Life has been one hectic whirl since I joined with Far Horizon India as their Publicity and Sales Manager! In one short month I have traversed all four points of the compass of India from remote villages in Rajasthan to Kerala and then onto Assam where I joined with two Tour Leaders to do a reccie of the mighty Brahmaputra River. India has always been my Never Ending Story, even after almost 18 years of travel in this country there is still the thrill of finding new locations or new stories on old locations or just being able to delve deeper into the mystery that presents itself to the world as one country known as India. In fact India is different in every way and on every day. Every state has different people and food and expressions and ways of being.
Assam is a totally new location for me and is a relative new comer to the tourism scene. Traveling along the Brahmaputra River from Guwahati to Dirburgarh as we investigated locations for the launch of the Far Horizon River Cruise Boat, the Mahabaahu, I was reminded of a movie I watched many years ago, the story revolved around a farmer who believed in a dream where he was told “If you build it, people will come.” This is the current state of Assam. Everywhere we went the people were preparing for the tourism which will rightly come their way. What is exciting for me is that Assam has moved directly into luxury tourism, almost bypassing the slow build up which has happened in India up til now.
Where previously in India places were ‘discovered’ by hard core budget travelers – think of Goa, Ladakh and Rajasthan,think of crowds of badly behaved Israeli tourists and clashes with local cultures – Assam has turned the tables on that slow build up and discovered herself, and quietly gone about establishing herself as a tourist destination in preparation for the rush of tourists who will spend more, stay less time and move on without too much impact on the local lifestyle. It’s a sad but true fact that budget tourism has almost destroyed the charm of some of India’s most charming destinations while at the same time not actually helped the local economy too much at all. That is not to say that budget places do not exist because they do but by and large Assam asserting her soverignity over the tourism market and that’s a relief for this budget traveler to see.
How could you resist a place with Wildlife spilling out onto the national highways, rhinos by the roadside, elephants in the car port, tea gardens shaded by jacaranda and charming villages in fields so green that you couldn’t fail to think that green is indeed God’s favourite colour since he gave us so many shades of it? And flowing so quietly alongside is the mighty Brahmaputra River, a river almost as wide as a sea and just as powerful. My most enduring memory of Assam will be the people who are building this field of dreams, people with vision and passion and enthusiasm to share their culture with the world. They will build it and we will come.