Panaji (Panjim) & Old Goa

At 10 o'clock we checked out from Anjuna Palms Guesthouse. The family that runs the place was very nice and helpfull. We put our backpacks on and took a taxi from Anjuna to Panaji. We had called Orav's Guesthouse a few days before so we knew where to go. Panaji is a city on a riveside with a peaceful atmosphere. There's one busy shoppingstreet, followed by a churchsquare. Restaurants (we try to always eat in 'Pure Veg') which are used by lots of locals. The menu seems te be similar everywhere; we ate dosa's (pancake-ish made of lentils), idly (ricecake that tastes like couscous), gobi (fried cauliflower in dough), malai kofta (stuffed potatoes in currysauce), paneer masala (light cheese in spicy sauce), veg pulav (rice with vegetables), noodles, north Indian thali's and even Indian pizza (small sized and spicy..).

Churchsquare, Panjim

We walked two long citywalks passing all sightseeing attractions, one through the new part and one through the old part of Pananji. Everywhere we notice the christian influence. In stead of Hindu-shrines we see here images of Christ or crosses with flowers and candles in the street. Our walk also took us also to a hindu temple for the monkeygod Hanuman. In front of it started some preparations for a festival; they were making enormous 'paper-mache' statues from the gods.  On our way an older man asked us if he could give us his adress so we can send him stamps for his collection from our homecountries.

Streetview & temple, Panjim

Mondayafternoon we went to the Goa State Museum. They had exhibitions with ancient Hindu and Christian art. A photogallery about the liberation of Goa and th WWF had a part in the museum about the environment and pollution in Goa. There was a girlschool visiting at the same time as us and for me it was funny to notice the interest of the girls in me. They were staring, secretly laughing, so even were trying to get closer to me, asking my name and watching the same things I watched. I also enjoy their big eyes when they see my one long braid, it seems to be very funny for them.

Deity from around year 800

Tuesday we took a local rattling bus to Old Goa. Getting out of the bus we stepped into an almost surreal, spacious area full of old Portugese churches. Some beautiful, some not. 

Old Goa

Cathedral of Bom Jesus

(Old Goa is the former capital of Goa that used to be the place to be. Over a quarter million people lived there in 1500's but repeated colera epidemics killed up to 200 000 people in a decade. As Portugese had already began to build their churches in there they decided to keep it as their capital, there was a period of 100 years of relative prosperity before the epidemics returned. This time around local goverment & clerky decided to move out from the city with their servants and the population dropped from 200 000 to 20 000 in a few years.
They found a new place to set up their churches and offices in Panjim (Panaji). But as Old Goa had already all the facilities set up, rulers in Lissabon tried to resettle it still few times in 1700-1800, repeatedly failing due to epidemies. The whole city was abandoned in 1850 as last nuns in the last remaining monastry died and the place was let to rot. In 1950's restauration started but most of the city was gone - utilized by generations of villagers as building materials. Now there's  restored churches, a museum and shacks selling stuff for tourists - And once the place was bigger then London or Lissabon...) 

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Another funny notice we've made is that the Indians are really not afraid of heights - just look how they build their officebuildings:

These are about 3m long bambu sticks tied together with pieces of old rope

And this is how they use them

Leaving Anjuna

The last night in Anjuna we ate at a beachshack. I had a nice big papayajuice and ordered something which would be a surprice for me called Malai Kofta. I assured myself that it was under the 'veg.' list which are mostly vegan and asked if it's not so spicy. It was very nice, though food on the beach always includes some sand grinding between your teeth.

The girls that try to sell jewelry on the beach never leave us alone. It feels weird to be rude to them but at some point they go too far. They walk with you wherever you walk, they come sit with you wherever you sit. We are still polite to them but we get tired from continuous saying "no", "no thank you", I don't want it", following up by me feeling ashamed to say "go away", "leave us alone" or even "fuck off"... They are not listening to anything you say and only trying to sell from their little portable shop. The sellers have a way of answering you when you say no by saying "maybe tomorrow". Easily getting rid of them you answer 'yea maybe tomorrow'. But oh no, the same girl (or any other too) will the next day say she remembers you and say you made a promise! "You have to buy, you made promise!"

