"Ah," Richard nodded. "It would have been after your time; started in the 1950s, actually, the various Ministries got together with some private firms, such as mine, and set up regular Apparation points in major cities. They are generally staffed by a few of the local Aurors, or the local equivalent, for the protection of regular travelers. We had regular dealings with the Patil family of Mumbai; I was there on a regular basis. One of the hotels we did in the Americas was in conjunction with the Shahs of Bangaluru. If you get up into the north of the subcontinent, there are still areas reminiscent of the India of old, but much of it has become quite modern."
He sighed. "When International Exports was formed as a trade consortium in the mid-1500s, the world seemed huge and mysterious. No one person would underwrite a trading venture; A ship could be gone for years, many never came back at all. Owls took weeks to arrive, if ever. Before I retired, I could get a call on my cell phone from one of my clients in a Parisian fashion design studio," He pulled his out of his pocket, "everybody has them but the most traditional sticks-in-the-mud, telling me he would be needing silk and linens for his fall release. I would call a few of the fabric suppliers I knew in Hong Kong, have them send their catalogs around. Once something was agreed on, everything would be loaded into a shipping container or two and sent to the docks for transport by a firm like that Turkish shipper I mentioned. Part of a larger shipment going somewhere, insured and guaranteed. Even tracked, every inch of the way, to where everyone knew when the containers would be on the dock in Marseilles, and Father would have them picked up and trucked to Paris. Sure, I was back and forth to Paris and Hong Kong, and occasionally Turkey, getting contracts translated and signed, but it was all hotel rooms and meeting rooms, no sightseeing, no foreign mystery.
"It wasn't until we branched into project management, like when we built that resort hotel in Dubai, that I got to spend much time in any one place, use my free time to really see the country. It was fairly rare, like with my Turkish friend, for someone to invite me to stay at their house, become part of their extended family, immerse myself in their culture. Very few places in the world are more than 24 hours away from anywhere else any more, and most communication is instant, real conversations." He chuckled. "If I loaded my pockets with chocolate in Hong Kong, and hit all the public Apparation points when they weren't crowded, like in the middle of the night, I could be home in my bed in London in under four hours."