Diu
Trip Start
May 12, 2005
1
32
79
Trip End
May 14, 2006
Diu,
India
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
quick little anecdote, before i forget. We are carrying plenty of gear; got warm stuff which we used in china/tibet and will use in Europe also, but relly wanted to send it too delhi and pick it up when we leave there...sounds pretty simple?! Couldn't find a place to send a package in Delhi, one can send stuff by train and we wanted to find out if we could have our package held until december when it reached delhi. Had a 5 hour stopover in Ahmeddabad, wandered up to the train parcel delivery counter..
"Hello sir, can we ask you a few questions?"....,
burly, mustachioed, indian offical (BMIO);..
classic place
. "write them down"..."yes but we only have a couple of quick questions..." ...
(BMIO) slow deliberate shaking of the head, commencement of the silent treatment and a grubby piece of paper and pen forwarded across the counter.....
Clare, in her neatest hand..."Can we send a package from here to Delhi?", mark reading it out as clare writes for added effect...paper slid back across the counter..
(BMIO) breaks his silent treatment, temporarily.. "What does this say?"
C&M; "We want to send a package to Delhi!"
(BMIO) back into silent mode and writing "When do you want to send this package?"
C&M; "are you serious??!!! we can't read this, what does it say?"
2nd (BMIO); "He wants to know when you want to send this package!"
C&M; "We aren't sure...."
1st (BMIO), breaking with silence once again..
deserted house
. "Write it down!!!"...and so it goes...
..this stubborn lover of red-tape stuck to his guns and although he couldn't read our writing and we couldn't read his, we carried out our entire enquiry in this demented game of message writing.....
Diu
nice little island...former portugese colony, great corroding architecture, fishing boats, cheap beer, beaches....time to chill for a few days after the hassle and bustle of rajastan; will update everything from here....
20/10/05
So yeah, still in Diu and what a relaxed place it is; we've realized that we needed a break from the extreme hustle and bustle of the Indian tourist trail...now that we've stopped and taken stock. Diu is a former portugese colony....an island just off the southern tip of Gujarat province. Palm trees, beaches, crumbling colonial architecture and white-washed churches....it has real charm and a very friendly and laidback populace. Our first guesthouse had the puzzling scourge of salt water showers...in fact we couldn't even get a bucket of fresh water to rinse off in...Bugger that, we thought and moved to a great value hotel just above the vibrant fruit and veg market. The beaches we have been to so far are okay...water isn't crystal clear, but one of them is relatively deserted (only a few voyeuristic Indian chaps who occaisionally get a move along) and after 5 months without seeing a single strip of sand or ocean, we're pretty stoked to be here
hotel mozambique
. The food is good, fresh seafood abounds, Paras runs a little omelet shop; although he's a pretty serious guys, he can whip up a seriously good omelet. Oh yeah, and being a former colony, Diu is governed from Delhi and has no tax on alchohol...so while the rest of Gujarat is pretty much a dry zone, beer is blissfully cheap here (and you can get Fosters!!!)One of the towns three churches has fish bbqs on the ceiling..which commands awesome view from the little hill it's perched upon.....We are about to head off and check out the standard of this nightly event. We are also interesting in riding around the island, there are a couple of small fishing villages which are meant to be nice, and at night there is a fishmarket back on the mainland....a couple of restaurants will cook up any fare del mare which you bring to them...so will have to do this one night also.....Reckon we will be here for a couple more days....
Quite some time later...
