Ah ... Diu! So not like the rest of India...

Dec. 8, 2015

Getting there was half the fun

After over a month in India we were feeling the need to go somewhere, well, a little less 'Indian'.  We'd heard about Diu, an old Portuguese colony on the Arabian Sea, south of Gujarat, and on the west side of India.  It was only taken over by India in 1961, which in a country like India, where change seems to happen at glacial speed, if at all, is really very 'recent'.  So Diu has retained much of its Portuguese nature and character, including more European standards of organization and cleanliness.  

Getting to Diu was definitely half the fun.  We traveled first to Gujarat, Gandhi's birthplace, where we stopped for a few days to visit some Bhuj towns.  From there south to Verval, a dirty, fish-stinking place where we had no choice but to stay the night before catching an early train to Diu.  

It was an old train on an even older narrow gauge track.  We rattled along with mostly locals - a colourful gaggle of women, a couple of fine moustachioed men and innumerable noisy children.  But it traveled through a pleasant enough landscape, relatively green, with the odd small village where we stopped to let someone off, or sometimes on.  

It was a slow ride, so we didn't arrive in Diu until dark.  When we became aware that we actually hadn't arrived in Diu at all, but just at a train 'station' (well, there was a building anyway) quite some distance from town.  The other passengers, having known this would be the case, had arranged for pick up by family or friends, and quickly disappeared into their conveyances.  Leaving us stranded, in the dark.  Fortunately someone took pity on us, and even more fortunately spoke English, and was able to help us out by convincing a group of locals who were piling into the back of pickup truck that there was room for two more.  

As it turned out, Diu was about 10 minutes' drive away, across a bridge.  The small town appeared fairly lively, but there were precious few hotels.  And even fewer with vacant rooms.  People - mostly young men - come to Diu from other parts of Gujarat, and India, to drink (because alcohol is available here, and nowhere else in Gujarat).   We found an acceptable (just) room in one of the hotels, remembering our travel mantra: 'we can do anything for one night'.  We'd look for a better place tomorrow...

As it happened, tomorrow was a long time coming - it sounded like all of Diu was partying.  Certainly the guys in our hotel were hard at it.  They were here for a good time, not a long time.  

We strolled around the city for a bit, at one point stumbling across a prettily lit mosque - and one of the only quiet places in town.

Back at our hotel, we were determined to find somewhere else to stay, so we went online.  There weren't many hotels outside of the main town, but we did find one - the Jankar Hotel - that looked like it just might be okay - and... it was near the beach.

The next morning we hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us there. He drove at break-neck speed through rough and narrow cobble-stone streets, finally arriving, with a flourish, at the Jankar Hotel.  

The Jankar Hotel

Our room, second floor, above the 'lobby'

It looked okay from the outside - clean and colourful -  and the location, not far from the beach, was great.  The inside was, well, a bit weird - walls covered with colourful murals of cartoon action heroes.  We asked to see a room.  It appeared there was no one staying there, so we were shown several.  Most had four or five beds in them, one right beside another, clearly for the 'Gujurati farm boys' who come on weekends.  But there was one room with just two beds, and we were assured there was hot water all day.  Which sounded great, until we saw the bathroom.  The word 'filthy' doesn't really cover it.  Every surface was encrusted with dirt and grime.  But the piece de resistance was the toilet, which was half full of the blackest water I have seen - in a toilet, at least.  Of course we took the room.  And then went in search of cleaning supplies, and spent a couple of hours mopping and scrubbing and pouring who knows what noxious chemicals into the toilet bowl.  Until finally it felt, if not sparkling clean, at least okay for us to use.

First floor hallway - our halls, on the second floor, were unadorned

Next we found a very large bucket and washed all the blankets, doing six or seven wash/rinse cycles.  The colour of the first few buckets of soapy water was very dark brown.  I wondered if they'd ever been washed.  Tomorrow I'll do our sheets, which we are so glad to have brought with us - we didn't think we'd use them as much as we have been - which is almost all the time.  We especially appreciate having our own pillow-cases, as some of the pillows here either have either grungy cases or no cases at all.  So cleaning done and blankets hung on the roof to dry (which they will in no time - it's hot here), we headed out to find the beach.  Stopping first at the little bar in the hotel (another point in its favour), that had no customers, and got a couple of beer for Douglas and some limeca for me (I may look like a teetotaler to them, but what they don't know is that I've got my own bottle of rum).

Our room, clean at last

A perfect spot for our 'sundowners'

The beach near the hotel is perfect.  It's about a five minute (downhill) walk.  It's blissfully quiet: usually there's not another soul on it.  And there's a bench, perched on a cliff above it, where we sit, warmed by the sun, and enjoy our 'sundowners' as we gaze out at the Arabian Sea.  Once in a while we see a boat, often far off shore.  Even more rarely we see a sea turtle, swimming slowly along, it's head and back just visible for a few moments before it disappears into the depths.  We watch the horizon to make sure it's still there, and stay until the sun goes down, and everything becomes a lovely shade of pink.   

