Kerala declaration on Responsible Tourism

As a follow up to the Cape Town get together, International Centre for Responsible Tourism in India (ICRT – India) took the initiative to bring together Responsible Tourism practitioners across the world to Kerala last week to review the progress that has been made since Cape Town. The Kerala Declaration noted that “Five and a half years on from Cape Town we recognize that there has not been as much progress as we would have hoped, nor as much progress as is needed if the travel and tourism industry is to contribute its share of the action required to achieve sustainable development”.

Read the complete text of the declaration here:
Bangalore © GP 2008

Katja Caro

It meant a lot for me to remain connected with people who came to my life. But some how in the last four years, I have been so bad at it. All I thought about was the work, work and work. I slept on work, I dreamt of work and I lived on the work. Some where down the lane, private life thinned into a public space where I almost took it for granted that others also lived probably like me.

Four years before, when I came back to Bangalore from Oxford, I met Caro in a photo studio who was struggling some prints. I don't know why, I ended up offering to help her, sorted out the problems and later even dropped a CD with the pictures she was trying to print at her office. She was the tallest woman I had ever seen and whenever we went for a walk, I could see people curiously looking at her because of her height. Even for a German, she was really tall.She used to jokingly say that she probably would never find an Indian man she could marry because of this.I think I can probably count the number of times we had met in the last four years. We stayed in touch, met once in a while, the last time was when she was in Goa a month ago. I had recently been there to be with a friend who was in distress and was sharing my experience there. Later she kept on calling me wanting to tell me something, but I kept on missing the calls or replied back telling I am in a meeting and will cal back ASAP, which never happened.

Coming back after three weeks in Rajasthan and another three weeks in Europe, I got an SMS from a common friend telling, there is something she wants to tell me about Caro. Again, I was busy running between airports, I managed to call only this afternoon. I don't know if calling earlier would have made any difference, but yes certainly for my consciousness. Because Caro died this evening after being declared brain dead for a week or so!

It seems last Tuesday, Caro complained of aches on her left hand side of her body and was taken through many tests in different hospitals. Being the stubborn person she is when it comes to doctors, I can imagine that she walked out on many of them. Finally before they could diagnose what it was, she had a heameroge, cardiac arrest and as my friend SMSed me, "Katja's heart stopd by 4pm".

I was again too busy to have seen that SMS on time, because I was in a meeting at the conference venue, looking at the last minute arrangements. Probably its time that I take it easy and start connecting back with people who mattered once in life or those who still matters. One hug is all probably what we might be giving, but shit, you never know that could actually be the last!

Even if I have been silent because of 'my work', I shouldn't miss another opportunity to tell people what they mean to me in life!

Life sometimes doesn't give another chance!

Pomze

Pomze is a boutique restaurant on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris. As the name says, it's all about Apples! From organic apples and different varieties of fine apple juices and ciders available, the place is an excellent meeting place as well.

The taste of Shrimps in curried green apple sauce and the crepe as dessert is still lingering on. As the waiter commented about our selection from menu, it was simply 'Magnifique'!

Bangalore GP © 2008

Couch Surfing in Berlin

more than a couch! this is where I stayed while in Berlin

Berlin along with Paris and London is one of my favourite cities. The past week in Berlin made me much more closer to the place, the people, its culture and sheer vibrancy of the cosmopolitan outlook. Going to Berlin for ITB means you are working from 8 to 8 and there is hardly any time left to go out and get a feel of the place.

The transport strike and the trouble to move around could have made my life difficult while I was in Berlin. Instead it was a pleasant experience mostly because of my host whom I met through couchsurfing.com. Those who haven't seen this website, please check it out. It's the best way to travel and to know local people.

After hosting couple of people in Bangalore from Denmark and France, now I have become a fan of Couch Surfing. Welcome aboard!
Bangalore © GP 2008

David Stott in a vending machine!

