Diu - A state of suspended animation

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After our unplanned stop in Ahmedabad and the hiatus of Jaipur it was good to finally reach the welcoming palm trees and the promise of a coconut prawn curry after we had freshened up.

Finally some warmth. We shed our scarves and blankets with glee and prepared to kick off the shoes and get some sand between our toes. Beaches were for the most part pretty deserted, Australian beaches spoil you but we were lucky to spot a very large turtle on one which was obviously putting out the feelers for a nightly egg laying foray.

Two days we sat around with the occasional short walk to the beach. Graeme doing a lot of reading and swimming in the pool, Meryl of course spending most of the time on the laptop. Sightseeing withdrawal symptoms on the third day saw us hiring a scooter to whisk us around the seven sights of the island! Being only 9 by 4 kilometres we felt two days would enable us to savour the delights. Being Portuguese until 1960 the island has retained some of its inheritance with brightly coloured homes and traces of Portuguese architecture. We looked at crumbling edifices, places ripe for renovation or restoration, and new homes being built on an old footprint. Frescoes, pots and old furniture.

Resort Hoka had an assortment of interesting clientele. A group of Delhites holidaying down to Daman, a group of young English Indians over for a wedding yaar, innit? determined to enjoy a boozy weekend (the rest of Gujarat is dry). A couple from Darjeeling, a smattering of Westerners, but also German Indians, French Indians and of course us! Mahima and her husband taking a break before she started a new job talked to us around the nightly camp fire about politics, education and culture. Starting to paint we encouraged her efforts and Graeme was very taken with her Shivalingam, a religious Hindu symbol which had particularly captured his imagination.

Our host invited us on the last night to join him for dinner. It proved to be extremely interesting. Elucidating even. We talked to visitors from Madhya Pradesh who nearly persuaded us to change our plans and go on to Orchha and Khajuraho. Both guests were important administrators in their prospective states and it was interesting to observe the workings of India on a social level. Our conversation was such that our host offered to drive us to Ahmedabad the next day just to continue with it! Graeme having kept up with Indian newspapers had so many interesting articles to tell him about! He read it in The Times of India!

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Comments

[samrat dhamale]

the welcoming palm trees are actully hoka trees.. palm trees have single trunk.. hoka trees are similar to palm trees but with branches.. orcha and khajuraho is really worth visit.. i would also ask u to visit bandhavgarh for tiger sighting which is near from khajuraho.. its like i think around 6 hours drive from khajuraho.. my recent diu visit ... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Daman-and-Diu/Diu/blog-461481.html

[Jess]

The Times
Ha ha that Graeme found The Times! I hope he's getting lots of 'interesting articles' from it and I look forward ti a full report :)