"Octopussy Every Night"

Walking around the more touristic parts of Rajasthan’s white city, Udaipur, I kept coming across signs announcing what the headline reads – "Octopussy every night", more specifically, at 19.00. In fact, just about every guesthouse boasts a sign of this sort. I could only suspect this to be the title of a 007 movie.

The innkeeper confirmed my suspicion. He told me that the film, of course, was shot in Udaipur. The assumption seems to be that every traveller wants to spend his evenings watching James Bond. When in Udaipur; watch James Bond.

Although I couldn’t quite find it in myself to actually sit through the mind-numbing (yes, quite so) ordeal (and yes, quite so) that is a James Bond film, I had to look up a synopsis of the film. And it turns out 007, just like most other foreign visitors, found his way to the city’s main sites, with the Monsoon Palace featuring quite heavily in the film’s photography.

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“Udaipur is the best city in India. Most beautiful.” This, too, according to my innkeeper who might not have been entirely unbiased in making that claim. Nicknamed ‘the white city’, ‘lake city’, ‘Venice of the East’, and more, Udaipur most certainly has appeal. After all, it brought James Bond to town. The city has tourist potential, and its most visible manifestation, I would say, is probably the many signs, posters and wall graffiti promoting what must amount to hundreds of guesthouses and restaurants. Most of the posters have long since faded, probably in tune with their business. Many have tried. More are trying.

All around the central lake, there are places which cater to the needs – or “needs” rather – of foreign travellers. Between them, you are offered just about every comfort you can imagine. But the thing is; most of the travellers here are of the sort that roams around for some weeks or months – backpackers. Has no one told the local guesthouses that old cliché of backpacking being all about “getting off the beaten track”?

No, we are not travellers; we are explorers, or so we like to believe (kindly note the irony with which I write that sentence). Or if there’s nothing left to explore, we “go local” for a week or two, eating only what the locals eat, and so on. Then we jet off to the next tempting destination, enjoying a nice caffé latte before boarding the flight. I’m sure many of the locals we imitated for a fortnight wish they could afford that too.

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It’s easy to be fooled into that Eurocentric view that we can just go off the main touristic track and find our personal Shangri-La’s which nobody else has found. I’ve done the rounds myself, thinking that I’d found my personal little spot which had yet to be frequented by other travellers. My own little “Columbus discovered America” moment… Columbus, of course was greeted by people in every place he “discovered”, and I have thus far always managed to locate somewhere to eat or spend the night although I might have felt I was relatively far from any tourist track.

“Travelling broadens the mind”... That old saying is so hackneyed and unoriginal that it’s sure to give the shivers to any writer who tries to stay away from clichés. And yet it’s still laden with meaning. Unlike that intone of “getting off the beaten track”, which I’ve come to see as just another Eurocentric misnomer – one of quite a few.

Wherever you travel, there is always someone – locals, natives, autochthons, immigrants, call them what you will – who calls that place home. That someone probably cares little if you think you discovered the place, and will more often than not treat you with dignity and care, as you are both cultural exchange for them as well as a source of income.

That cultural exchange – which comes in near infinite forms – is crucial. It is indeed the main rationale for travelling, I would argue. If you’re a traveller you’re not going to discover ‘the lost world’. The discovery of people from different backgrounds than your own is a more than fitting substitute, though. Try having a chat with someone from the place you’re visiting about why you’d prefer to go “off track” and listen to why he goes about things the way he does. It will, to invoke that cliché saying, broaden your mind.

There is nothing wrong with travelling on a budget. There is nothing wrong with going to places a chartered flight will not take you. And there is nothing wrong with not spending more than you must when in a country which is less expensive than your own. In fact, I think everyone who has grown up in relative affluence ought to do these things for at least a couple of months of their lives to get those other perspectives. But allow the new perspectives to change you. Don’t change the perspectives by acting like someone you’re not. There is plenty to be discovered, but un-trodden soil is probably not going to be part of it.

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My innkeeper in Udaipur is, naturally, forgiven for thinking that any western traveller will wish for as many of his homely comforts while browsing the sights of the destination; whether Octopussy and 007 or continental breakfast. Ultimately, though, we got to sit down and have a conversation about his “white city” and its frequent starring in popular culture in India. It was one little conversation I didn’t get to have until visiting Udaipur, but a conversation which signifies the whole value of travelling. At least that’s my humble opinion…

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[As you can easily find numerous (and better) photos of the palace of Udaipur and most other sights online, I choose to accompany my little story with some of the sights which most made me smile]