Being the .com I am, I was running to Gate 25 to catch my flight to Bangalore from LHR yesterday afternoon. Even in that rush, I noticed a beautiful photograph in a book vending machine and thought, "That's something like a David Stott photograph". I went back and it read: "Footprint Rajasthan - David Stott".

Wow! Thats a great way to see your fellow traveller and friend some 7000 miles away from home and that too in a book vending machine in London! Though I was the last person to breeze through the gate, I couldn't resist to take out the camera and capture this special moment.

Bangalore © GP 2008

Propeller Island City Lodge

one of the rooms we visited. This is the reading space, bed is above!
Sample this : "A room with a slanted floor which makes grandma's bed seem to fly. The wardrobe comes out of the wall, but table and chair have got to stay straight! In the rustic bathroom of natural stone you will find eggplant-coloured slate."

Sample another one:

"Definitely one of City Lodge's highlights. The diamand-shaped room is completely(!) laid out with mirrors and gives you the impression of living in a kaleidoscope. Caution: Very sexy!"

funky washroom!
The above are descriptions of rooms available in the Propeller Island City Lodge. If you think the above is crazy, then check this out : "In both coffins you can even slumber beneath closed lids! Exclusively connoisseur room for all those "Nosferatus" who cannot wait for that which awaits us all. Whosoever has second thoughts can creep to the bedplace below, safe within the labyrinth. Not only a unique experience for Gothic die-hards...an exquisite location on top of that!".

mood creator in every room. press the button and you are in the company of frogs and rains!

B had some of her friends staying in these lodges and the pictures are from the tour we did of the place. Bizzare is not the word. I could hear friends shouting, 'This is unbelievable!'. Yes it certainly was. Inspired by a book written by Jules Verne at the end of the nineteenth century which describes an artificial island that travels with its inhabitants around the world, German designer Lars Stroschen converted his humble guest rooms into a 'art installation hotel'.

Why waste so much money in the regular hotel rooms of Berlin, when you can sleep in such a place for 60 to 100 euros? Am not sure though, if I would want to sleep in a coffin. For the faint-hearted, there is a chicken curry (India!) inspired room. Check it out here:

Berlin © GP 2008

Redspective

"Recipe for something tasty:
1 Bucket of artist expression
1 Handful of brands we love
1 Tablespoon of eastern flavouring
2 Pinches of a Red past Bake briskly at high temperatures, and set to cool in the centre of Berlin."

This is 'Redspective': A designer shop in Berlin near Alexander Platz. Inspired the the history and nostalgia of the 'former Red East', this shop is now a sanctuary for East European illustrators and artists. Cynthia Carson, who spent considerable time away from her home in New Zealand learning Russian literature in Russia hit upon this idea with another German friend in last August.

Not sure if it was the nostalgia, but when I left the shop I couldn't buying a badge that was made in the 50's saying 'on the road' in Russian! I have it on my bag now. Really a cool souvenier to carry from Berlin.

More pictures posted on to my facebook album.

Berlin GP © 2008

Shakespeare & Co.

There is one place in Paris that I make sure that I visit everytime I am here. Opposite to Notre Dame across the river was built by Goeorge Whitman in early 50's while he was staying in Paris as a student of French language at Sorbonne. It was four years before that my friend Christian introduce me to this amazing place.

This is a readers paradise. A bed if you want to stretch!
More than the antique books or the vast collections this shop has, it's the ambience and the philosphy of the place that strikes you first. George while travelling extensively through Latin America was hosted and fed by total strangers through out his journey and was touched by the openness in which he was welcomed. It's the same philosphy that's still adorning the walls of the famous book shop.It reads, "Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise ".

The bookshop that's spread in two floors has couple of beds, reading chairs and tables for the avid reader to sink into the feeling of the place. The walls are history on itself, as its decorated by notes and letters and photos sent by George's fans from all over the world. For those who would like to get a feel of the place, there is a 360 degree virtual tour of the Shakespeare & Co bookshop here.

Paris © GP Mar 2008