Day 41 (17 July): Goan Charms
Jorge and I flew to Goa this morning. On the way to the airport by taxi in Mumbai, however, we got a taste of Monsoon rains which weren't nearly as hard as I expected. There was no rain in Goa though. Arriving in Goa (about 500 km down the coast) was an amazing contrast to Mumbai as the place felt like an entirely different world. It was relatively clean with beautiful coast line and palm trees everywhere. In many ways it felt like what you would get if you mixed Costa Rica with Thailand. Goa was a former Portuguese Colony that remained part of Portugal until 1961 despite most of the rest of India becoming independent from Britain in 1947. It is also still predominately Catholic.
We took a our cab to our guesthouse which was in a former Portuguese mansion just a couple hundred meters from the coast. For the rest of the afternoon we explored the coastal area of Northern Goa: Fort Agura, Sinquerium, Candolim, and Calagute. We also had a nice dinner of Goan cuisine which is basically a fusion of Indian and Portuguese food, heavy on seafood. We followed that with drinks at a local bar where we watched some people enjoying their conversation and Feny (an alcohol made from Cashew Nuts.)
Observations:
1) Off season. Because it was the offseason, Jorge and I were the only guests in this huge Portuguese estate and only paid $8 a night for one of the nicest rooms I have ever slept in. During the season it would still only be about twice that much.
2) Airport security. This is a big ordeal in India. You scan your bags several times, must have tickets just to get into the terminal, get stamps, etc. They also manually frisk you after going through the metal detectors with separate lines for men and women. You also must be at the airport two hours early for domestic flights.
3) Portuguese influence. The Portuguese influence in Goa is still very strong. We had a cab driver who looked India, but told us his name was Rafael Fernandes which no doubt was Portuguese. Jorge was upset, however, that he didn't speak Portuguese, since he does. Also, the temperament of the people in Goa is much more European or Latin than in Mumbai which must be a result of the Portuguese influence as well.
4) Off the beach in Candolim, there is a large container ship that has been grounded for four years. Neither the company the owns it or the government wants to pay for the clean-up of the wreck. Its kindof strange that such a thing could stay in a resort-y part of a country.
We took a our cab to our guesthouse which was in a former Portuguese mansion just a couple hundred meters from the coast. For the rest of the afternoon we explored the coastal area of Northern Goa: Fort Agura, Sinquerium, Candolim, and Calagute. We also had a nice dinner of Goan cuisine which is basically a fusion of Indian and Portuguese food, heavy on seafood. We followed that with drinks at a local bar where we watched some people enjoying their conversation and Feny (an alcohol made from Cashew Nuts.)
Observations:
1) Off season. Because it was the offseason, Jorge and I were the only guests in this huge Portuguese estate and only paid $8 a night for one of the nicest rooms I have ever slept in. During the season it would still only be about twice that much.
2) Airport security. This is a big ordeal in India. You scan your bags several times, must have tickets just to get into the terminal, get stamps, etc. They also manually frisk you after going through the metal detectors with separate lines for men and women. You also must be at the airport two hours early for domestic flights.
3) Portuguese influence. The Portuguese influence in Goa is still very strong. We had a cab driver who looked India, but told us his name was Rafael Fernandes which no doubt was Portuguese. Jorge was upset, however, that he didn't speak Portuguese, since he does. Also, the temperament of the people in Goa is much more European or Latin than in Mumbai which must be a result of the Portuguese influence as well.
4) Off the beach in Candolim, there is a large container ship that has been grounded for four years. Neither the company the owns it or the government wants to pay for the clean-up of the wreck. Its kindof strange that such a thing could stay in a resort-y part of a country.
posted by Traveling Brian at 3:36 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home