Goa-ing

I've been in Goa since last Friday. I am currently in the second of the little tourist beach towns we are traveling to, and am secretly hoping this is the last. The beaches are lovely, and the food in all the little western cafes is fantastic, but I am a bit tired of the thousands of people trying to sell necklaces, anklets, blankets, massages, space shuttles.... it's pretty difficult to relax or even concentrate.

The beaches are fantastic. I've swum much and sunbathed more. I miss Chennai very much, though. Adis and I miss it so much in fact that we are thinking about going back for a few days. Which would be wonderful fun.

The one main cultural highlight of this trip was driving on a scooter up to some ruins of a Portuguese fort. We couldn't drive all the way to it, but we did get very close. There is a lot of evidence of the old Portuguese days, especially in the way the women dress. The same sort of Anglo-Indian community that there was in Chennai exists here in Goa, but it is more of a Porto-Indian one. I haven't heard any Portuguese yet, but it I don't think it is out of the question.

I don't know if I wrote about it before, but I went to a really amazing modern art gallery n. There were some amazing pieces. A lot of it was quite traditional ; which is a multifaceted term because there were traditional Indian techniques with traditional Indian themes and some very traditional 20th Century Western Art pieces. The most interesting were the pieces that were western art techniques with Indian themes and a few traditional Indian techniques portraying modern Indian themes.

If you want to hear more, dear reader, just say and I will do another post by popular demand on "Art I have Seen."

Signing off for now. Missing home like Billio.