One evening we planned a nice sunset, Jaakko went to swim, and from a distance I saw the colorfull dresses coming closer; there they were again. One girl sat next to me this time. She looked young but very tired. With the words "no thank you" already in my mouth I expected her to display her bracelets, bells, necklaces, toerings, bangles, pendants, ashtrays and mirrors. But she didn't.
I looked at her staring into the sunset, she said she had no business today. I answered that the touristseason would start very soon so then will be better times. We talked about our names, age, where we are from, etc.
She was 17 coming from Hampi to Anjuna every year to earn money for her younger brother's school. She herself didn't go to school. She lives with her mother untill she will be given to a chosen man. "I don't like him", she said. I asked how she knew already, but it was clear she just wanted to chose her own boyfriend to be husband. She was surpriced my mother doesn't hit me because I live together with my boyfriend.
After talking for some time another girl came to join us, while Jaakko stayed in the water (he knew exactly that he rather was floating there than getting upset by making sellers go away). I thought of just buying a little thing to support them. As they ask not much, it is a happy day for both parties.
"Just for good luck" as the girls say. I waved to Jaakko to come out of the sea. I chose a nice bracelet for him with beads and a spiral image on wood and for myself two silvery bracelets with shiny gems. We haggled as we are expected and in the end we both payed around 1 euro. Now we bought something from them we thought they would leave, but no the were not happier at all, almost the opposite. They now knew we are buyers so they kept trying to sell us more. 

Two others in traditional festive clothes came joining the 'teaparty' arround our beachtowel. Putting toerings on me, and me taking them off, putting things around my ankles and again me taking them off. I had really enough of it at this point and felt my unwanted rudeness awake. I luckily only needed to say "do you actually understand what the word 'no' means?" for them to be packing their stuff. The evening was nice, but they don't make the beach an attractive place to have a quiet night while enjoying the sunset. The sun drowned without me noticing it.

Anjuna - Vagator - Chapora, Goa

Anjuna is a cozy little tourist village slowly waking up from summersleep. Mostly we have been walking around the mainstrip (with many sandy sidepaths) and enjoying the weather and surroundings.

Anjuna traffic, part II

Beach is nice, a long sandstrip with palmtrees, beachbars (their loud music and colored lightstrings and lanterns make a great atmosphere for a romantic stroll on the beach at night), souvenier sellers, cows and dogs. It is easy to spend days just lying around in there (if you manage to keep sellers away).

Girls on the beach

The bad thing in this area is that it is really touristical and therefore all locals are trying to sell you something. (Everyday we walk out of our cottage to mainroad there's same guys asking us do we want to rent a taxi/scooter/bicycle/shirts/eat/, and everytime we say "no" they reply "maybe tomorrow".) This is pretty much the only irritation down here on paradise beach.

Weather has been mostly awesome, there was a couple of rainy evenings/nights but for the last week it has been good. We have started to have siestas around midday due to heat...

 Temple in Chapora

Drying the rice

We have also been walking to neighbouring villages, a couple of times to Vagator and Chapora and also to hills around Vagator and Anjuna. From one of the hills we found an abandoned construction site, currently inhabited by packs of wild dogs. We later on asked about this from our landlord and she said they were illegal constructions built by people out of Goa. It is forbidden to build in the mountains due to high erosion risk.

Climbing up the hill 

 Abandoned buildings (and thorns in shoe)

View from top of the hill

Another slightly sadder side we are seeing is huge platforms few kilometers offshore. They are collecting sand for construction yards around India and at the same steepening the shore and contributing to erosion. Hopefully these kind of shortsided actions do not destroy Goa as we know it.

On Saturday we are planning to move away from the Paradise and into heartbeat of a city, Panaji, the capital of Goa. We also bought prepaid subscription in here so we can call, negotiate and reserve hostels by ourselves. Our Indian mobile phonenumber is +917709450078.

Anjuna, Goa

After a well slept rocky night we arrived in Mapusa and were surrounded by Taxi-Wallahs. We took a rickshaw to drive us to our destination: AnjunaPalms Guesthouse. We have a nice private cottage on the owners backyard. A good deal for 6€ / night, including (slow) WiFi. (previously in Hotel Pearl they had big commercials for "free internet 24/7" but when we arrived there the "free internet" was one shared laptop in lobby of the hotel.)

