Goa

Goa is so different from Bombay. It's a rural state which came under the Portuguese rather than the British in the age of colonialism, and the Portuguese were of course Catholic. So the missionaries came too, and eventually set up schools so that today Goa is the most literate state in India. With the literacy and the increased trade came wealth, and although I don't know the comparative wealth of the state as a whole, the people look better fed that those further north, they are both taller and more rounded, and the houses, roads and fields look cleaner.

Of course it's silly to compare it with the city of Bombay, there is no concentration of people in such numbers. But the difference is still striking.

It's also a hilly and damp state. So the hills are covered in lush vegetation and tall trees, while in the valleys are rice paddy fields, still managed in the old ways with lots of human labour planting (3 crops a year) and harvesting, and opening and closing the various irrigation ditches with mattocks. The rain levels mean large rivers too, and as there are few bridges across them, there's a certain amount of traffic concentration as you get near to a bridge. The roads leave a lot to be desired, especialliy if you are in the back seat of a coach!

We made a short visit to an uninspiring Hindu temple of no particular significance apart from an unusual tower of lights in its grounds: the original is still there, cast in brass and designed to be filled with oil, about 30 feet high. It is overshadowed by a new tower fitted with electric bulbs instead. Technology has much to answer for.

The real objective of the trip was a spice plantation, to which I was looking forward. I remembered it from a previous visit, when we walked all round the experimental farm with its scientist owner, then a grandfather and a charming gentleman, and I had much enjoyed hearing about his work and being beneath the trees in the cool shade.

But I was disappointed. The venue had changed to another spice plantation whose aim was to become an eco-tourist centre. So they had a restaurant business, a shop selling the spices, an area for performing dancers, and a guest house if you wanted to stay overnight. The tour of spices was given by our guide from the coach who simply lectured us rather than talked to us, along a narrow path (this one was built on the side of a hill and theefore was a series of terraces) which covered a trail that would have fit in my garden.

The saving grace of the day was that we were delayed getting back to the ship, and therefore travelled in the dusk and evening light. So by the time we hit towns or villages again, their Christmas decorations were lit. There are mostly paper lanterns in the shape of a three-dimensional pentagon and their gentle light was beautiful. Maybe there would be a string of lights along the front of the house as well, but the effect was always enhanced by the modesty of the setup.