Diwali, Daman and Daaru...

Day 1:
This is almost a travelogue… basically, a way of boasting to the world that while you were scooped up in your home doing pooja and eating sweets, I got to go on a trip to Daman, and chill out.

We take off for Daman on Diwali morning… train journey of three hours was fairly uneventful except that we had to travel standing… (the typical MBA habit of JIT tickets did us in)

We reach Vapi and take off for Daman in a shared taxi. Like most small towns in India, the taxi driver firmly believes that taking the legal limit of 4 passengers is safe, but then, he has also learnt that fundamental principle of finance – There is no return without risk. So, he loads six people in the taxi – 4 at the back and two in the front… but we don’t mind as long as we get to our places… cheap but alive!

We book a room… fairly economical at 100 bucks a head… I’m already beginning to like this ‘budget’ holiday… I also indulge in my favourite pastime of reading Indian signboards in small towns… I had already noticed two in no time… The hotel has a board which proclaims “OUTSIDE FOOD AND DRINKS NOT ALOUD”. I hope it means we can bring daaru from the neighbouring shop as long as we do it silently…

A nearby shoe shop proclaims “New Stoke Sale”… I just luvvv the Gujarati pronunciation… Imagine having ‘snakes’ for breakfast…

A friend had advised us to visit Dadra and Nagar Haveli first… so, we traverse back to Vapi in another taxi… similar manner, similar rate…

Vapi to Dadra in a rickshaw… this time, 4 passengers in the rick… I get the privilege of sitting in the front seat… fairly uneventful journey… We reach Dadra Garden… typical sarkari maintained garden… sleepy and boring… the only things that moved were the ducks roaming around… not even lovey-dovey couples necking each other like in Ooty… btw, one more addition to the funny words collection… the fast food centre in the garden serves “Masroom soup”…

We take a rick to Silvassa… and the driver, seeing four clueless tourists, realizes that he has got his Diwali bonus after all… he promises to take us to all the tourist attractions in Silvassa for 300 bucks wonly… after some typical Indian bargaining (we start at 200 and move up, he starts at 300 and moves down), we end up at a mutually agreeable 250 bucks… even though he might still be fleecing us, we feel good because we had ‘bargained’…

He takes us to the ‘Lion Safari’… an artificial sanctuary… the outside office looks real cool… bamboo building, really admirable… there is a sign-board of a ferocious looking lion… we pose happily with that sign-board, without realizing that this was as close as we could get to a lion… well, the entry fee to the Safari is 25 bucks (“Rs. 100 for non-Indian tourists”… even the Government fleeces the unsuspecting foreigners, so why blame the tourist guides and taxi drivers??). We are taken in a caged Maruti Gypsy, and driven around… it feels like an adventure but it is post noon and the lions seem to be enjoying a siesta… (so what if you paid 25 bucks a head, the lion is only interested in four legged creatures it seems)… finally, we spot a lion and a lioness sitting under a shady tree… seems like they had just watched “Pyaar ke side effects” as they were sitting facing away from each other… the chance of additions to the lion family there seems remote… btw, we just learnt that the sanctuary houses a grand total of TWO animals… the ones we just saw… since we had seen 100% of what the sanctuary offered, it was time to go…

The driver of the vehicle is apparently influenced by Mark Twain’s advice of brevity… when we ask him “Sher ko khana kya dete ho?”… he replies, “Maans”… ooh, and I thought lions were vegetarians!!!

We then visit a dam… nuthin eventful about this one too except some half naked kids jumping about in the water… these kids actallu jump off from the high bridge into the water some 15 feet below… I wonder why they don’t train these bacchas for the Olympics…

From the dam, we return to Silvassa for a visit to the museum… Again, a typical sarkari maintained museum… sleepy, silent and empty… no guides, poor lighting, objects of some tribes arbitrarily placed… with some obscure write ups ( I really think I could spice up those)… absolutely not recommended unless you are interested in tribal history…

From the museum to a leisurely lunch, with beer… and then back to Vapi, and then to Daman… a visit to the Nani Daman beach… the sand was not fine, more gravel type… the beach was poorly lit (blame the Diwali Amavasya too)… and as we were incredibly lucky, the water was far away due to low tide (stupid Amavasya again)… well, this beach too was crowded with vendors selling all ‘snake’ items… the bhel-, paani-, sev- and miscellaneous puris… no sooner had we sat down, we heard a voice… “Sir chilled beer laaoon kya?”… “saste mein milega”… well… we had had our share of drinks at lunch, and the beach was so dirty that a drink would not have been too enjoyable… plus there was a paunchy cop doing the rounds, and since we didn’t want to give him any more Diwali bonus, we ignored the beer vendor…

We asked him if he could fetch us some chai… got some good gyaan from him instead… “Mard ko chai nahi peena chahiye”… well, to each his own… and I thought chai was good for health...

We returned from that beach, disappointed at the day… it was not too special… we also visited the Nani Daman fort… it is nuthin but 2 stone walls masquerading as a fort… and thus ended a day of roaming around… btw, we did sign off with half a bottle of Signature premium… ah, the day was not too bad after all…

(Coming Up: Day 2 of Daman... in the next post)