![]() In India people are incredibly patient about waiting for things and often a little more laid back in the punctuality department! I have a fair number of senior guests, a lot of solo women travelers and about 50 percent of my guests are first time visitors to India. She says her biggest challenge has been ‘adapting to the different cultural expectations between Europe and India. I encourage slow travel, walking, cycling, spending a week in one place so that friendships can develop and one feels the benefit of the exchange works in both directions,’ said Hartman who company offers travel packages at three levels - 850 pounds, 2,250 and 3,800 pounds per person all expenses paid. ‘The focus of the company is holidays based around Bhoramdeo Jungle Retreat as I feel Satyendra offers guests a real opportunity to interact on a more than superficial level with India’s rural citizens. Holidays in Rural India started about three years ago, once Hartman’s daughter started college. This she tried for sometime, and when it didn’t work (‘my daughter was still at school so regular trips to India were limited’), Hartman helped another former Green Gondwana employee set up his own, more wildlife-based, company Chinkara Journeys. His team at Green Gondwana asked Hartman to take over the company. When Ash died of cancer in 2007, he had been away from his home in England for 30 years. I visited the village of his friends in Bastar on many occasions and watched Satyendra’s beautiful lodge in Kawardha district in the north west of Chhattisgarh grow in Sunny’s creative hands, with John’s kind support,’ said Hartman. He set up his company to try to shape tourism in an ethical way so that he could protect the vulnerable people who had shared their lives with him. ‘I think everyone who met John was deeply affected by him for me, our brief friendship was life changing. Undaunted by Left-wing militancy in the region, Ash created a travel company called Green Gondwana which took small groups around the region in collaboration with tribals and ensuring that tourism did not affect several millenia old local traditions and culture. ![]() He had traveled around the world but since 1973 when he first came to Chhattisgarh, his heart lay in the Gond people in the Bastar region of southern Chhattisgarh. Ash, an Englishman, is a legendary figure about the Gond tribal people of Chhattisgarh. Then she had a chance encounter with a man who would change the course of her life. ![]() In 2003, she first came to Chhattisgarh where she met Satyendra Upadhyay who went on to start his own jungle lodge Bhoramdeo Jungle Retreat. I returned again and again, later with my small daughter (now 24 and about to establish her own India related business!) and finally learning Hindi when I went back to university as an adult to study for a masters in the languages and cultures of South Asia,’ said Hartman. Sophie Hartman first came to India in 1989 alone and as a backpacker. ![]()
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