Hester's Head

It's been over a week since we left Goa, India so I'm finally getting around to getting the blog up to date. India fit all the stereotypes - it was hot, dusty, busy, crowded, cattle everywhere. We went to anchor outside the harbour the evening before and then decided to stay there. That meant we had a forty-minute water-taxi ride just to get to shore. Don't forget to put sunscreen on before you leave. The water-taxis were in less than optimal condition though they were made of mahogany. I think their crew lived on them as one of them ran for 24 hours a day and the other stopped from 1 AM to 5 AM, which meant they did not get much sleep. The taxis dropped us off at a busy little jetty swarming with dhows just past the loading terminals. Coal was the #1 commodity here - it might be the only commodity. There were piles of it. We were greeted on the jetty by 20 guys offering "TAXI?" We did have some buses that were to take us to downtown Panaji but I wanted to walk around first. It was difficult to do with the taxi guys following you and ever more intercepting you as you walked along.
"Taxi?"
"No thanks."
"Taxi?"
"No thanks."
"Taxi?"
"No thanks."
"Go home."
I found it's easiest not to respond at all. It seems that "No" is interpreted as "I don't know," they would try even harder to sell you on whatever they were pushing. There were three of us walking and we said that we just wanted to go to Vasco de Gama, which is where we were. We were told that the downtown area was too far so we finally agreed to a 200 Rupee cab ride. One Canadian dollar was about 40 Rupees. Less than four minutes later we were there. I walked around for a few minutes and then started walking back to the shipyard area. The guy walking 6 inches to my left and 6 inches behind me without saying anything disturbed me so I kept turning around and checking on both him and my backpack. Everything was disturbing me. The labour force in India is endless so it was put to use. There was some roadwork being done, usually by someone in flip-flops carrying a basket of rocks and dumping it out. They have a red porous rock called tellurite that they use for everything and have done so for hundreds of years. At least. The Cathedral of Bom Jesus in Old Goa and Fort Aguada near Panaji are both made of it. I watched a guy just outside the main gate to the dockyard dump a basket of the rocks in a pothole and then take a small sledgehammer to it before stamping it as flat as possible in his flip-flops. There. The pothole was fixed and he would carry on to the next pothole. There were piles of the red rock on the roads; I think to be used to fill in trenches around building construction. I would like to see how they built their roads and highways. On my way back I did pass a group of men laying some tar and asphalt. The material was cooked in a wagon with a propane torch providing the fire and flames. It had a yoke on the front, so it was towed by something. Maybe the donkeys were let go during the day to find some shade and grass to eat. The men would rake the stuff out and spread it over the road. Things were happening, just not very fast. I walked back to the dockyard, had some trouble getting through the gate, and then made it back to where I started so that I could catch the next bus to Panaji. I was getting desperate so I asked for directions for some water. The duty free shop was pointed out to me and I went there even though it appeared to be abandoned and maybe even condemned. The duty free shop made up one small room in the building and had a small bar-size fridge with two bottles of water in it. I was able to get a bottle of water after showing my ID and filling out the appropriate paperwork. I might not have been looking too healthy as a man came in as I was still paying, took the second bottle of water out of the fridge, had a very brief conversation with the people in the shop, and then handed me the bottle, saying "Same price. No extra charge." Excellent! Thank you very much!
