Some days India feels like Indonesia or Thailand. At other times it’s more like Africa. We have watched the “dabbawallahs” deliver lunches in Mumbai and peeked into the High Court with its towers of yellowing legal documents, red ribbons pinked by time and except for the burning sensation on our lips and tongues, India hasn’t shown us a personality we can identify.
Dabbawallahs deliver 200,000 lunches daily in Mumbai
Panaji in the state of Goa feels a bit like Brazil, not surprising since both share a Portuguese heritage. We were still recuperating from the 13-hour bus ride from Mumbai, a long journey even on a private, “deluxe” sleeper bus but managed to visit the World Heritage Portuguese churches of “Old Goa” today, a 15-minute, 25 cent bus ride from Panaji. From the 16th to 18th Centuries the original Goa was considered the “Rome of the East.” Its population was greater than Lisbon or London but the city was abandoned after epidemics of cholera and malaria. Today this World Heritage Site houses several churches from the days when Portugal was a world power.
Have passport, will travel
Most visitors come for the beaches like the hippies who popularized Goa in the 60s and 70s. Now that we are in our 60s, beaches take a backseat to cultural and historic sites. And we aren’t alone. We ran into our first Americans – Barbara, Kay, Bev and Stan – adventurous seniors from Nevada and Arizona, out to see the world. We were surprised that they were from the US; most “American” speakers turn out to be from Canada.
