The Portuguese influence here is very obvious. I had not registered that it was not until 1961 that Nehru sent the Indian Army in to Goa to chase out the Portuguese.

The ship docked a fair way from the main towns of interest.

Not sure what this was doing here?

The bus ride through the green tropics was a nice change from the Middle East.

They used to mine for iron ore here … evidence of it in the soil colour everywhere …

Barges used to move the iron ore to the port. Now hundreds of them are rusting away in the river.

We went to Old Goa, once the Portuguese capital. Nearly all of it was demolished long ago because of endemic disease and the capital moved to Panjim. Only several big churches (2 pictured here) and a few other buildings remain at Old Goa.

This church had a tower fall down and they couldn’t be bothered to replace it.

Inside it used to be elaborately decorated thoughout like this,

… but someone decided to white plaster over almost all of it!

We then walked across 200 metres to this church …

… that houses the the tomb of Francis Xavier

We then drove though perilous narrow streets to Panjim past many elegant old Portuguese houses …

… and visited yet another food market …

… where we bought 5 small bananas from this guy for 40 cents and ate them.

Finally to a beautiful old Portugueses merchant’s home for a light snack lunch.

A good day … more Portuguese and tropical island (but with Indians), than I assume is typical of most of India.