Yesterday I took a couple of buses from Benaulim, where I am staying, to Panolem, where Selvaggia is staying. The buses drove through steep, hilly, thickly forested countryside. Selvaggia is the director of the Florence River to River film festival - an annual Indian film festival, held in Florence. She was having a break from her busy schedule in Mumbai.
The up market beach huts in Panolem are built on stilts, each with its own open-to-the-sky bathroom. People step out of their beach huts onto the beach, where there is every sort and kind of cafe - a bit like Gokarna really but much easier to reach from the airport and consequently more expensive.
Goa, as everyone will tell you, is not really India. There is no border between Goa and the rest of India, but you notice the difference immediately. Goan women dress like old fashioned Portuguese women, in just below the knee skirts and blouses; there are bars selling alcohol and catholic churches everywhere. The people even look different, which is hardly surprising, since Goa was a Portuguese colony for over three hundred years, during which time the locals and the Portuguese intermarried. Apparently many of the older Goans still speak Portuguese.
Carneval is celebrated here in every town. Tomorrow there will be a huge procession in Panjim and I'm wondering whether to go. Later in the week there will be processions here and I suspect everyone will get drunk. The bicycle hire man has started already. I hired the oldest, rustiest bike from him a couple of days ago. Unfortunatly it doesn't have lights.
The up market beach huts in Panolem are built on stilts, each with its own open-to-the-sky bathroom. People step out of their beach huts onto the beach, where there is every sort and kind of cafe - a bit like Gokarna really but much easier to reach from the airport and consequently more expensive.
Goa, as everyone will tell you, is not really India. There is no border between Goa and the rest of India, but you notice the difference immediately. Goan women dress like old fashioned Portuguese women, in just below the knee skirts and blouses; there are bars selling alcohol and catholic churches everywhere. The people even look different, which is hardly surprising, since Goa was a Portuguese colony for over three hundred years, during which time the locals and the Portuguese intermarried. Apparently many of the older Goans still speak Portuguese.
Carneval is celebrated here in every town. Tomorrow there will be a huge procession in Panjim and I'm wondering whether to go. Later in the week there will be processions here and I suspect everyone will get drunk. The bicycle hire man has started already. I hired the oldest, rustiest bike from him a couple of days ago. Unfortunatly it doesn't have lights.
Angela we haven't spoken for the longest time but I read your blog atheistically (as opposed to religiously). What a blast and what a fab time you must be having. There are communities of 'Anglos', like the Goans you are seeing, all over South India with their western style clothes and different religious practices, some with Anglo heritage and some not but most keeping themselves separate. We had one family in our village (you visited) who had green eyes from a contractor who worked on our bridge!
ReplyDeleteThanks for that. I realise that I haven't done my research religiously, so only report what I see and pick up. So your comment is useful
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