they have pictured the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple here.
If not for the fact that a lakh crore worth of gold and diamond hoard was discovered recently inside the temple, Rediff might not have considered putting up this picture.
The gold hoard - a small part of which is made up of offerings by devotees over the centuries but which is primarily made up of the loot taken by kings of erstwhile Travancore over the past 300 years - has made the temple particularly eye-catching for promoters of tourism!
The Kerala Tourism Development Corporation might be going out of its way to promote the state as a tourist destination.
But they do it only to feed the greed of rapacious operators and hotels. Already, Kerala is less than half as good as it used to be what with overcrowded beaches, backwater resorts, litter and dirt all along the tourist trail (after all, littering and dumping are in the very blood of all Indians, aren't they?, not much anyone can do about it) and touts and overpriced and poor quality services everywhere.
Already, visits by foreign tourists (who used to be regulars even in the past decades when the state was not yet discovered by north Indians) have declined and keep declining.
And second visits by foreigners - perhaps the best indicator of the true appeal of a place - are almost next to nil (unlike all those south-east asia destinations such as Singapore, Malayasia, Thailand, etc. where many tourists keep coming back).
Dont come to Kerala - you will be overwhelmed by hype and fleecing and unless you are just here for telling others back home, you will also begin to wonder why you came perhaps the first day itself!
A. CRIMINALLY EXPENSIVE ( OFTEN TO THE POINT OF DAY LIGHT ROBBERY).
B. SICKENINGLY CROWDED. EVERY ONE WANT TO COME THERE , TAKE PICTURES AND POST ON FB. MORE THAN RELAXING, MORONIC INDIANS COME THERE JUST TO TAKE PICTURES AND POST ON THEIR SOCIAL NETWORK.
C. NOT WORTH YOUR TIME. YOU ACTUALLY DO NOT ENJOY ANY THING.
INSTEAD , STAY HOME AND WATCH A GOOD MOVIE WITH FRIENDS AND HAVE SOME BEERS.
KERALA 'USED TO BE ' VERY BEAUTIFUL , PRISTINE AND WARM. I TRAVELLED IN 1992.
NOW THAT PLACE IS THOROUGHLY FKKED UP. TRAIN LOADS OF SO CALLED URBAN TOURISTS DESCEND ON THESE PRISTINE BEACHES, FORESTS AND BACK WATERS. IT IS LIKE PERPETUALLY CROWDED BEACHES, OVERCROWDED HOTELS ( AND THERE ARE A ZILLION HOTELS ALONG THE COAST) AND SICKENING EXPENSIVE 'SO CALLED ECO TOURISM'.
TODAY, TRAVELLING IN KERALA AS A TOURIST IS CRIMINALLY EXPENSIVE.
SAME WITH DUBAI.
FORTUNATELY FOR LADAKH THOUGH, ONLY FEW CAN VENTURE COS IT IS BY NATURE'S DESIGN. NOT MANY PEOPLE CAN WITH STAND THE ALTITUDE AND CLIMATE. SO , IT IS PRESERVED.
