| The people factor |
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Friends often ask us what is the best place we have visited in over thirty years of travelling the globe. They want to know what we like best - which city, the smartest hotel, the restaurant with the finest food. Yes, we have opinions on all these - but we always come back to a simple answer. "It's the people we meet," we tell them, "that's what amazes us." Two years ago we met Shaheer, a tuk-tuk driver in Kochi, Kerala, on India's far southern tip. We were impressed by his professionalism and ambition, as well as his creativity and helpfulness in taking us to just the places we most needed to see.
Here is his tuk-tuk and you may have noticed the names on the front...
Putting our names on the tuk-tuk was the idea of Shaheer's two lovely daughters. They wanted to thank us for keeping in touch and helping to support them a little through the terrible time they and their neighbours are having during the pandemic.
Thousands of kilometres away, last year we met, Natalie, our guide in Georgia, a hugely talented young woman. This has been a bad year for her and her family as well, and we have kept in touch with her too. Covid has made us realise how very important tourism is to many countries - on a basic survival level. Many of the people we have met may not survive this pandemic - even if they never catch the virus. They may still starve or be unable to ever earn a living again. When you travel again, PLEASE pack a heartful of compassion and generosity. Many people you will meet may need a helping hand, even simply a smile or a decent tip, and certainly all deserve our respect for them as fellow residents on this planet. May 2021 be filled with kindness and turn out to be a better, safer year for us all. |
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