Diwali – A nation gone mad

Location: Arambol
Country: India

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Diwali is one of the major festivals in India. I haven’t quite figured what it id for, as they seem to have several different meanings for it. It is manly for the god Laxmi who is god of wealth, which of course would be the god of my choice were I Hindu.
This is the festival of lights and noise. They put Christmas lights up everywhere, and have fireworks and firecrackers.
I’m sure it sounds quite nice when you are reading about it, but the thing is that this goes on for 2 weeks non-stop before the festival. Everywhere you go at any given time of day there are groups of people standing around setting off firecrackers. You walk along the streets constantly wondering when one of these things is going to hit you. Of course, being India, no safety rules apply, and you have little kids setting off these things.
Not to mention that sleep has been almost impossible during this time, as it goes on till all hours.
One would think that a couple of days of this and they would get bored of it, but no, they went on and on for 2 weeks.

Last time I updated, I believe it was my last day in Udaipur. From there got a 16 hour sleeper bus to Bombay. Thought I would show my body who is boss, and took a sleeping pill, but to no avail, managed little more than dosing off lightly.
I was mentally prepared to hate Bombay, as I had an image of Delhi in my mind. I was quite surprised to discover that I quite liked it.
Bombay feels very European; parts of it very much reminded me of London. A lot of old beautiful European buildings around. It is quite clean, with hardly any cows to be seen.


I was worried about having problems finding a place to stay there because of the Diwali, but found something with not too much trouble. It was much more expensive than what I usually pay and not as nice, but it was only for 3 nights.
The accommodations would be the only complaint I have about Bombay, it is known to be the most expensive in India.

The night I arrived, went to meet Paula at the airport.
For those of you who do not know, Paula is my aunt and will be traveling with me for 6 weeks. (From now on, if I refer to “we” in the blog with no further explanation, that would be Paula and I).
We managed to meet up at the airport with no problem, and thankfully there was no need for all my contingency plans (though I am sure that they would have worked perfectly had they been needed).
Paula shlapped way too many things with her, even though I warned her time and again not to and sent her a list what to bring. But I think she did quite well for a first time backpacker.

We spent the first day walking round Bombay around Kolaba and the Fort areas, walking in to a couple of museums as well. It felt to me almost like walking round London (they even have double decker buses).
The most important thing we saw that day was the Jewish synagogue – Keneseth Eliyahoo synagogue. It felt very strange and special visiting a Synagogue in the middle of India.
This old Jewish guy sat with us, explaining about the place. But then, just to remind us that we are in India, attempted to sell us some things.


On the second day we took a half day taxi tour around Bombay, which was really good.
There aren’t actually that many sites to see in Bombay, so half a day is pretty much enough.
Two places worth mentioning are the Mani Bhavan museum – where Mahatma Gandhi used to live and was converted in to a museum. Was almost professional and quite interesting. The second place Dhobi Ghat, which is the city laundry place, with 5000 men standing doing laundry by hand, it is quite the site.


On the third day we went to Elephanta Island, which is Bombay’s biggest tourist attraction, and rightfully so.
You get there on a one hour boat trip, which was nice in itself. You get a good view of Bombay and it is hard to grasp how big it is.
On the island, there are temples dedicated to the god Shiva (god of destruction), that were carved in the rock.
It was beautiful and really interesting to walk around. Each carved panel told a different story about some aspect of Shiva.

That night, we had an 11 hour train trip to Goa. I think that at the first site of the train station (which was jam packet with people) and of the train (which gives most people an association I had better not mention here), Paula was rather shocked. It was also the first time that she had to really carry her bag around, which is of course way too heavy for her.
But, I think she did really well, didn’t let it get her down, and eventually didn’t find the trip too bad.


We are staying at a beach called Arambol in Goa, which is a relatively quite beach, no big parties going on all the time.
We have a nice room, with a balcony with a view of the sea.
First impressions are very favorable and we can both do with some quiet chill out time.

FYI - Yesterday I decided to stop being lazy and start doing my washing myself – most the cloths and underwear I own are now covered in purple blotches. I guess I should have stuck with the lazy, as god intended.