Then the trip got interesting. And frustrating. The bus finally left for Panaji but we didn't get very far. It stopped at a bridge and had everyone get off. The driver told us that he was not allowed to cross the bridge because he had six wheels. He might have been right as a sign did say that. But what about that bus? And that one? And that one too? They had six wheels and were crossing the bridge. One of the other ship's buses that had left later and had only four tires eventual zipped by as well. We finally crossed the road and boarded another bus. It also didn't go far when it pulled over and said, "Last stop." Very nice, now what? There were at least 15 of us from the ship on the side of the highway. An ice cream man came along with his homemade wooden ice cream cart complete with cowbell. I bought a "Ball-Mango" - no ball comments please. It was only 15 rupees and I accidentally gave him a 15-rupee tip instead of 5 rupees. I stood in the middle of a circle as everyone watched me eat the red-plastic-tennis-ball-sized and shaped ice cream thing. I was even asked if I felt like a science experiment. It was good, and worth the extra 35 cents. Everyone got on the next bus, the one that promised to take us to Panaji. The ice cream man waved goodbye to me as we drove off. This bus cost an entire R7 and took us to the bus station in Panaji and more offers of "Taxi?" A friend Mike, and I took a taxi downtown to the Mandovi Hotel where the ship's buses were supposed to drop us off and pick us up. I never did get a ship's vehicle. After getting out of the taxi we were mobbed by street vendors. A kid selling wallets, a guy selling pashmina scarves, another selling fans made from peacock tail feathers, and one selling travel backgammon and chess sets. These guys followed us wherever we went. Mike wanted to exchange some money so they led us to the money exchange - which didn't even have enough to exchange US$80. We had to wait for them to get more money while the vendors waited for us outside. They weren't leaving. As we left they followed us as Mike and I went in search of another taxi to get to my hotel. Now they were playing the guilt card, "We waited for you." That's not my fault; I told you I didn't want anything in the first place. Mike gave them R20 to leave him alone. That didn't work as planned. No, not at all. We had to escape into a taxi and were shaking the kids hand, through the window as we drove away, promising to buy some wallets tomorrow. We saw him the next day, we saw him every day - this kid was ubiquitous, he covered Panaji. I even started to like him.
The taxi took us out of Panaji through some rather sketchy neighbourhoods. Mike was giving me a hard time about just where my hotel might be located. Taxi rides are quite the event in India as the roads are really only one lane wide. There are cattle and dogs wandering everywhere that don't even flinch when traffic blows by them, missing them by inches. There are also pedestrians, bicycles, motorbikes, trucks, and buses. That's all on your side of the road, the mirror image is happening on the other side too. Don't forget there are lots of potholes, most of which are filled with water. The buildings also come within a couple feet of the road. So you weave your way down these narrow roads at top speed leaning hard on the horn. Most (maybe all?) trucks have "HORN ok PLEASE" painted on their tailgate. Jeez, as if they need the encouragement. The license plate hung beneath the right taillight while a similar small tin sign saying "STOP Signal" hung beneath the left taillight. I suppose it needs labeling because it is so rarely used that most don't know what it is. I took dozens of blurry pictures - the aft end of a lot of cows, buildings, trees, people, whatever. Bars, pubs, or maybe just a place to buy a beer, were most often painted a very brilliant red with the Kingfisher beer logo painted across it. "Kingfisher Beer - the King of Good Times." I had some Kingfisher beer, but I also drank a lot of Kingfisher water. And wondered what they served on Kingfisher Airlines.
We made it to my hotel - the Taj Holiday Village. It was a little village - they gave me a ride to my room in a golf cart. You need a visa (not the credit card) to stay in a hotel in India so I told them that the Canadian Embassy was supposed to send it to them. Which was true, it should have already arrived. I told them that I would check into it when I got back to the ship. Tomorrow. After I checked out. I did check into it. I asked. I don't remember the answer; I wasn't really listening as I had already checked out.
Mike and I went for some dinner and found a nice Indian place. I ordered some paneer chat and chicken kolliwalda. I'm not sure what I was thinking as I make chat at home quite often. Paneer is cheese and chat is a blend of spices. I've made it at home with feta cheese, or aloo chat - with potatoes. Mike ordered pakora and the chicken tandoori. The highlight of dinner was the two guys who walked in carrying a huge sack of rice and the cattle walking by down the street. One cow kept stopping to moo at her calf that was goofing off or something down the road. I wondered if something was going down when two cows went running by in the other direction, but it seems that some of the cattle are rounded up in the evening. After dinner Mike headed back to the ship and I headed back to my hotel room. Even without a beer, I needed another golf cart ride to find my room. The hi-speed wireless Internet didn't work in my room, so I watched some cricket as they tried to fix it. I ended up with some painfully slow dial-up before calling it a night.
