One of These Things is Not Like the Other

I was feeling a bit off in the morning, so I ordered a very unassuming toast and jam and porridge for room service breakfast.

When it arrived, I got toast and jam and a poached egg. This was the first time I realized how similar "porridge" and "poached egg" sound. I sent the poached egg back only because looking at it made me queasy.

I went down to the beach to people watch for a bit before going sightseeing with my driver Vinesh. The beach was pretty empty, which seemed to be the norm for morning hours. I sat at a different beach shack and did the incessant hand shaking and name exchanging.

Goa is a different sort of place from the rest of India, I think. Before I went to India, I read etiquette guides and called upon the "Cultural Awareness: India" class I had taken at Oracle and they pretty much said not to initiate handshakes because it isn't really what is done in India. But in Goa, I was getting OCD about all of the hands this person shook all the way down the beach before getting to my hand!

Also, locals and tourists alike, all seemed to be constantly trying to get some in Goa. This is not what I had expected either. Well, maybe I had expected tourists to be...but not the locals. But I think a large percentage of the "locals" are transplants with the sole purpose of trying to get some with the tourists. You know, you get a tourist girl high on ecstacy at a beach rave -- and you don't know what could happen!

For the record, I did not go to any beach raves. In fact, I pretty much made sure to be back in my room by 9 pm, lest anyone get the wrong idea.

So, it was time to meet Vinesh for a day of sightseeing in Goa. We headed for Old Goa. Here are some photos I took on the way:

For those of you who are unaware of this, Goa was Portuguese colony for about 500 years. This may partially account for why Goa seemed to me to operate a little differently than the rest of India. This is also why Vinesh took me to see a lot churches. Churches are all over the place in Goa. Colorful shrines were constantly popping up along roadsides as we drove through winding hills.

Here are some photos from the Basilica Bom Jesus, which is dedicated to the worship of the Baby Jesus and is the home to the tomb of St. Francis Xavier, who is the patron saint of Goa. The church is built primarily of laterite, a locally available red stone.

There was another church across the street, St. Catherine's Cathedral. According to my guidebook, it is the largest church in Old Goa. I had had enough church for the moment, so I didn't go.

I went back to the car and Vinesh said that people usually spend two hours looking at the churches. I had spent 20 minutes.

So then, of course, he took me to another church! This one was way up in the hills and you could not go into the church. It was locked up tight.

People were just milling around trying to peer into these beautiful quirky windows whose panes were made of what looked liked squares of mother of pearl:

The view of Old Goa from the churchyard was gorgeous:
We saw a barge going down the river. Vinesh said that it is taking iron from an iron mine his dad used to work at all the way to Japan:
Here's a pretty Goa blossom in the churchyard:
After discussing his mother's dislike for his ex-girlfriend and her current plans to find him a wife herself, we headed toward Panjim, the capital of Goa.