Anjuna traffic

One more curiousity in AnjunaPalms Guesthouse is the daily mass organized by our landlord. Daily around 16-17 o'clock ~20 indian worshippers come to sing praise for Virgin Mary in front of our cottage.
Anjuna is a sleepy touristvillage at this time of the year. High season starts on November. Now it is more peaceful but also many restaurants and other attractions are still closed. Tuesday we slept the most of the day due to "jetlag" from bus trip.

On Wednesday we did some more proper venturing, finding paradise beach, rocks, cliffs and lot's of green fields (rice and other plantations).

Anjuna Beach

We also popped by the wednesday fleamarket, a big attraction that turned out to be less of a fleamarket and more of tourist market. After saying "no thanks" politely many times we were getting more aggravated and in mood to flee from the place. So we went back to the beach, I did some swimming (not really possible due to high waves) and we both got nicely sunburnt. (The standard tourist colouring, looking like new born piggies sprayed with tomato soup.)

Fleamarket

Later on we decided to have some more western food and went to pizzeria Basilico. The food was good but a bit on expensive side  - almost 4€ per pizza. Well atleast we had dozen of servants running around. (We were a bit underdressed compared to their normal clients even tho they were strictly westerners. The only indians in there were cleaning & serving.)

On thursday morning we had a nice walk behind the fleamarket area and had some vegan food in "Whole bean" restaurant. Food was ok but not the best vegan health food we had here. For tastier and 50cnt more expensive vegan/health food is better to go "Blue Tao" (That we had visited on Tuesday evening).

Monday 18-10-2010

On Monday morning we packed our backpacks for Nightbus to Goa. We had a nice "western" breakfast in Sadguru eating pizza and veggie burger. Atleast kinda...
The Pizza was about 7" wide but over 2" thick, veggie burger was awesome, but the salad was piled over the paddy (not in between, a bit of challenge to eat as fingerfood). After this greasy snack we paid our hotel and took a taxi to Mumbai Central Station.

In the city center we went to see the "beach" area, aka ½km of trash and boats on 50m wide strip of sand. No swimmers or sun worshippers here, but ok views to skyscrapers around city's shoreline.
The Diwali celebrations were going on around the city, we saw a couple of drum groups marching in streets and also mobile DJ-trucks going through busy streets with few hundred ravers going crazy around them.
After spending the day walking aimlessly around the city we ate some more (Thali & Chinese) and went to bus stop wait for the bus. Our luxurious bus arrived about 20 minutes too late and there was englishmen sitting in our beds. No problem once again, the Indian conductor/hustler/spare driver gave us another beds, on last row of the bus, directly above the engine. A real treat...

Diwali streetpartyy

Also it started to thunder just at the same time as our bus left so in the end we were really lucky to catch it (we were originally thinking of taking a bus ½h later but luckily we took the earlier one, sitting extra ½h in curb of busy street without shelter would have been shit in a storm...)

The bus journey was nice and shaky, there was no toilet in the bus and unfortunately Mariska felt herself a bit seasick after couple of hours. Luckily there was 2 toilet stops in our 14½ hour (officially 12 hour) trip.

Saturday 16-10-2010

We went to explore Chembur a little more. Walking on pavement is not always possible so we do like locals and walk a lot on the road. You have to really look out for all the traffic; taxiricksjaws, motorcycles and cars drive chaoticly together trying to be faster then the other. They are horning their claxons continuously to let everybody know they are coming and they sometimes use their hands for pointing out direction in stead of having blinking lights. Survival in the city, trying to safely walk and cross the streets without getting hit by one of them.

The little shops along the road look dirty and abondoned like they haven't had customers in years. Eventough some definately have their charm; colorful shrines, flowers and incense make them quite attractive. Even for a person who doesn't need anything that they would sell.

There are multiple restaurants to choose from. From a distance they seem always full of people but there is always space for us. Locals eat a light meal at lunchtime so usually they are fastly gone again. We found a 'Pure Veg' restaurant Krishna where we had a nice lunch. We noticed that the standard portions are almost big enough to share one together but somehow we still like to order two different dishes and some naanbread. The price is around 1 euro per dish.