I woke up the next morning with headache and feeling a bit nauseous. It took me some time to figure out that it was the plug-in room freshener that was making me feel ill. I unplugged it and put it outside on the deck and soon started to feel better. I took some pictures of my lunch, of course, as I had some Goan food. Cashew, mushroom and pea xacuti, Goan bread and Goan rice. Xacuti is roasted spiced coconut gravy made with 18 spices, and it's pronounced just like it's spelled: zsa-cue-tea. It came with some pickled mango, which I added to a very short list of things I do NOT like. I was told what they were but I didn't understand. They were long green slivers and tasted like an olive. When my waiter came back I asked him again what they were. I told him I liked everything else, but I did not like that. I had to have dessert - I saw "ale belle," a crepe filled with grated coconut, crushed cashew nuts, raisins, and vanilla ice cream. Can you tell that I asked to have the menu back so that I could write what I ordered down? The xacuti was R455 and the ale belle was R295. It was a very expensive Goan meal, the entire meal the night before cost Mike and I around R500.
The sister hotel to the one I stayed in was the Fort Aguada and was right next-door. It is built on an old Portuguese fort made from that tellurite rock again. I walked around it taking some pictures. One of the bastions juts out into the sea, which is very cool. Look it up on the Internet because the pictures you will find there are nicer than the ones I took. It was hard for me to get a picture without a mangy dog or some garbage in it. Though I did get a very good one of a dog curled up in a niche in the wall of the jutting out part.
I then took a taxi back downtown to look around and do some shopping, as I needed some toiletries. Even buying shampoo was an adventure, similar to buying jewellery because everything was behind the counter. I pointed at what I needed so they gathered it and printed out a bill. As I was sorting through my money the lady disappeared with the stuff. I looked around but I didn't know what to do. Another lady pointed me toward the corner where a lady was sitting behind a small Plexiglas window - the cashier. After paying her I still had no idea what to do, so she pointed to yet another corner. My stuff was packed like deli meat, handed to me and I was on my way. I was in need a coffee, but I wasn't sure what to do as we were told not to drink the water. I stopped in a restaurant and ordered a Nescafe - the stuff that bossdog blogged about. It's not that bad and certainly will do in a pinch. It was scalding hot so I assumed that it was safe to drink. The menu looked very good and I was very tempted to come back to eat, but I saw the staff do a couple things that deterred me from EVER eating there. Like filling Kingfisher water bottles from the tap. They also liked to do the fork and spoon thing to serve your food to you - such as scooping up rice on the spoon and holding it in place with the fork. Very fancy indeed. A waiter was holding a fork when he had to cough. His instinct was to cough on his hand, but as it was holding a fork he coughed directly on the fork. Thanks for the coffee, it really cured my headache, but I am out of here.
I ran into Mike and a few others and the street vendor entourage. He had promised the wallet kid so the wallet kid was back. A taxi driver they had hired for the day was showing them around. He took us for a beer and we each had one of the big 660 ml Kingfisher beer. It's not often I order a big beer and finish it before it gets warm. (Ok, it was only the second big beer I had ever ordered and the first I had finished while it was still good to drink) The beer was very good, too bad the electricity kept going out. It went out four times while we were there and meant we lost the lights and the air conditioning. Things would get sauna-like very fast. While the others carried on, I took a taxi back to the ship. The taxi driver asked me where I wanted to go and I drew a blank for a second before saying "Goa." That's like standing in the middle of Saskatchewan and saying you want to go to Saskatchewan. Well, standing in the middle of PEI or Rhode Island, as Goa is the smallest state in India. The taxi driver knew my mind, or at least my kind, as he said "Vasco?" Exactly, that's where I want to go. I asked how much and he said R500. That was an incredible deal so we took off and I didn't even consider haggling. Another hair raising taxi ride, then the water taxi and I was back on board in less than two hours. After the first day when I was hating everything, day two wasn't so bad. I was duty the next day and had even considered staying board the last day. Duty was hot. At night you could shine the light in the water and see a few small sea snakes, one small reddish squid and the occasional flying fish that would fly out of the water and smack into the side of the ship. I wondered if they were trying to escape the snakes. I had a watch from midnight to 4 AM and was lucky enough to have some wind and rain come up 20 minutes after my watch started. It calmed down 20 minutes before my watch ended. The wind created some troubles with the ladder and barge that was alongside for getting on and off the water taxi. It was more excitement and work than I needed or wanted, but it made the watch go fast.
This is getting long, I'm getting tired, and I’m going to bed and will finish this later.