The fish bbq was a little dissapointing...updating now from Ooty (it's the 11th of Nov, the blog wheels have fallen off!!!)... but one of the few dissapointments of Diu. Must tell about Gupta...on our first afternoon in Diu, decided to hit up the beach after our draining journey, our patience with the Indian blokes strolling by for a perve (of Clare, not Mark surprisingly) was non-existent...Up strolled a cool cat in sunnies and a slicked back do; "Hi, where are you from?"....Clare snaps back.
market
. "In fact we are trying just to relax on this beach, so if you wouldn't mind moving along, that would be great!!!" The slickster strolls on dejectedly...we found out later that this fella is Gupta, the local 'pusher-man' and head of seafood at one of the best resturants in Diu..just the sort of character we want to put offside!! We patched things up the next evening and Gupta was very much the gentleman for the remainder of our stay.Partyhouse
There was a great little party house on route to the beach....lots of winding, charismatic little alleyways, old ladies feeding cows, little kids playing little kid games... and a house perpetually pumping Hindu techno...seriously, 24/7 for at least 3 days...then we discovered that this was leading up to a wedding, on the way to the beach one day had to walk through the middle of a ceremony that seemed to last all day!! we liked the party house...
Vanakbarna
Hired a moped (little 2 stroke motorbike) for a day and explored some more of the island. Went to the main beach frequented by indian tourists, lots of blokes swimming in jeans and ladies wading up to thier knees in glorious saris.
market again
Biked further along to a deserted beach with a fair wave rolling in. Later that afternoon Mark, on a recommendation from Mike (see later in the entry), went the other way around he island to the western tip and the fishing village of Vanakbarna..fascinating ride, lots of little villages along the way, a coconut palm gaurd of honour and plenty of smiley kids. Got to the wharf at vanakbarna, plenty of action; men mending nets, women drying fish and kids playing cricket... joined in for a few overs of the cricket match, always good for a laugh.. jumped back on my trusty steed and cruised back into diu.African Community
Maybe a relic of the portugese, but for whatever reason, the island has a small african population. One neighborhood in particular was full of african kids flying kytes and playing cricket with thier indian brothers and sisters....
Hotel Mozambique
Flakeing paint, sagging roof, old sea-dogs draining glasses.. this is a specially atmospheric watering hole adjacent to the town square and the daily vege market. Mike, our Aussie friend and part-time resident of diu, especially loves grabbing a seat around 1pm and watching the death-throes of the day's market, when cows, goats and dogs converge on the leftovers. In fact, if you are anywhere near this part of town at 12:45, you get swept through the alleyways in the bovine rush to the market.
Heranca Goesa
Francisco, the owner of this resturant, knows his seafood
more cute kids
. Other buyers at the local fish-market follow his lead and sellers are therefore very keen to attract his attention. His wife and two boys help to create a very homely dining experience...we stayed an extra day just to get a feed here, we had fried calamari, grilled fish, salad and a desert called "hello to the queen", supposedly an Israeli creation of icecream, crushed biscuits, bannana and hot chocky sauce.....very very good.Indian Shave
One can get a shave just about anywhere in india for peanuts. Barbers use an old-fashion, cutthroat razor and are usually highly skilled..however as the old-adage pronounces, "pay peanuts, get monkeys" and mark's shave in Diu left him with a mangled mole and quite a few knicks and snips. However, a good indian shave is as close a shave as you'll ever get.
Churches
some really old and grand churches in and around diu...a dwindling christian community keeps two of the churches in operation, but the rest are relics of the portugese past. Fascinating and a little bizzare. Diu also has a massive fort which we had a quick poke about.
reef 'n beef
Diu to Bombay
another decent travel stint awaited us on our departure from Diu...very hard to adjust to the real pace of india after taking it so easy for a week. No direct bus to the train station so had to bargin for a place on a shared autorickshaw... mark ended up clinging onto the back tray, legs dangling inches from the asphalt flashing past...fairly hair-raising experience and the exhaust blackened mark's legs and shorts before the 30 hour journey had really even begun!!! After this bad start, the next two buses and two trains were pretty good...reached bombay at night, pretty stuffed and decided to grab a taxi, ended up directing the driver with our compass and map...a major deficiency in the indian psyche is an innability to say "no"..."do you know where the lawrence hotel is".... "yes"... One has to be very carefull when constructing questions to ask people.
