Goa

Sir,

It took longer to sit on the tarmac than it did to fly from M. to G., but it might as well be flying to another planet ... Yes, it's still In., but there's a significant Christian (Xian -- I steal that nomenclature from the snooty and hardcore Jesuits) minority -- I'd guess something like 30% ... The way you notice it is through the women: they dress in Western blouses or slacks, they look you in the eye, they actually talk to you.

But I'm ahead of myself, at the airport I was immediately greeted by a woman probing for members of the tourney. After a short chat I was connected with a driver and we headed off -- the key mistake I forgot to ask was if the trip was being paid for by them or me ... I know better than that, I guess I just got whacked out from the fact that someone was actually there to talk to me.

The trip must've taken about an hour (I don't have a watch with me) and if you weren't already familiar with all the strange nuances of In., I'm sure it would be a mind-blower ... On the trip I saw:

36 cows in the street (16 of those were eating garbage -- things like cardboard)
18 dogs that look crazy, stupid or rabid (2 attacked the car I was in, 1 decided it would be a good idea to sleep on the shoulder).
32 egrets

I also saw a raptor of some type -- in America it would have been a kestral, for sure. I'm not sure what it is here.

Most of the heavy vehicles and tri-shaws have the slogan

<- Honk ->

OK

The whole OK thing is weird -- I don't know if the English picked it up from the Ins. or vice versa -- but it's some kind of power mantra (look at the poster for Life of Brian, a graffito at the bottom says "Brian rules OK"). When you try to get people to explain it to you, you essentially just get blank stares from people. It seems something akin to trying to explain what "red" is to a blind man.

We only saw one fatal accident, which is a bit low for the amount of distance we covered. (In. is the most deadly highway system in the world, both per capita and in raw number of deaths.) The closest call we had (assuming that coming within six inches of a vehicle doesn't count -- if it does, we did that about 200 times) was a girl of about six was standing on the roadway with her mom (of course. where else would you stand?). She went to brush her hair back just as we passed, and we barely barely barely nicked her elbow. Not enough to even move it (think: 2 layers of epidermus). She an her mom both laughed. In. it's SO much fun.

The only hitch was I didn't have a room, and I for damn sure wasn't going to pay US$200 at the InterContinental. I had my driver drop me at a place I knew from a guidebook -- they had a room (they almost never do), but wanted RS1200 for it (US$30). That's a lot. I started dickering with them a bit, but it was looking futile and I really didn't want to trek around as sunset approached, so I took it.

The room is very plain. There's a "double bed" (which means two single beds that are put side-by-side with each other) with a blue mosquito net, a card table with a Ganesh table cloth, some bare shelves and a bathroom that has a showerhead (cold shower), but no door (this means the bathroom takes a shower right on along with you). There's also the requisite water bucket and scoop, but no toilet paper. I never do fully get used to Left Hand Land.

I'm skipping dinner tonight, although we're still in Goa "enough" that several restaurants here serve seafood (there's a fishing boat immediately outside my room), so I'll have a few nights of decent food.

I'm typing to you from an Internet cafe on the touristy drag in the main part of town. It's clear the going rate for Internet in the country is a buck an hour. A good deal, to be sure.

One of the beach houses down the way has a Star of David in front. I'll let you know what's up with that.

Satellite tomorrow. Starts late (16:00). Hopefully jet lag won't be a problem.

Pax,

b1