India is my dream country. Journey one. Part 1

My first encounter with India was in the spring of 2014. Since it was my first trip abroad, I was very careful. I read a lot of articles and all kinds of comments on the Internet, interviewed colleagues and acquaintances who have already been to this country. I studied all sorts of forums dedicated to India and, in particular, Goa, because it was in this state that I was going to rest. As a result, after receiving information from various sources, I formed a certain opinion about the purpose of my trip and went to rest.

 

 

How far away were my ideas from reality? It is impossible to imagine what kind of country it is without visiting it in person. All comments, forums and discussions tell the truth and at the same time they don’t. For each person, this country opens in a special, individual and unique way. Someone she takes at once, someone gradually, and someone remains an uninvited guest, left on the threshold of a beautiful house.

 

My first impressions are strangely connected with the air. When I first set foot on Goan land, I felt it, physically. The air was incredible. It mixed thousands of smells, but the brightest of them were the smells of salty sea, heat, palm trees and some spices unfamiliar to me. Everything was so new, unusual and very unusual. And Dabolim airport, which is part of the military base "Hansa" of the Indian Navy, which receives passenger airliners. And the Indian military in uniform and with assault rifles at hand. And beautiful Indian women at passport control, smiling at tourists. All this struck me to the core. But the most unusual was the night, a warm summer night in early March. It is so amazing when the calendar is winter and there is no snow and cold wind around, when you are surrounded by palm trees, smell the sea and everything is so new to you. These were my first impressions of the country I fell in love with.

 

 

I was interested in absolutely everything. Our plane arrived in the middle of the night, and I didn’t have the opportunity to see everything around us. But even what I saw, I really liked it. Immediately upon leaving the airport, we were surrounded by Indians offering their services as porters. There were a lot of them, and they were very noisy, not very arrogant or pestering, although at first they were frightened by their pressure. They offered to carry luggage to the bus "very cheap, only for a hundred rubles" and it does not matter that you need to carry only 10-15 meters.

 

How long did I remember my first trip to India? I couldn’t see anything, but what I saw was enough. I was struck by the complete absence of traffic lights, left-hand traffic, narrow and not very high-quality roads, and palm trees, a huge number of palm trees standing along the roads.

 

 

Of course, we weren’t taken to the hotel right away. After leaving our luggage, we went to the sea. Even years later, I remember feeling the sea next to me, or rather, near the sea. It was like a huge prehistoric animal, clumsy but beautiful. And his breath could not be felt, even standing in complete darkness. The sky, unusual, unfamiliar, alien sky stretched overhead. Stars are incredibly large and bright, unfamiliar and, at the same time, such natives burned in this sky. Shortly before dawn, it gets very cold, so cold that you had to wear warm sweatshirts and jackets. But all this is so small compared to what you can see at this time.

 

Every dawn and sunset on the beach is unique. We watched these natural wonders every day, and each time it happened in a different way. But that first dawn was the most beautiful for me. The sun rose from across the sea and I was finally able to see where I was about to live. The endless Arabian Sea opened to my eyes and a sandy beach stretching far, far away. In fact, almost all of Goa is one solid beach, 101 kilometers long, sandwiched between the sea and the Western Ghats. And along the entire beach there are shakes, so in Goa they call an open-air cafe. Most of the hacks are done very simply. Instead of walls, just bars propping up the roof of palm leaves, an uncomplicated bar counter, plastic tables and chairs, that's all the cafes. Oh, and the kitchen, hotel room partition or just a rag. It all looks not very presentable and beautiful, and even complete unsanitary conditions in the cafe does not add positive emotions. But you forget about all this, you just need to try a dish or fresh juice. Portions in such cafes are not just huge, they are giant. Seafood is always fresh, and juices and fresh fruit are always tasty and not diluted with water. And it's all very, very cheap. For 200 rubles in Goa you can eat to the dump.

 

 

When I first went outside, it seemed to me that I was in the clothing market of the nineties in Russia. On both sides of the road there are numerous tents or shops with various clothes, jewelry, souvenirs, Ayurvedic cosmetics, fruits and much more. At every turn there are small cafes or restaurants. But there is practically no sidewalk and there is crazy traffic on the roadway. A huge number of mopeds, taxis and tuk tuks. Going to the other side of the street is always a risk, if not for life, then for health, since there is no pedestrian crossing and it seems that everyone drives as they want, and also signal like crazy. It's also very dirty. Everywhere there is garbage, all in some reddish dust and no one even tries to keep order. All this is due to the fact that Indians have completely different views of the world from ours. They even have a saying: “The rainy season will come and the ocean will wash away everything.” Although if you look at our streets after the snow melts, it does not look much dirtier. It all depends on how you treat it.

 

There are many stray dogs, zebus and, of course, sacred Indian animals - cows. They go where they want, do what they want, and nothing happens to them. They can even steal food from a plate or get their nose into a bag, but it’s all very funny and cute.

 

The streets are very noisy and crowded. Indians invite customers to their shops, and sometimes they do it very persistently. Tourists consider the goods presented on the shelves and sometimes behave not very culturally. Taxi drivers and tuk-tuk drivers (songeto) obsessively offer their services and all together this creates an indescribable whirlwind and hammer. Once you go back to the beach, everything changes. Of course, there are also a lot of people there, but all the havoc and havoc disappears, drowned out by the noise of the sea.

 

To be continued.