The initial P.O.A. on reaching Daman was to go and roam around. Get some pics and get a taste of the local life, but I guess when you take a vacation once in a year that’s expecting too much! All I did for the next two days was largely lazing around. A beer in the morning and good old rum at night, taking long walks on the beach, reading short stories sitting in the room window overlooking the sea and chatting up with family! Not bad na?
However, There were a few things I was not going to do and I stuck to that- I did not watch TV, I did not laze around in the cozy hotel bed and I did not over eat!! (Which is a norm with me on holidays!!)
However on the second day we did go to Jhampore beach which is in Moti Daman, a distance of 23 kms from our hotel and an hour’s drive. Jhampore is the beach to stay at, as the picture alongside will reveal- all the sights and sounds of the beach are available along with the local folk to chat along. DO NOT STAY AT DEVKA BEACH- ITS BAD, STAY AT JHAMPORE BEACH and you’ll thank me for the advice!
Jhampore was the only outing we had and after that it was hotel all the way! I had fun playing Table Tennis with my sis and also on making a new friend in the hotel- Eric Houssie.
Eric Houssie was German-Irish but had his two generations settled in Boston. He had come to India for the first time on account of his work. I ran into him at around 9 at night when I was walking on the beach. I saw a man searching something through the beach sand and enquired if he needed any help in looking for something. That’s how I and Eric started talking. He was apparently collecting stones and sand samples for his niece who collects such samples from across the world!!
We then took our conversation over drinks and this is what Eric had to say- “India!! What a place…people are so happy here…look at them everybody is happy”, he said pointing to a bunch of gujrati’s dancing to a version of a hindi film song- being performed by a live orchestra- that would make the singer take his own life!! “The woman are so beautiful here” but marriage he said was not for him. He was around 40 now and he could not take the ‘pack-pack-pack-pack-….’ That comes along with a wife!!
There was much more to the evening from talking about Bollywood to Eric’s take on THE AMERICA!!
The most interesting moment was to see how people search for bonds…apparently Eric’s father had come some 50 years ago very close to the Devka beach when his father was working for the US navy. I could not miss the shine in Eric’s eyes as he pointed to the sea and celebrated the fact that he was now some 300km’s close to the same spot where his father was 50 years ago!!
Such is the human being…so different and yet so same!!
We wrapped up Daman the next day afternoon. The drive back took less time because we came back through Vapi and not Udhwada…although we saved only 5 kms by distance, it took an hour less making Daman-Borivali a three hour non-stop drive mostly at 100 kph. That was it!
However, There were a few things I was not going to do and I stuck to that- I did not watch TV, I did not laze around in the cozy hotel bed and I did not over eat!! (Which is a norm with me on holidays!!)
However on the second day we did go to Jhampore beach which is in Moti Daman, a distance of 23 kms from our hotel and an hour’s drive. Jhampore is the beach to stay at, as the picture alongside will reveal- all the sights and sounds of the beach are available along with the local folk to chat along. DO NOT STAY AT DEVKA BEACH- ITS BAD, STAY AT JHAMPORE BEACH and you’ll thank me for the advice!
Jhampore was the only outing we had and after that it was hotel all the way! I had fun playing Table Tennis with my sis and also on making a new friend in the hotel- Eric Houssie.
Eric Houssie was German-Irish but had his two generations settled in Boston. He had come to India for the first time on account of his work. I ran into him at around 9 at night when I was walking on the beach. I saw a man searching something through the beach sand and enquired if he needed any help in looking for something. That’s how I and Eric started talking. He was apparently collecting stones and sand samples for his niece who collects such samples from across the world!!
We then took our conversation over drinks and this is what Eric had to say- “India!! What a place…people are so happy here…look at them everybody is happy”, he said pointing to a bunch of gujrati’s dancing to a version of a hindi film song- being performed by a live orchestra- that would make the singer take his own life!! “The woman are so beautiful here” but marriage he said was not for him. He was around 40 now and he could not take the ‘pack-pack-pack-pack-….’ That comes along with a wife!!
There was much more to the evening from talking about Bollywood to Eric’s take on THE AMERICA!!
The most interesting moment was to see how people search for bonds…apparently Eric’s father had come some 50 years ago very close to the Devka beach when his father was working for the US navy. I could not miss the shine in Eric’s eyes as he pointed to the sea and celebrated the fact that he was now some 300km’s close to the same spot where his father was 50 years ago!!
Such is the human being…so different and yet so same!!
We wrapped up Daman the next day afternoon. The drive back took less time because we came back through Vapi and not Udhwada…although we saved only 5 kms by distance, it took an hour less making Daman-Borivali a three hour non-stop drive mostly at 100 kph. That was it!
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