ranch, Candace Jackson concluded her Wall Street musings with the following:
On a business trip to India, Jennifer Joseph used a travel agent to arrange for cocktails with the maharaja of Jaipur. He met her and a group of her friends at the palace gates, where they had arrived on a horse-drawn carriage, and gave them a tour of his home.“He was a little reserved, but very welcoming,” says the 25-year-old television producer. The maharaja asked them about their travels and showed them photographs of previous visitors, including Jacqueline Kennedy. “It felt like something out of a movie.”
He was a little reserved? Dude, maybe he didn’t want you at his house.
Then again, I take some small, delightful, giggling comfort in the fact that maybe this anonymous maharaja was not, in fact, who they thought he was but rather a re-patriated IT worker — with a penchant for cocktails, Western women and Adobe PhotoShop — exacting his revenge on a world that’s willing to travel to the ends of the earth in search of perceived realities.
heisenberg would have observed that to observe disturbs the observed and disturbs the accuracy of the observation but if one becomes the observed than one has observed without needing to observe and so the observation is uncorrupted
Barmaid –
Not to take away from your point and as appalling as these “insider” trips sounds, its not fair to say that visiting the Maharajah of Jaipur or hobnobbing with parliamentary or business elites is not the “authentic” India. There are many sides to India and this archaic, rarified world is just as much a part of it as a crowded Bombay train car. I’m not saying these tourists aren’t witness to some weird spectacle, but the Indian elite are, tourists be damned, all about the weird spectacle anyway.
sez he who has picked peaches in BC and cooked pancakes in quebec to pay for his lodging – brown blends like nobody’s business.
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Well put BM. Give us more this, in all its gory detail.
Neale
I’m all about and for the charm of the local experience. One of my most memorable experience was visiting my grandfather’s farms in Nasik and the most humbling experience of meeting the village folk who owned one chair to the entire village and brought me that chair to sit because I was a city girl. When I left they gave me bales of vegetables, grain and fruit and I was in tears at the pure love they showed me just for being my grandfathe’s granddaughter.
But I’ve also seen the luxurious side of traveling thru India, molestation free, gawk free, touch free, sickness free, air pollution free and I’ll be honest I enjoyed it. I don’t see anything wrong with it. I wouldn’t want to turn anyone away from India simply because I rather they experience India the grassroots way. It pumps money into the economy and that can only be a good thing.
I’ve experienced it the local way, hell I lived there for 14 years. I say you should experience it all ways. If you have the wealth to spend, do take the Palace on Wheels and visit Jaipur and live in some of the gorgeous palaces. Rent a luxurious houseboat and travel the backwaters of Kerala. You come back with a beautiful, positive and strong image of India. Nothing wrong with it.
darn! I must preview!
I was referring to this snippet of BM’s post. …Part of me wonders if I?m being too sensitive and overly protective about the charms of a country I?ve never lived in because, despite that small irony, it?s always evoked a sense of homecoming I?ve never felt anywhere else in the world……
To clarify: I’m not excluding the ritzy experience for a ride on the back of an oxen cart. And both extremes are important parts of the Indian experience.
But the maharaja thing was too good to pass up.
This reminds me of the time way way back when Carter was President and he visited India. He was bringing his mother along and she expressed a desire to see an Indian village. Within a week the Indian government conjured up an entire village outside of Delhi, made charming mud houses, filled it up with people and cows and everything and had it ready in time for Mom Carter. The village is called Carterpuri and it still exists though it looks rather decrepit now.
Divya,
Wow thats interesting. I had heard a completely different version of it. That the village infact existed but was “cleaned up and sanitized” for the visit. It was a village Carter’s mother had spent some time in doing social service before the partition and hence her desire to go there. I’m going to attempt to look this up.
JoaT – This is something I remember being told at the time. I used to live in Delhi and was rather young and very literal-minded. When I heard that Carter was a peanut farmer for example, I had the mental image of a poor, illiterate Indian farmer in my head and could not for the life of me imagine how such a person could become President. So your version is probably the right one, although I remember being told that they concocted this entire village.
But this one’s accurate – When Clinton visited India, they kept the tigers on 24 hour surveillance for an entire month before his visit so they knew all their moves and knew exactly where to take him.
I can’t help but think that some Americans, living in a 200+ year old republic, have an interest in monarchy and empire that is almost prurient. Let them have their little perversions, as long as both parties consent and no one is harmed.
“drive an auto rickshaw around Queen’s Necklace during rush hour”
Sorry to be bitchy about this but auto rickshaws are not allowed this part of Mumbai.
Only a Desi whould think of this example.
In my experience, it’s difficult for some “Westerners” to navigate between, enjoying what a visit to India would offer and being exposed to the more hard reality side of Indian society… Honestly, it’s not for everybody.
I donÂ’t see whatÂ’s wrong with letting people go on these trips. In the end it still brings in tourist dollars…
Mitch, I think you’re right that a lot of Americans are excited by the idea of royalty — I don’t know if it falls into the category of a perversion though! I suppose that if we did have them, they’d be like the Kennedys and the Bushes, and that sounds more perverted to me.
I can’t imagine paying to have drinks and get a tour with the maharaja — he’s probably 130 years old and boring — what could you possibly talk about? It would be a lot more fun to have drinks with a Bollywood star or something. Now there’s a business opportunity . . .
John the Raja of Bhuj who is my stepmom’s uncle is one of the most interesting people I have ever encountered. They all still live there in those massive mansions with pagentry. There is something very enticing about watching the whole affair. When you enter the palaces it’s as if nothing has ever changed, like traveling back in time. Of course half the houses are shut down so as not needing to maintain them. My step greatgrandfather for example had a bed made of solid gold and that kind of oppulance is something I haven’t even seen on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous so for the curious there is a lot of fodder in India. The Raja of Bhuj is around 80 I think but a tall man who speaks in very fluent English and has some incredible stories to tell about the British raj. For me that was the fascination factor.
You cant drive auto rickshaws in Downtown Bombay. They are not allowed beyond the suburb of Bandra
Haha, I came in to check comments to see if anyone had made that correction yet. =p“It would be a lot more fun to have drinks with a Bollywood star”
Not Really…even if they throw in a ‘dishum’ dance number.
having roughed it through 15 of india’s states before I turned 20 (and met a couple of maharajas myself), i can completely understand your frustration. however, you forget that it brings in a lot of dollar$ for the locals and, of course, the maharaja himself who is probably close to broke having lived his eccentric, royal lifestyle unchanged. despite the fact that they might be interesting characters, even a maharaja’s got to eat.
on an unrelated note (for #15): here’s an article from the hindu on carterpuri…