Diwali flowers

Around town men, woman and children are making preparations for the Diwali Festival. They sit with big piles of orange flowers everywhere on the pavement making strings for decoration. We have been wondering how the flowerheads survive after a few days but they still look brighter then ever. The streets are also getting more and more decorated with lights, Diwali is the festival of light. (And time to dye your hair orange.)

Friday 15-10-2010

On Friday morning we finally decided to go to visit the center of Mumbai. We prepared ourselves for this experience by visiting again the cheap "pure veg" restaurant with 7 different pots of veggie treats (for 60 cents). After filling our bellies we went to the railwaystation.

 Thali

In the Chembur station we were welcomed by begging children. They were especially irritating when we were queing up for the ticket counter and paying for the tickets. Good news was that retour tickets to centraal station costed 20 cents.

When we got to the train we realized that it was not a straight connection to the Central Station. Also jumping in and out of the trains appeared to be a challenge, the train barely stops at the station and hundreds of people try to rush in and out of the train.

Mumbai Central Station

After succesfully arriving to the central station with two train changes we started to look for Bus companies. We finally managed to find them on a sidestreet near the station and booked tickets for a nightbus to Goa. Paying the tickets appeared to be the difficulty this time around. We only had 1300 rupees with us and the luxury sleeper tickets costed 1700, so we needed to visit an ATM. Luckily there was bank around the corner and also one other ATM. So first we tried the "other" ATM, but it did not accept our Dutch Visa electron. No problem, to the bank.
In the bank a guard with mustache and machine gun greeted us. Both of their ATM´s were "out of order" for the day. Fine, we walked back to the bus-stand and explained the situation. They gave us tickets with a footnote that we need to pay up the rest on Monday.

So we were ready to go back to our local suburb Chembur. This proved out to be a nice adventure. We asked directions from a security guy in the Central station. He gave us probably really good and exact instructions in thick hindi english. So we got the right train and left. On our first train exchange station we were already a little unsure to which tracks we should walk, so we went to ask directions from another security guardess. She told us to go to track five, no problem. We went there but after three stops the train had arrived to it´s final destination, a nice slum suburb. At this point we realised that there is an Indian way of naming tracks, tracks to go west and to east have the same numbers, you just need to know which direction to go.

Well we did not give up this easily, instead we took a train back to station where we went wrong in a luggage cart filled with people (Yes, the whole train was completely full, the whole trip I was more hanging from the overhead handles then actually standing, as floor was filled with various luggage.)
For the last train change we sneaked into a more comfy first class and enjoyed stable foothold while arriving to Chembur.

In the evening we went to another veggie restaurant "Sadguru", where we had some nice veggie food. I really loved it but unfortunately Mariska did not know that when she ordered ´masala´  it  means in Indian spicy.

Arriving to Mumbai, India

The last 2 hours in the plane were above sea. I really noticed heavy winds and turbulance and wondered what would be a better place to crash with a plane water or land... I guess you will anyway die both ways. Meanwhile Jaakko was trying to be nicely asleep. When we flew above Mumbai I was surpriced and shocked at the same time; the beauty of mountains and forrest and then suddenly on the outskirts of the city huge slums. All the same small huts made of cardboard and scrapmetal.

We arrived at Mumbai Airport around 9 o'clock in the morning. Our luggage was already dropped off the plane and was waiting for us next to the conveyrbelt. In search of an ATM we found out that the only one at the airport was not working. So we had to go change some euro's for rupees at a row of competing desks with men screaming for our attention. After that we walked outside into the heat as if walking into a hot oven. We took a taxi to Chembur. The ride was impressive; traffic seems to have no rules in here. So depending on the drivingskills of your driver (and the size of your vehicle) we made it through dense, crowded streets. While begging children sticked their hands through the windows for "small coins" or "chocolate", we tried to stay cool hoping we wouldn't  drive them over or get hit ourselves. The driver seemed to not know the address we showed to him, so he parked the car and had to ask around when we arrived in Chembur. In the end the ride took an hour in stead of 20 minutes due to the chaotic streets full of people and traffic.

