After I left Delhi (where I almost missed my plane because I was in the airport FabIndia - shopping bags and pillow cases) I arrived at the only airport in Goa. I had made a reservation for a room (I now possess the amazing phone machine) while I was waiting for my plane (before I discovered FabIndia) at the Mayfair Hotel in Panjini (more commonly known as Panjim - three side notes in one sentence - good job!) which is the main town in Goa. My flight was uneventful (especially considering my new 'situation', luckily I was on the aisle) although I did sit beside a newlywed couple. The husband was from Birmingham and the bride from India. Did I mention that the area around Delhi is absolutely chock-a-block with wedding halls. They are all lit up and fancy. I can only imagine the cost of these weddings. We saw processions with horses, fire works, limos, massive amounts of people. Crazy. My seatmate agreed even though he had just done the same thing.
Once I landed I took a prepaid (long and very expensive) taxi to Panjim. By the time I got to my room it was after 6. I was pretty tired and dehydrated so I just stayed in my room for the evening. There was TV! I watched 'how I met your mother' & 'Bones'. Besides being crazy tired, I was still pretty much ok. The next morning (Thursday) I loaded up with Imodium and headed out to explore the city. It is very lovely and quite small. It reminds me of Mexico. It was founded by Portuguese Christians so the buildings are familiar. I did a bit of shopping. I bought my first pieces of jewelery. Side note - I have bought some gifts but this time I am saving them for Christmas or Birthdays because I always kick myself come December. If I get all excited about my purchases and try to give them to you, don't let me. I bought nice stuff.
Wandering around Panjim.
The Church
The big white Catholic Church in the centre of town.
The steeple.
Inside the church.
The view of the main street from the church steps.
The River
A House Crow at the river.
The river.
Fishing.
The town
This is the main tourist `street`, more like a little alley. The bikes are parked like that everywhere.
Construction sites in India involve a lot of sticks.
A little shopping break from sightseeing.
After a few hours of shopping and intestinal discomfort, I found a Coffee Day because I know what to expect of their bathrooms. While I was sitting there waiting for a menu, I remembered (at 2:30 in the afternoon) that it was my birthday. So I ordered a mocha ice cream and brownie sundae. It was delish.
I was definitely missing Judy by now. I was sick and lonely. Of course, Judy was lucky to get out when the getting out was good. I would not have wanted to be sharing a room with me those few days.
One of my goals for my first day was to find the bus station. The lonely planet said that there was a rail ticket window at the bus station so I could buy my train ticket to Bangalore. It took me all day (of not trying too hard) to find the station. There were a million buses in all directions. Eventually, someone directed me to the first building to find the train window. I see at line up at the first building. I wait a few minutes before I realize that I am in line for the dairy counter. I guess this kiosky building wasn't an actual building. When I found the station, I had to agree, the station was an actual huge building. It was in a circle shape with dozens of little shops and ticket windows. I wandered around for a while (the Lonely Planet said the window was on the first floor). I asked people who would point in the general direction. But in a circular building, this is not helpful. I asked the info window, who pointed. One of the wonders of India is that if you ask one person for directions, eventually another person will find you and tell you where to go. I can only imagine how many people have to participate in the 'telephone game' before one of them is elected to help the foreign girl. It turns out that the rail window was on the second floor, I didn't even realize there was a second floor.
The Bus Station.
I arrive at the bus station.
You can see how well organized it is.
From the second floor.
So I enter the rail ticket room and everyone is holding a yellow ticket. There is a big sign that says ' NO QUEUE - Get a number'. But I cannot for the life of me see where to get a ticket. I ask the person in the room who looks most likely to speak English. She points. There is a window to get a ticket to go to another window. Ok. So I dutifully stand in line while the ticket man chats up two girls. Then some man butts in and gives the man $10R. Apparently, you have to pay for a number. So I buy my number and wait, filling out the incomprehensible form I was given.
Eventually my number is called and then immediately passed over. I, of course, just forced my way in front of the next guy but I mention this because for the rest of my visit, the numbers were all wrong and I kept getting interrupted by people whose number was called too early. When I finally get to talk to someone, it is a women who claims to speak English. Ironically, there is a big sign in her window that says, and I quote, 'Communication Failure'. I don't know why it was there, but it was possibly the most accurate sign I have seen in India. I had tried to fill out the form while I waited but I didn't know what to put. I wrote Goa as my departure point and Bangalore as my destination but I thought I might have to buy one ticket to Mangalore and then another to Bangalore.
So I explain to the ticket lady that I want to go to Bangalore for Feb 19. She ignores me (I assumed but she was actually doing something to do with my ticket - she just didn't bother to speak). Then she gave me back my form and told me I had filled it out wrong. I needed to put a different departure point and arrival point. She told me the names but I could not understand what she was saying. I asked her to repeat, she repeated, I still couldn't understand. That went on for a while. She refused to fill in the names herself (why?) but eventually one of the several people crowded around me (looky-loos, number issues?) told me what to put and spelled it for me. Then she shoved a ticket at me and I was dismissed. But I had questions. No questions allowed, the next number had been called! So I left. But I had a ticket and a sleeper bunk leaving Goa on Feb 18 at 2:30 pm and arriving in Bangalore at 5 am on Feb 19.
The train ticket office. The number giver is on the right.
My ticket seller. Note the prophetic signage in front of her.
