Ron and Susi Gauld who run the very successful bed and breakfast Casa Fontana in Barga Vecchia which was recently voted in the Top Ten B&Bs in Tuscany and the top 25 B&Bs in the whole of Italy in the TripAdvisor Best Hotels 2012 Awards, are out and about trying out some of the bed and breakfastsa and hotels to be found in other places on the globe.
This month they are in India. Here is there report from Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu:
India is one of the BRICS countries which are expected to drive the world’s economy over the next decades and it has been fascinating to travel through the southern region including the States of of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Having previously travelled through Brazil, China and South Africa it was interesting to compare. While Brazil had appeared to us a dynamic bustling place looking to the future, India is still in most respects a 3rd world country. The economy may be growing but with a population of 1.2 billion (and unlike China’s also growing rapidly) the per capita income is pathetically low (1500 usd/annum is the average which hides a vast discrepancy between rich and poor).
Cars, even in major cities, are outnumbered 3 to 1 by 3 wheeler tuk tuks (many Piaggio Ape) and 4 to 1 by motorbikes/scooters. In major cities like Ernakulam (pop 2.1 million) and Mysore (pop 0.9 million) cattle and horses roam through the streets ignoring the swirling traffic which obeys few rules. It seems that the infrastructure is totally inadequate today and without major investment cannot keep up with the expanding population and their aspirations.
The only sign of modernity was of mobile phones which were owned by even the poorest street hawker, sitting on the sidewalk with a pathetic pile of fruit, vegetables or trinkets.
Food seems plentiful with excellent fresh vegetables and fish available everywhere and we saw little begging, less even than in British or Italian cities.
Education seems to be a priority with schools in even the smallest village (of varying quality: while there we read that over 50% have no toilet or drinking water).
Many Indians speak 3 or more languages; Hindi, English and their local language such as Malayalan or Tamil.
The state of Karnataka (which includes Mysore and Bangalore) is known as the Silicon Valley of India for it’s concentration on IT and literacy is high (over 80%).
India has beautiful landscapes wildlife and historic sites and has huge potential for tourism but until the infrastructure is improved it is difficult to see how it can spread beyond the obvious hot spots of Delhi, Agra and the beaches of Goa.
We travelled several thousand km by public transport including trains, ferries local buses and tuk tuks and over 100km on foot and we rarely saw another european except in recognised tourist sites.
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India will undoubtedly become one of the major economic powers in the future once the problems of it’s vast population have been resolved.
Article by Ron and Susi – Casa Fontana