DAY 24 GOA, INDIA

OK, if you have read any of my blog posts you’ll know that I just have to comment about the weather -- it always being far hotter than I would order up if I ruled the world. The temperature for the day was 105 F with 83% humidity -- an environment completely not fit for mankind in my opinion. On the positive side, however, my survival strategies seem to be working fairly well and I made it through the day, although I am not able to wander casually about in the full sun like some people. In fact, I found it amazing to see all the people walking around without even sweating. Witness the power of acclimatization. The only other positive aspect is that I haven’t applied moisture lotion to my skin in days -- the humidity takes care of that for me quite nicely.

Our ship was the largest cruise ship that has even docked in Goa, so some of the locals came out to see it. Goa is about halfway down the western coast of India, on the Arabian Sea (the Indian Ocean is on the eastern side of India, in case you were wondering). Goa is a vacation destination due to it’s beaches although we did not get to see the resort areas. For many centuries, it has been the central source for spices shipped all over the world (especially to Europe). For 450 years it was owned by the Portuguese, who were defeated by the Dutch for a relatively short time, who were in turn defeated by the British.

In general, it looks very tropical with lush vegetation and trees that contrast with the red earth -- such a change from the desert countries we’ve just seen. It is one of the wealthiest states in India (due in part to the port and it’s spice trade but mostly due to tourism) and has one of the highest percentages of educated people. It’s history is evident by the fact that 30% are Catholic. We did not see huge numbers of people as I expected to see in India, but perhaps that was due to the fact that we went to less populated, inland towns.

We took a tour to a spice plantation and to a temple for Durga (goddess of peace), about a 1.5 hr drive away from the port. Our first impressions of the place were greatly influenced by the fact that our ship was docked at a working port (huge piles of coal, large oil tanks, barge-building facilities, etc), which was interesting but not pretty. Our bus drove along the water for awhile and then turned inland a bit through several small towns. Roads were narrow and windy, filled with trucks, cars, public and private busses (the private busses were gaily painted), 2-wheel vehicles, and bicycles. This made for interesting driving. Apparently the strategy is to beep your horn at every curve, at every potential obstacle, at everything you might want to pass, and perhaps just for the heck of it, I wasn’t sure. (We generously tipped the driver at the end of the tour, but I’m not sure whether that was for getting us safely there and back or for his virtuosity on the horn.) And different vehicles had different horn tunes -- our bus horn sounded somewhat like a musical trumpeting elephant. Passing was an interesting experience. There were many times when our bus passed a large truck with only an inch or two to spare. I just sat back and watched and assumed that whatever was meant to happen would, or would not -- no sense getting worried about it.

The road through each small town was lined with market stalls, mostly selling fresh food but also some goods. Closer into the center of the town there were shops selling almost everything you can think of -- many buildings looked closed down. Living structures came in a wide variety. There were a few rather grand, brick houses painted in lovely, bright colors. Most of the houses were very small, unpainted brick one- or two-room huts and some houses were simply stick and mud structures. No matter the style of house, all yards were dirt, no landscaping, with occasional cows, and all houses were shaded by the trees (once again, such a contrast to the desert countries).

As we walked down a shaded lane into the spice plantation central area, we were greeted by a shower of flower petals thrown over us and then a group of women singing and dancing a typical welcome, followed by cold drinks. After refreshing ourselves for a couple of minutes, we were guided through the plantation. In actuality, this was a demonstration plantation, not a real working plantation but it gave us an opportunity to see the different plants and trees that our spices come from. We saw betel nut trees and fruit, star fruit trees and fruit, lemon grass, cinnamon trees (they cut down the trees at 7 years old and let them dry, which makes the bark dry and curl off), cashew trees and fruit (they ferment and distill the fruit to make a potent firewater), clove trees, black pepper vines (from which comes black, red, green, and white pepper depending upon how they process it), nutmeg trees and fruit (which also is the source of mace and allspice), curry plants (the leaves impart a nice curry flavor and is a different flavor from and no relation to curry powder), cardamom plants, Portuguese chili pepper plants (little, bitty chili peppers that pack one heck of a wallop), and ginger plants. All in a very tropical (translation: hot, humid, but shady) setting. Then we got a fab demonstration of how the coconut harvesters climb a coconut palm and then sway the tree over to the next one and hop from one tree to another -- a performance worthy of Cirque d’Soleil.

On our way back to the lunch area, we were refreshed again by having a ladle of cold, citronella water (which was kept in an earthen wear jug which kept it cold) poured down our backs. It was so cold it was shocking at first but felt great…..until I realized that it was not going to instantly dry like in Egypt or in Jordan -- the humidity was going to ensure that I had a wet shirt for quite a while (luckily, at our next stop there was a breeze and my wet shirt felt good and did dry out). By this time I had already tried my guaranteed-cooling technique of getting my bandana soaking wet and wrapping it around my neck. Sadly, this only works in dry climates where the water evaporates -- here it just made me feel wetter and not cooler. Drat.

And then it was lunch time in a covered, outdoor area. We were served a variety of curries, some hot and some not (thank goodness) with rice and a variety of vegetables and fresh fruit using plates made out of palm leaves that they just compost afterwards. Although people traditionally eat with their hands in India, we westerners were given utensils (for which I was grateful). Usually on tours, lunch is served in a big, fancy hotel and we can be reasonably assured that the food is safe to eat. I assumed the same here, but passed up the fresh food just in case. I had the chicken curry and discovered that it was full of bones. Apparently, their preparation style is simply to take a chicken and chop it into pieces, bones and flesh and all, without separating the meat from the bones. Then they just throw everything into the pot. The job of the eater is to separate the meat from the bones while eating. I found it to be an interesting variation.

After lunch we piled back in the bus for a 15-minute drive to the temple for Durga. (By now it was afternoon and really HOT.) As we walked down the road a little way from the bus to the temple, there were stalls selling refreshing drinks and on the steps leading up to the temple complex there were women selling strings of flowers and fruit to be used as offerings in the temple. At the temple, we had to remove our shoes first before entering and, alas, no photos were allowed. In the days of the Portuguese rule, the Portuguese destroyed many temples in their attempts to convert the population to Roman Catholicism, so the local people moved the statue of Durga to different locations to hide her. The people were eventually able to build a new temple in 1738 and that is where she now lives. I noticed many Indian families visiting the temple in addition to us tourists.

One item of note is that unlike Egypt and Jordan, nobody ran up to us selling trinkets. The flower ladies raised their hands up to us, full of flowers, but that was all. There were no beggars. I don’t know if we were particularly insulated because we were in a tour group, but my sister and I often straggled behind and would have been a target in any other country.

Back in the ship, we dumped our day packs in our room and went to the buffet to pick up tea-time finger sandwiches and salads to take back to our room because we knew we wouldn’t have the energy to go to the formal dining room for dinner that night. Back in the room we snacked, showered, did laundry (because I needed to wear the same clothes 2 days later), and collapsed. BUT WAIT -- Kung Fu Panda II in 3D was scheduled in the theater at 6:30 PM. And Po was making a special guest appearance if you wanted your photo taken with Po. So we hauled ourselves to the theater and ordered drinks (which turned out to be our undoing) and lasted about halfway through the movie. Unfortunately, the movie just didn’t hold our interest so we left and watched the last half of the movie Gandhi on our TV.