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Published: February 14th 2006
We finally arrived at Diu around 10 am on January 21st. It was warm and the sun was out (Mt. Abu was very windy and cool). Diu is an island 11km by 3km which is governed by Delhi (along with Daman) and is not part of Gujurat (which allows Diu to serve very cheap beer - $1 for 24oz). Diu was a Portuguese colony back in the day and the remnants of the white Portuguese architecture still remains as does the Portuguese people. The main languages are Portuguese and Gujurati (its very interesting, and I would have never have known otherwise, but every part of the country has a unique language, and some parts cannot communicate with each other so as a result, they communicate in English).
We found a super cheap clean hotel, settled and headed to breakfast at this family house (father's name is Francisco) and, although, it was past breakfast hours, they were nice enough to serve us their great filtered coffee (real coffee here compare to instant Nescafe everywhere else) and omelette with real cheese. In talking to Francisco, he recounted the history of the island as to hour most of the residents are Portuguese (though
Chaiwalla
Our morning chai guynever being in modern day Portugal) and their Portuguese roots which gave us a background to history of the island.
In Diu, once again we didn't do much. We ate great breakfast, had a great dinner at Francisco's (it was a Portuguese buffet) and drank beer until I got sick, again. Thankfully, it was only the final day that I was sick so I wasn't in bed long. But, we did manage a trip to the "hospital" which is a doctor sitting behind a desk. I told him my symptoms and he prescribed some medicines for me to plug me up and reduce my nausea. It worked, so that was good. And not that the doctor did much doctor work, but all that for $1. I needed it for the 8 hour bus early the next morning taking us to Rajkot for a overnight train to Mumbai.
It seems very easy to spend weeks in Diu as it is so quiet and laid-back compared to most of India. We daily bought fresh Papaya, Guave and grapes to take to the beach. Beaches weren't spectacular but nice enough and completely desolate, especially during the week. Other than the occasional
Indian male spectator. They like to scout for western females in bikinies but seem harmless, though, as I've mentioned before, the staring can be uncomfortable. Luckily, Jill and I weren't bothered on our trip.
And about these overnight trains - they're a haven for roaches. Out of all bugs, I cannot accept the presence of the roach, I'll take the dung beetle anyday. So I spot one before we make our bed crawling in Jill's bunk. And a side note on this, Jill also sees this but gets into bed and falls asleep no problem (she was on the bottom bunk); normally I get screamed (it's the level below hysterical) at by Jill at the sight of a roach, but on this night, she sleeps like a baby. I have the top bunk opposite side of the compartment so I felt like I was safe - opposite wall and high up. I wake up around 3 am and the roach (I think it was the same one) is right above me on the ceiling, right in front of my face. I get my headlamp and a pen. You're probably thinking, what's with the pen? I figured that with the
pen I could push it in the corner down on the person sleeping below me - I would have been fine with that. Anyway, this very nimble roach hides behind a steel beam in the corner of the ceiling, he was damn quick, and disappears. I must have been shining my light on that beam for at least 30 minutes waiting for the reappearance - it never happened. I finally fell asleep but not without waking every hour to check my surroundings.
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Ron
non-member comment
Can't you buy a bottle of Raid?