The room we reserved in Hotel Pearl was ok. The man who brought us to the fourth floor was armed with multiple airfresheners. He sprayed into the room while turning on the fan to make it feel fresh. Later I understood why, when the lemonsmells faded it made way for the stench of trash from outside. We walked around the hotel for a while to check out the neighbourhood. I got a little uncomfortable with everybody staring at us, especially men as they are the majority in the street. I feel like one of the only women that is not hiding the shape of my body in a wide dress with scarfs around it. I'm not sure yet if the people are offended by us white westerners or that they might just be interested in something that they don't see daily. The streets are crowded, the air is humid and every now and then the smell of the air changes into something nice like incense or then again into something disgusting like shit. The animals we have seen untill now are stray dogs, dead rats, cows on the sidewalk and tropical birds in the trees that we see from our hotelroom.

For the rest of the day we slept and at night we ate at a nice restaurant. The menu was pleasantly surprising for us, as most of it was vegetarian. We chose something we didn't know and it was great food. I later found out that the 'tofu' I had was actually a kind of cheese called paneer. The staff kept coming to our table to fill our plates again and finished the meal with a cup of water with lemon in it. I asked what I had to do with it because I was afraid to just drink it. Luckily I didn't because it was to wash your hand in. When we left we got a mouthfreshener; a rolled up leave with Indian spices inside of it. Again we had a funny moment doubting to swallow it or spit it out. We both swallowed it, to act a little polite I guess, but I really regretted it. When it gets dark the streets become nightmarket and the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed. In the hotel we ordered 2 big Indian beers and drank them in bed while reading what to do and where to go next.

Tuesday 12-10-2010

Our backpacks were packed. The house was clean. Ready to go! At Schiphol my friend Stefanie came to wave us goodbye. We would first have flights to Cairo - Egypt and there we would transfer to a flight to Mumbai. In the plane we got free earphones for listening radio and tv, all channels had nice arabic music. At the moment the food got served I realized we might not get vegetarian meals. And I was right, "chicken or beef" they asked... So we only ate a white bun, a saladleave that I picked out of a tunasaladbox and a small desert. Shame we didn't know we had to order that beforehand, luckily we had also some nice tofu and salad on bread taken from home. The service of EgyptAir was ok, eventhough everyone had to go get drinks themselves from the back of the plane, they didn't bring it around.
The flight went well. In Cairo Jaakko bought some beers thinking that we could take them in the plane. At the securitycheck he had some fun with the Egyptian guards; he had to throw the beers away or drink them sitting next to the guards. Anyone who knows Jaakko knows what he chose to do. At the airport was a big variety of people; south africans, muslims, hindus all dressed in their traditional clothes. It was a nice view. Waiting for the flight to Mumbai we checked the laptop and shared the adapter with a friendly traditionally dressed muslimboy.
The second flight was a sleeping flight from 23 o'clock to 8 o'clock in the morning. There was a pillow and blanket on every seat. The seat next to us stayed empty so we had some space for our legs to comfortably lay in sleeppossition. In the middle of the night the crew woke us with food, this time we had a nice veggie meal. This was possible because there were so many hindu people, of which most are having a vegetarian diet, on board. We had a short 'sleep' as 3 hours later breakfast was already served.

Monday 11-10-2010

Stress about Jaakko's passport. He still didn't get it back with the touristvisa we applied for,  while we send it a few weeks beforehand. We contacted the Indian Visa Service every day and everytime they couldn't tell us anything but to wait and be patient. And then, suddenly it was monday; the last possible day to get it on time! Jaakko tried to call to the Indian Visa Service from 9 o 'clock untill 12 but nobody picked up, when they finally answered they  told us we might have to cancel our flights. Upset and confused we decided to go to Den Haag to ask it from the Indian Embassy. They told us to spend the whole day in the city (we also visited Scheveningen briefly) and wait for a call from them. At 17 o'clock we went to the office of the Visa Service  and waited and waited...Jaakko luckily got his passport with touristvisa for 6 months/double entry at seven o'clock, 90 min after office was officially closed. Pffffew....