Travel & Tourism

"Most of us are locked up pretty tightly inside our "cultural cages", and it's the rare person that even BEGINS to see this about himself." People have asked me about this thing that I call "cultural cages", so I wanted to see if I could develop a clear description here, and apply it to ourselves and to those around us in cross cultural contexts.

Months before, having read about a large agricultural project on the slopes of Inthanon, our intentions were to arrange transportation so we could spend a few hours there. Now, as things are unfolding on the day, it appears that we actually signed up the website for a pre-packaged tour, of which the agricultural project is only one stop among many.

When many of us hear the word Dali, we are likely to think of the famous - or infamous - Spanish surrealist artist. You know… the one with the mustache, and the paintings of melted clocks in eerily empty landscapes.

A collection of timber, mud-brick and stone buildings - our destination - is dwarfed by the scree slopes and jagged crags of the 17,000 ft. mountain. This village is home to some fifty Yi families. One of the 55 official Chinese minorities, the Yi are said to be among the last to be "liberated" by the Communists.

Located on the upper, northern outskirts of Dehradun town, the small Paradise Regency Hotel is well situated to capitalize on this potential. Not trying to compete with the numerous and, on the whole, more upmarket hotels downtown, it works well for what it is. Rooms are often filled with wedding parties, NGO workers, tourists and educators or parents visiting their children in the many private schools.

Now heading south and east. The unseasonably warm autumn weather breaks, a front catches us, wild winds and rain, but the next morning the air is cool and clean as we drive down into the real south. We avoid the Interstates and follow small country roads. The pace slows. A different world and a different time. An article by Travel Writers Paul McIlwain and Linda McIlwain.