Then we make our way back up the hill to a great restaurant that's slightly more expensive than most other places, but clean and very pleasant with an outdoor seating area and great food.  It mostly caters to travellers like us, and we've met some great people there.  We hang out with a Scot and an American, both well traveled and well read, comparing notes about the places we've been, and talking about India, an inexhaustible subject.  The owners, who are also the cooks and servers, say they don't consider themselves to be 'Indian' (although they clearly are), and are highly critical of India and most Indians.  They are particularly critical of the 'Gujarati farm boys' who they say come for a week-end of drinking and carousing, and being noisy and objectionable, and bringing with them their filthy habits of spitting and urinating and littering wherever they happen to be.  (Although we didn't say so, we have to agree that this pretty much sums up the behaviour we've seen.)  Our hosts assured us that the people of Diu are not like this.  (Again, from what we've seen, we'd have to agree.)  

 

We've been here for a week now, enjoying the relatively clean air, the proximity to the ocean, being able to walk without having to constantly dodge motorcycles and tuk-tuks, being able to hear birds sing - and seeing lots of birds we've never seen before - the big blue-winged black ibis, and tiny brilliant green bee-eaters, so small we thought at first they were big bees, not bee-eaters.  Last night when we were having our 'sundowners' we saw two kinds of egret, maybe a curlew or a willet (the one with the curvy-down beak).  It's great to be able to hear them yakking at one another in the morning and evening especially - here there are almost no traffic sounds.  The odd motorcycle/scooter, but even they are pretty quiet.

The Beautiful 'Old Ladies' of Diu

During the day we go on walk-abouts, often through the old part of town.  The old Portuguese houses, many of which have been beautifully restored, are magnificent: interesting architectural features with wonderful colours highlighting the ornate decorations - flowers, birds and animals - and the balustrades, arches, columns, and doorways.  I imagined the fun their owners must have dreaming up colour combinations and painting and repainting their houses.  True works of art.

This one was unusual in its design - not as 'pretty'

Even the older houses, minus the fancy paint jobs, were beautiful.

Diu Fort - and Jail!

On more than one occasion we've walked along the cliff that flanks the Arabian Sea, all the way from our hotel to the old Diu Fort.  It's a tourist attraction, mostly frequented by Indian tourists, not foreigners.  It's interesting enough in itself, with good views, some impressive cannons, and an old jail.  But what I love the most about the fort are the brilliant green parrots that flit about, nesting in the old walls, chatting to one another.  Often we see incredible electric turquoise blue kingfishers trying their luck in the waters off the cliffs. 

Statue of a policeman in front of the Diu Fort Jail

Face at the butt end of a cannon at Diu Fort

Diu Harbour and Fishboats

As is the case with most port cities, the harbour and dock areas are some of the most interesting and colourful.  We go down there frequently - often enough that the fishermen and other port characters have gotten to know us.  I take photos of the boats, of the people working on them, of the people living beside them.

Colourful fishbouats

Kids playing in an old fish boat

Drying fish

Woman doing dishes infant of her makeshift home in the harbour

Resident harbour goat, sunning himself on the bench

There was lots of boat fixing and building going on down at the docks.  We watched one fairly large boat as it was being built.  It was finished just before we left Diu, and we were lucky enough to be there when it was moved to the water and launched.  It's the subject of another blog!

Diu Markets

Diu's not much of a market town, but there was a small market area and a fish market that we visited.

These t-shirts didn't seem too popular - I wonder why?

The fish market

The cat looks interested...

Walking the Old Wall

Diu is surrounded by an old wall, much of which can be walked.  We did that a couple of times, starting not far from our hotel, and ending at one of the main city gates.  

One of the nicest sections of the wall

Doug, looking down from a newly restored section of the wall

One of the main gates to the city

Good luck with that!

Diu Caves

Not far from the hotel, these caves offered a cool spot to relax on yet another hot day.

Fabulous roots dripping down into the cave

Loved the colours!

Where to now?

Now we're trying to decide what to do for Christmas, when places like this, and anywhere 'nice' in India get over-run with both national and foreign tourists, and all the prices of hotels go up - sometimes double or treble the regular rate.  So we're considering just staying here, mostly probably still as the only guests, and likely with no increase in the room rate.  Our hosts seem to like us.  After all, we clean our own room, and don't ask for much in terms of service.  They also love our 'sundowner' routine: they've gotten wise to my hidden bottle of rum (perhaps I showed it to just one of them, just once...).  After whatever craziness is associated with Christmas and the new year we're thinking we may go back to Rajasthan.  There's an area near Jaipur that sounds interesting, and that's not well-traveled by foreigners: Shekawati, where old havelis (large residences, some now museums or hotels) are adorned with fabulous frescoes.  There's also a hilltop village not far from Mumbai that apparently has banned vehicles and plastic bags - now that would be amazing!  In the end, as usual, we'll go where the spirit moves, depending on train and bus availability and schedules, the weather, both current and projected, and our mood at the time.  The best thing about traveling the way we do, without a set program or plan, is that we can be completely spontaneous.