A neighbor of mine is going to Paris for the first time and asked me for some advice. I copied several pages from a book which catalogs 6 walks around the city and interesting factoids written by George Oakes when he was a NYT travel columnist in the 60s. The book has walks in 20+ other European cities – and even with all the new architecture is timeless and had been my constant companion when I lived in Europe in late 80s. Even in our fast paced world, some things do not change as much as we would like to think
I had developed for my outsourcing clients a primer on India (and a few other destinations) for first time visitors – coaching on culture, infrastructure etc. I developed the first edition a decade ago, and periodically updated with minor tweaks as I accompanied them on due diligence trips. In recent weeks, I have shared with several first time visitors who were headed there (thankfully without me – so I did not have to suffer through the joys of jetlag)
One of them reported back the trip was fascinating, my slides had been useful but added a jewel about her bazaar shopping experiences “heard every line under the sun -- how beautiful I am, what an aura I have around me, and what a deal I was going to get because I was the first sale of the day.”
Did I mention “Even in our fast paced world, some things do not change as much as we would like to think”? :)
