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Published: February 2nd 2006
We spelled it out in the last blog: Take. Your. Tiiiiime. So how do we respond? Mammalapuram, 2 nights. Kochi, 2 nights. Mysore, 1 night. Bangalore, 1 night. Goa, 3 nights-- squeezing in Panaji, Old Goa, Baga, Calangute, Anjuna, Benaulim, Colva, Palolem. A lot of running around again but it's cool now as we're deliberately sprinkling in bouts of downtime. Mammalapuram was the beach resort in Tamil Nadu where we arrived during festive Pongal, the annual celebration of good harvest-- similar to our Thanksgiving, which is just an excuse for families to get together and eat. We then headed from the East Coast to the West SY-eed! and arrived in Kochi/Ernakulam, a cluster of tiny, quiet fishing villages along the coast. Kochi has an immensely diverse population with several Catholic cathedrals, Muslim mosques and Hindu temples scattered throughout the city. From Kochi we took a package day-trip down to Alleppey to float along the Kerala backwaters on a covered raft to watch villagers earn their living collecting oyster shells to be ground up and sold to industrial manufacturers, digging up mud from the riverbed to be used as fertilizer, and building boats from the trees that crowd the land. Then on
to Mysore, a one-nighter, with a quick visit to the ornate Maharajah Palace which featured an impressive interior of antique furniture and wall and ceiling frescoes. We were fortunate to arrive on a Sunday when in the evening the exterior is lit up with a thousand tiny white bulbs. For just one hour, families come in droves to bask in the carnival-like atmosphere complete with string orchestra, sweets vendors and balloons for the children. Then it was off to Bangalore for another one night stand giving us just 24 hours to take in India's 2nd-most cosmopolitan city behind Bombay.
Finally it was on to Goa. Back in the day, Goa served as a stop on the hippie trail attracting foreigners with ample drug and an easy beach atmosphere. Today it offers the same vibe, but less finger-cymbals and Dion and more neon-sticks and DJ Euroboy. I pictured Ibiza (though I've never been) or Koh Pha Ngan (though I've never been)-- but essentially, an all-night, all-out, mad bash of unrestrained, unabashed youth doing up on dance and drug. During the day we went to Anjuna for the Flea Market which, b/c it's held just once a week (Wed), draws in
a monster crowd of shoppers, gawkers and general tourist herds. Here you can get a good feel for what the community is like-- Europeans in the HUNDREDS- Scandinavians were haggling in the markets, Russians were parading their half-naked bodies, and Israelis kicked back and smoked in the cafes.
If you wanted an international party scene, you found it here. But, because our drug of choice now is a Tums, and "rave" to us means talking up the chocolate walnut brownie at dinner last night, we decided against staying in north Goa and sought out accomodation in the quieter, relaxed town of Benaulim. The state of Goa is not all sand and sin. There are places with great history and architectural beauty. Under Portugese rule all the way up until 1961, Goa is home to some fantastic religious and residential structures. The present Goan capital, Panajim, very much resembles the streets of Lisbon with colorful, two-storey stucco homes of red, blue and yellow pastel, with tiny pillared balconies overlooking narrow cobblestone streets. Old Goa, once Portugese capital, is dotted with behemoth cathedrals. We spent the first day covering most of the state on a motorbike which cost us 300 here,
covering nearly 100 miles to the north, east and south. It was some heavy touring but well worth taking in. And once we finished with the sights we plodded back to the beach where the two remaining days of swimmng, slumping and slumbering rounded off a brilliant stay.
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