Tin tin and the slow train to goa
Trip Start
Dec 28, 2008
1
3
7
Trip End
Ongoing
Colva, Goa, India
Friday, January 9, 2009
as i was trying to find my train car, the one with the faded "2 A/C" painted on the side, the train started moving. how could this be? people were still boarding! nevertheless, slowly, slowly gathering speed i jumped on and clung to the bars outside and shoved my way in. i show my ticket to the ticket collector and he informs me that 2 A/C is fully booked despite my reserved seat and reciept that i am showing him. he says, "go to another car" pointing to 3 A/C. now, 2 A/C refers to the number of beds on a compartment wall (3 means a total of 6 beds stacked in a small space) and A/C is, well air conditioned. i fend for myself in 3 A/C which turns out to be a very good thing.
i sqeeze myself onto a bench and after a couple of hours an adjacent bench opens up and i snag it. the hot sun, endless rice paddies and dusty villages lull me into a vegetative state and i doze for a while waking up to chaiwallahs (boys who sell tea on the train) and a parade of snacks tempting me to eat what the guide books call "forbidden food". i figure i have about 4 hours left on the train so if i get food poisoning i will at least have made it to my hotel before the effects are apparent. one must calculate these things in order not to be caught out! the idlis with spicy coconut chutney! the pakoras with coconut mint chutney! heaven! and i thank my stars for bringing my own cutlery because no matter how many wet wipes i use, my hands still maintain a steady veneer of soot.
across from me a man and who i take to be his wife are waving and smiling at me. people are so kind here, always smiling. suddenly a man with a hand drum, his wife and thier child (about 2 years old) sit directly across from me and dive headfirst into song. he is an able player and his voice is lovely. when his wife pipes in she beams at me and takes over the melody while the child plays on the bars of the train just like they are monkey bars and no one seems to notice or care. what a great childhood where one's actions are not so monitored! while they played the wife of the man across from me sat down and we moved in time with the music. after a few songs the car gave them rupees and they moved onto the next. the wife moved back to her spot but her husband came to sit next to me. he gestured wildly and didn't speak. his wife who i assume spoke no english motioned to me that he was a deaf mute. we ended up having a great conversation and going thru my photos on my camera of other places in the world and pix of my parents. he was eloquent with his gestures and quite easy to understand. after a while a youngish man sat down near us and snatched my guidebook. he was leafing thru it and obviously looking for a way to speak to me. my friend had fallen silent in his gesturing and i felt like the intruder was not someone i should be speaking to. nevertheless, he started talking to me and me being nice (or just a dumb bitch) i talked to him albeit unencouragingly. this he took as proof of my adoration of him and did not want to leave me alone. thankfully he went to buy a soda and there was much eye rolling and shaking of fists among my new friends until the intruder returned. i was more aloof this time having proof of my friends dislike him as well. my friend the deaf mute would not leave my side as he knew that once he left the intruder would move to his place beside me. sure enough, when my friends got up to leave the train, he swooped. my friends parting shot was him flexing his arm muscles showing me to be strong and not take his shit. this gave me the strength to basically tell the intruder to fuck off and after a while he did. my lesson is that, here, women cannot be kind and let them down so the man can save face. not like europe or america. you have to crush thier ego in one fell swoop becasue any smiles are seen as encouragement. it has made me realize how very strong women are here.
having arrived in goa, i have been baking in the sun, frolicking in the sea and eating everything in sight. i'm staying in colva and it's a lovely beach with not too many foreign tourists. mostly indian tourists and not too visible on the gringo trail which is perfect for me. yesterday i rented a moped with a new friend and we drove all around the beach sides and ate in a roadside stall. the trick really was navigating my way around the cows. they gather in groups in the middle of the road and are not partial to leaving thier spot. so i weave my way around them, off the paved road, thru the middle of the herd, anything to get thru them! it's paradise here though, palm trees, blue water, and sand that is so fine it feels like you're walking on cocaine. at least it is what i would imagine walking on cocaine to feel like! and it crunches like snow! i don't want to leave but today i must get a move on. i take the night bus to mangalore and then on to mysore. i wasn't going to mysore at all but everyone i have met loves it so i too, will go.
i send you all lots of love!
tin tin
