Series
Goa was a 16-hour bus ride, due South from Mumbai. The movie was good this time, with Narayan translating the main events so I could follow the story. I was hoping to be able to sleep on the bus after spending the past 3 out of 4 nights on various transports, I didn't realize that we had to go over some serious mountains. Instead of sleeping I was holding the arm rests of my seat to try to not get ejected at every turn the bus took. The bus had to stop every hour or so as passengers were getting sick, but luckily there was no incident inside the bus. As for Narayan and I, we are lucky enough that we are not sensitive to motion sickness (spin training in the plane probably helped there...)
Despite being hard to reach by road, Goa is a wonderful place. We got out of the bus to a nice 30C, on a beach lined with huts that sell beer (in fact I wrote part of this story using Narayan's laptop in one such hut on the beach, until power suddenly ran out). I have decided to put my self-imposed rule of not drinking before 17h15 on hold for the Christmas break...
We settled in the town of Calangute, at the Miranda Beach Resort. Our hosts, Steve and Marie Miranda are Christians of Goan stock; they were born in Tanzania but returned to Goa in the early 70's. The resort is two minutes away from the beach, 1 minute away from Tito's, one of the popular clubs in town. Very quickly we made friends with Punkaj and Narinder of the Indo Arts Cyber Cafe in Baga, and from there our life in Goa exploded. We rented scooters so we could travel around the beaches (and the night clubs). Narayan found out at a road block that even here a driver's license is required. Nothing that a small bribe couldn't get us out of...
Goan food is amazing: basically a mix of Portuguese and Indian cooking with specialties such as Pork Vindaloo, Chicken Xacuti, Chicken Cafreal. The seafood is also amazing: tiger prawns or pomfret were on the menu pretty much every day. Pomfret is a flat fish that you can find only in this part of the world. I discovered it because it's name is very close to the French pommes frites (french fries) and I had to figure out what it was... I also came to the conclusion that the Lamb Vindaloo that my friend Phillip makes in Vancouver can stand the comparison with anything that is served here.
So for a few days life went on like this: wake up late, go to the beach where
we'd have lunch and beers, with a quick dip in the water when it gets too hot.
After sunset go home for a siesta, then dinner around 10PM and out to the clubs
until 3 or 4AM. For a $20 cover charge you get an all-you-can-drink deal at
Club Cubana in Anjuna. Once we figured out the way to avoid the road
block, we made our way there every night on the scooters. The return drive was
always fun, although not exactly what you'd call safe driving: we wiped out
once, and ended up in the river another time. All in all not a bad way to spend
Christmas when you are far from family.
To make sure that there was some cultural element to our visit in Goa, we took
the scooters to the nearby towns of Panaji and Old Goa. Panaji has a very
Portuguese feel to it, with its small streets and colonial houses. Old Goa once
had a splendor that was equaled only by Lisbon in the Portuguese world, although
today its a small sleepy town. Only the Catholic churches remain,
disproportionately large for the size of the town. It reminded me of Central
America, and felt quite strange given that we are in India. We ended up getting
a haircut and a shave at the local barber shop, and he parted my hair in the
middle giving me a local hairstyle. When I tried to change it to something that
I am more comfortable with the oil they put in there smeared all over my hands
and ultimately the scooter's handle bars... Not exactly pleasant!
Goa is a great place to hide from the Canadian winters, and as we left we vowed to return in the not too distant future...
India and the Kingdom of Nepal (gallery) (next entry =>) Goa India Places Friends Food