It was dark by then so I just headed back to the hotel for my American TV fix. I really didn't feel well and I couldn't face dinner so I bought two packaged yogurts and a small bag of nuts. I think the nuts were a serious error. That was a bad night once the Imodium wore off. I got no sleep. And the nuts - well, I will just leave it with the serious error comment.
The next day, I got up early to take a 'Backwater Thrills' tour. It was a boat up the Mandovi River to a spice plantation for a tour and lunch. I was mostly interested in the boat trip, I figured that there would be lots of birds on the river. What was I thinking, you ask, taking a many hour boat trip in my situation. The Imodium was doing its job, plus by then I was into the prescription stuff. They were at least holding things in check during the day. But I was so tired and dehydrated and hungry that I could barely keep my eyes open. Plus, there were no birds. I got one bird, a woolly necked stork, for the whole day. I fell asleep. then we arrived at the spice farm and had our tour. It wasn't as good as the one from the hotel in little Tibet. then lunch, standard group tour fair, which I could barely eat. I even missed the spice counter where I was at least going to buy some spices for Vivienne. (Sorry Vivienne). Back on the boat where I fell asleep again, this time in the sun. Nice forehead burn.
The river boat montage.
I was told to find the Santa Maria for the River Cruise. So I took this so I would have a picture of the boat I was on. But when we boarded we were led onto the boat and then off again, onto the next boat tied up on the other side. So this will have to do.
A ferry across the river.
There were hundreds of these boats. They collect sand from the bottom of the river by scooping it up in buckets attached to those long poles. You can tell that this boat is full by how low in the water it is.
Watching the boat dock.
Disembarking
A pond.
Egrets on th pond.
A water snake near my lunch table.
Our tour guide, Martin.
These are the rusty big sand boats that the rickety little sand boats empty into.
There were lots of these awful sites along the river. Another cog in the river stripping machine.
New day - Friday 6pm. I am now in Bangalore, killing time until Suresh shows up with my bag at 9 to drive me to the airport. Something is biting my foot! I hope it is an insect.
But back to Panjim. . After the boat returned to town, I just went to the hotel to sleep. I was so hungry and tired. Believe it or not, for all of my travels, I have never had to use Imodium before. Whatever was living in my gut was draining me (haha - in more ways than one! - remember, I share because I care). I was exhausted. And I just couldn't keep up with the food and water. I was starving but I couldn't eat. Not fun.
The next day was Saturday - CARNIVAL!! I think I posted that morning, I was not very coherent, I'm sure. I can't even remember where or what I ate but I managed something. Then I headed to the water for the big Carnival celebration. I got there early and sat on the river wall.
Sitting on the river wall. It was breezy.
I really wasn't too sure if the parade was on the road or on the water. It turns out it was the road. To get to the river wall, I had to scale a bit of barrier because they had blocked the entire sidewalk. I didn't even give this any thought.
Waiting for the parade
When I first arrived, not too many people. If you look closely, you can see the 'barriers' which were just make shift fences but high enough to be difficult to cross.
A Carnival poster.
The ferry arriving, there were so many people arriving.
The crowds starting to mass.
The vendors arrive and set up.
Eventually the street filled up with spectators and the parade started. It was insane. Huge paper mache heads and entire eco-systems recreated on flatbeds. I tried to take pictures but my batteries eventually died and I didn't have backups. Just as well, how many floats does one need.
The parade.
The most incredible thing about the parade (at least for me) was the dancing. There were tons of troupes of young people, men and women, dressed in sateen, doing synchronized dance numbers. 1st, we would never be able to convince that many young men to put on sateen (Purple!!) let alone show it off in front of 1000s of people. 2nd, the dance numbers were pretty elaborate and the parade route was long. But they were still dancing away and smiling to beat the band. The music was overwhelming.
The dancers.
These poor guys didn't even get to wear pants. They were supposed to represent 'farmers'. For some reason, at least in this parade, farmers don't wear pants. There were several instances of pantless farmers. Strange that all of the farmers I saw, out plowing their fields, were wearing pants. They must not have gotten the memo.
This isn't a very good indication of how enthusiastically these kids danced. But it's all I've got.
There were tons of people but the crowds were not too crushing, except up against the barriers. After 3 or so hours of the parade, I realized I might be pushing my luck. I also realized at some point that I was trapped on the wrong side of the road, away from the businesses, restaurants and the path to my hotel. There was a barrier on my side of the road, the other side of the road and people 5 deep against both of them. hmmmm? So I started to walk in one direction to see if I could find the end. Nope. Then I tried the other direction. This led me to the main intersection which was just a madhouse of people. It wasn't an emergency, but I was feeling abit worried, things could turn to emergency in a flash (intestinal emergency, not crowd gone berserk emergency). Eventually I found a weak spot in the barrier and I jumped it. But that left me in the road with the parade. People had started to enter the street and the only path was about as wide as a float so walking along was somewhat perilous. I can just see the headline: Canadian tourist killed in India by giant gorilla head float!! Subsequently trampled by sateen clad dance troupe!! Well, of course, eventually I made it out alive.
The crowds.
The best view going.
The other side of the street.
At least one person made it over (well, under more likely) the barrier, although she got caught by the cop.
Once I was on the safe side, I felt ok to stay a while longer but that parade was just never going to end so by 9 pm, I headed home. I had also noticed some people who were walking by who had been 'holi-ed' . Holi is a festival where they throw colours on you. I wasn't up for that.
I watched these kids when the parade got a bit too much. They seemed very poor and I never saw any evidence of adults with them.
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