Welcome to the Gaam

Started the day with a cool dawn walk towards Dandi beach. Nice to be out before the rest of the village wakes up. Got some mean shots of the sunrise and of random goings on along the main road. Some absolute MANSIONS here, which are invariably built by NRI's (non-resident Indians) from the UK or wherever, spending up large with an exchange rate of 80:1. Nice. Came back as people were biking to school, taking their cattle to the fields and what not along the main road... quite interesting. Found myself followed by a couple of cattle and tried to take a covert video over my shoulder of them with their owner. The set-up of our “pleasant rural road” (Singh et al, 2005, p657 Lonely Planet India) in the Gaam (village) is different from Mumbai: ONE main road which everything happens along surrounded on each side by forrest / pasture / farm and then the occasional road off it leading to various villages.

Lagan
Lagan (wedding) happening in the village today, which we all got invited to yesterday. Ended up doing it with Maya and Jaya as others had gone to the town for boring stuff. Weddings are done quite differently over here; you invite your ENTIRE village (since you all pretty much know each other) Anyway, the pre-wedding (11-4pm) included a live band, well kinda Indian Karakoke with one guy on the mic all the time. Then there was the feed. OH the feed. I had to sit with Tagore, the guy who took us, as the ladies sit in different aisles. And it was fully village-style....Seated cross legged on mats on the ground. Had a MASSIVE feed, pretty sure I sunk more than the guy next to me...which is a good sign. Apparently they like big boys in the gaam.

[/b]Navsari Take One
Had a wicked second half of my first day in the Navsari city centre. We caught the bus in just for the experience; and an experience it was! At least 70 people in a bus that was meant to seat maybe 40. I think I know where stagecoach send thier old buses now.... this thing was borderline impound material. Noticed that the driver was reaching BEHIND his seat to change gears, there was a huge carburettor sitting next to him courtesy of a massive hole cut in the floor and beside that a four-pack of heavy duty car batteries connected together to power the beast. Interesting. Guess this is India’s idea of suped-up.

Navsari was as crazy as Mumabi but on a smaller and dustier scale. Didnt see any slum areas but the roads were carnage thanks to the shoppers / cyclists / motorbikes / rickshaws / cows / pigs / camels and cars that were weaving over them. Scored a mean shirt for all of about 180 rupees. $6! We also had a pretty yum munch at this hotel, some Masala Dosa (Savory pancake with spiced potato stuff on top) and a couple of pizza-like things... curried of course but a bit of a gamble, we ordered a "P A Pizza" and took bets on what the 'P' and the 'A' would have in store. After opening the box we decided that Maya won with "Possibly Anything" - try pickle, cucumber, cashewnuts, cabbage, capsisum, mango chutnry and cheese atop pretty much a big bread roll. Fairly boring shopping with some of the fam, but am definitly keen for another trip in. Finished up with buying some fresh fruit and vege in this crazy Bazaar (market) totally packed with people and their wares before a rickshaw ride home that was even more outta control than the taxi ride here. Wicked experience really, like a rollercoaster but with real live cars/peope/animals/bikes to avoid. Vice City fans buy your tickets now. No shortage of 'shit' / 'holy .....' and the likes from the back seat. Its not how guys drive these things that I cant get my head around.... its how they survive! Im thinking law of nature applies: IF ITS BIGGER THAN YOU GET OUT OF THE WAY....COZ OTHERWISE IT WILL KILL YOU. Doesnt get much more natural than that.

Home at dusk and have just had a visit from the people who rent my Grandad's (on Dad's side) land down the road. We went over there this morning to visit his grave, pay some respect and check out the extensions that Dad had got put onto the house there. These guys were cool, in the morning they hooked us up with this big jar of 'Tahi'. Essentially palm tree sap; called 'Neruh' when it's freshly sapped, you let it sit till the afternoon and it naturally ferments and becomes alcoholic. All good. We chilled it and just tried some, tastes kinda like really really sweet Malibu. (and yes I've got plans to distill that bad boy...see how damaging it can get). Anyway, these guys came to visit and invited us over for a woodfire bbq tomorrow. We've lined it up for late afternoon, should be awesome. Remembering that there's a ban on the sale and purchase of liquor of any kind in this state...... as they left one of the guys semi-whispered to me that they've got some beers in the fridge. This guy obviously a good cunt. My new best friend even. Excellent... beach, beers and bbq lined up for tomorrow. How can this possibly go bad?

Nick