The recently published Lastminute survey has just confirmed that Brits are the rudest of all the travellers. I certainly tend to agree with that, but , I must say it is only applicable to the younger generation Brits who are brought up on the irresponsibility of party-drink-drug-benefits culture. In my experience most of the middle aged Brits have been charming conversationists and unbelievably passionate enthusiasts in exploring the the foreign cultures and scapes.
It is not a new fact that a Brit on a holiday abroad is totally different from a thank-you- yes- please Brit at home. Though one does acknowledge accomplished and passionate travelers like Chatwin or Woods, a typical image that a traveling Brit evokes in many a minds is that of a dead drunken idiot violently pushing it all up by the streetside, followed being carried by his mates back to the hotel. And if you have been to stag-spots in Europe like Amsterdam or Dublin, you would surely know to avoid the disgusting Brit crowd with their appalling definition of revelry.
Incidentally, around the same time of the lastminute survey, Radio 4 has aired this episode of You and Yours programme about the same problem. (Click on Tuesday Programme) I am not sure if it was prompted by the former, but it is surely an interesting listen.
Often in the segments of the programme it is highlighted how the Brits, though not exclusively, take the local culture and customs for granted. They either dismiss or ignore the local sensibilities expecting the natives to somehow understand and approve of their lifestyles. Easy examples are asking for Pork dishes in a Muslim restaurant or hovering in a bikini near a local settlement.
In India, while I certainly would not spare a moment's feeling to commercial tourist destinations - say, Goa, and Kerala , it makes me livid to see 'unadulterated' places being slowly poisoned. Havelock Island of the Andaman Archipelago, my favourite place in India, is being slowly subjected to same insult over the recent few years.
Greta Garbo amongst all asian beaches
Beach 17 or Radhanagar Beach on Havelock Island, India
If you talk to the natives there, they will explain their plight. Here is an extract from Lonely Planet India -
Well my family cant go to the beach and I can't go out fishing sometimes, when my boat's on-shore and men and women are sunbathing naked on the sand beside it. We don't take our clothes off in front of the strangers. They never see us like that, so why do they think it's okay and that we don't mind?
Anjuna Beach, Goa
The amazing bit of all is how these disapproving voices are lost . While one half of the country is fascinated by the fair skin, the other half is busy writing blogs how it is so wrong and immoral to be fascinated by fair skin even if it is bare and roaming in your backyard. The latter as I gather is called 'Feminism' in India.
PS- Photo Credit : Anjuna Beach, Ganuullu @flickr
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