DAY 33 in Goa, India

We docked in Goa just before 10.00am and it was lovely to look down at the wharf from our balcony to see the families of crew members who come from Goa excitedly waiting to see them. Goa and the families of the crew had never seen a ship as large as this arrive into their port.  It is the first time Voyager has visited this part of the world as well.

Having disembarked the ship it was time to try and find our driver for the day that had been arranged by Datta our table Waiter. Datta comes from Goa. We were in for such a surprise because as we walked around the corner of the buildings there was the guy holding a sign with our name on it and standing with him was the family of our Waiter; his parents, his wife, his sister and brother-in-law and their two gorgeous little girls.  It was so touching to see how excited they were not only to meet us but also to see Datta later in the day when he had some time off.  We have a lot of fun at the table with Datta and he had been telling them about us in his emails. They hadn’t seen him for 6 months.

Sunje was our driver for the day and in no time we were on our way to visit the area of Goa.  In India everyone speaks English well and it was nice to have Sunje give us a running commentary along the way.  The driving here is horrendous; we were all on the edge of our seats at the beginning as we weaved in and out of the traffic.  There doesn’t seem to be any road rules, or if there are no-one takes any notice of them.  We would be driving down a road with a single lane going one way and another single lane coming the other but there would be three lanes suddenly as there were cars dodging the cars but driving along the centre line of the road tooting their horns to let everyone know they’re coming through. Throughout the day we only had two misses, we nearly collected two people on a scooter who ended up having to swerve and almost ending up in a pile of watermelons that were for sale on the side of the road.  Oh and no-one wears helmets on their scooters and there’s thousands of scooters here. The second near miss was with a scooter going around a roundabout which was a single roundabout with about 5 ‘created’ lanes and everyone pushing others and tooting frantically to try and get off their exit.  The scooter and rider nearly ended up on the bonnet of the car.  In the end I decided it best just to look at the window on the side and not worry about what was happening out the front of the car.

Our first stop was to visit a lovely Hindu Temple which was quite ornate and decorated with fresh flowers.  It was prayer time when we arrived, the elderly locals wanted their photo taken with me and kept touching my hair…..probably because mine is so grey and they looked about 100 years old and they still had natural black hair with just a dusting of grey….lol.

Then it was off to a Spice Farm. By this time the temperature had hit 38C and the air-conditioning in the car couldn’t cope so our ‘air’ was all the windows down. We were welcomed to the Farm by having a red ‘dot’ placed in the middle of our forehead and a garland of flowers draped around our necks. A glass of hot Lemongrass tea was handed to everyone then our guide lead us off along the red dirt trail.  It was an interesting tour looking at Cardemon, vanilla, cashew nuts, beetle nuts and the spices that make up Garam Masala. Then it was time to enjoy lunch….for some… I wasn’t game to try it, but I’m pleased to say that the other five who did are all still alive and well tonight….. J

Next stop was the Basilica of Saint Francis Xaviar who’s body still lies there in an sealed glass coffin and amazingly he is preserved and more or less intact, not a skeleton after hundreds of years. A huge church with such a lot of history of Goa inside. Goa was in possession of the Portuguese for 450 years so the main religion here is Catholic, then Hindi, then Muslim. Goa’s main export is Iron Ore, and tourism is its second income as many from Europe, UK and Russia enjoy Goa as their holiday destination.

Our last stop for the day was in the town of Panaji for a little retail therapy. Everything is very cheap here, they do take US dollars in some places but we found we got the better prices because we had Indian Rupee.

As we arrived back at the port the family were all there, this time with Datta as he was saying goodbye to them. As were many of the other crew with their families….quite sad to see them say goodbye to their wifes and children, some born whilst they’re have been away.  However we could easily see that the income they earn working on a ship is far greater than what they would be earning working and living in India. The families stayed on the wharf to the very end, waving as we sailed away with the hot setting behind us.

Tomorrow is a resting day at Sea.