Why Kerala

December 2018

 

 

Me, the lover of dry and mountainous landscapes, in Kerala? That doesn’t fit, does it? That’s right! And also not….

 

2006 was my first and last time in Kerala. Although I liked the backwaters and Kochi, one of the things that bothered me was the heat. And in 2014, when I stayed longer in Goa, I made up my mind: never again in South India! The green landscape didn’t take my breath away, the aforementioned heat paralysed me, I found the beach boring and I didn’t particularly like the food either. The fact that I’m here after all, and happy too, is a little story….

 

Some years ago I met Sumesh from Kabani Tours at the ITB in Berlin. I immediately liked him and his tourism concept, for which he had just received the To Do Award. But Kerala? Shit, that’s in the south and I shrugged my shoulders regretfully – and kept him in the back of my mind.

 

Then, a few months ago, Mrs G. approached me and asked me to organise a trip to the south with lots of encounters. I dredged Sumesh up from my memories and made an enquiry. He now had a colleague, Sreejith, who is responsible for organising tours. The contact was great, a tour was worked out and Mrs G. liked it so far so good.

And the Kamerakidz?

 

In summer/autumn, I received more and more small cameras for the Kamerakidz from kind people. At the moment, however, only the children in Zanskar are continuing. And so I thought back and forth for a moment and decided: a new Kamerakidz project should start. Would Kerala be a good idea in conjunction with Kabani Tours – and thus an extension of the destinations on offer, which I know a little better myself?

 

I will come to the Kamerakidz and the place Mothakkara in the following posts, here it’s about Kabani. They have their office in Kozhikode and were very keen on the idea of starting a Kamerakidz project in the Wayanad district. And they all turned out to be just as lovely people as Sumesh, with whom you immediately feel at ease.

 

They are developing new tourism concepts in India that are absolutely fair. Like me, they are concerned with ensuring that travel costs are well distributed and that travellers get much more insight into India than ‘just’ sightseeing. It’s very much about village tourism, where you meet people in a completely different way and gain a better understanding.

 

A Workshop

And yesterday it even became very concrete! There is another village in the Wayanad district where a) they want to start with tourism and b) the farmers want to create their own brand with their products. There are 12 interested farming families and yesterday some of them came to a kind of workshop.

 

The Kabani people asked what the people’s fears were – and were able to dispel them well: cleanliness (I think everything is very clean here), influence on the daily routine (no problem, that’s why the travellers come), language/communication (there will always be someone in the village for communication and cooperation and organisation – and someone always speaks enough English for the basics) and the possible shyness of the women (experience shows that it’s not really a problem). As there are already 2 villages that work together with Kabani, they have already been able to share a lot from their experiences.

 

Then they looked at what activities the village had to offer, be it special groups, co-operatives for talks, nature experiences, people with special skills, festivals, arts and crafts, local stories to tell, and so on. They gathered a lot together. This village has a lot to offer, especially in terms of agriculture. They then thought in small groups about how long something could take and how much money it would cost. However, it is clear that this is a process anyway, i.e. you realise what is in demand, how something can be redesigned in reality, etc.

 

Then, for quite a long time, it was about financing and marketing and also about better product sales markets. For example, they have the problem that biodynamic farming is practised and their products are only sold at the same price as ‘pesticide, artificial fertiliser, etc. products’. And it’s in the basement anyway. Tourism would be a helpful additional income. And you could think about the product range in a different way, such as developing a new brand with processed products (there is a lot of coffee grown here and I am often offered some – enriched with spices. That would be an idea, for example, to produce it as a finished product). In between there was a delicious lunch, a walk and chats. Great atmosphere, lovely cheerful people – I’m already looking forward to taking travellers there.

 

Here are some photos from the Meeting:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fact that so few women were directly involved is still due to the male society – but women will make up a large part of the realisation (and also the ideas). I can already see that in ‘my village’, where I have a lot of contact with women.