The tropical paradise portion of our trip is coming to a close, as we wait in Goa’s maddeningly chaotic airport (chaos caused mostly by obnoxious European tourists who are either too rude, or too high, to wait their turns in line) to catch our flight to the megalopolis of Mumbai. We’ve had a wonderful three days in Goa, a much slower-paced, easy-going enclave which seems to have taken after its former colonial power (the Portuguese, up until 1961).

Yesterday we left the not-so-real-world of our resort (which was absolutely lovely, and for whom we have Lataa and Shyam to thank a million times), and took an auto-rickshaw to the state capital, Panaji. We indulged in some very spicy Goan cuisine (chicken xacutti… Mmmm!) and snapped a few photos of the main church. The Portuguese seem to have been much more successful at spreading Christianity than the Brits, with more crosses erected across the countryside than anywhere I’ve ever been and a couple “Jesus” bumperstickers (just like Michigan!).

From Panaji we hitched a ride up to the famous party beaches of Goa (Anjuna & Vagator), but as it turns out the party seems to have ended after a decade of government crackdowns and post-Mumbai security precautions. We rented a scooter and managed to remember to stay on the left-hand side of these slightly more manageable roads, though I would not say I conquered my fear of two-wheeled motorized modes of transport. From behind the handlebars we saw many, many European tourists doing the same thing (though the high ratio of dreadlocks would seem to suggest they might have been more disappointed to discover that Goa had passed it’s prime as a hippie haven), as well as beautiful scenery (plush tropical forests, sandy beaches, and a sunset over the sea). Shortly after dismounting, a meandering cow charged at me with its horns, but no one seemed to notice this mildly embarassing episode and I have no injuries to report.

Looking forward to meeting Ramya’s family in Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai in the coming days. As always, we’ll get some new photos up as soon as we find our way to a computer!

The good news is I got to India…the bad news is my baggage didn’t. It got stuck in Beijing but will be delivered to Lataa Chitti’s (my aunt’s) house.

Not deterred, I raided Lataa Chitti’s closet (3 AM - photo at right), Mehar Singh drove us to the train station (4 AM — the title of this post is derived from the incredibly annoying and repetitive message that played over the station’s loudspeaker when trains were delayed) and we hopped the train to Jaipur (6 am). The service on the train surpassed our expectations (on time, lots of legroom… way better than Amtrak!). When we got on board we received tea and biscuits, a copy of the Hindustan Times, followed by a delicious lunch of vada, and sambar (Jamie looked confused so I showed him how to eat them).

After getting off the train we met up with Jamie’s family (David, Rusty, and brother Dan) at the luxurious Le Meridien. From there it was off to the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar and the Palace of the Winds.

The Jantar Mantar is an astronomical/astrological observatory, which includes a huge (27 meters high) sundial which can tell time up to 2 seconds. It was also interesting to see the dials which are used to calculate the ascending star sign in Hindu astrology. My grandfather was an astrologer and I’ve been hearing about Hindu stars and signs since birth so it was very cool to see how the calculations are made.