Feb 4 – Mormugão (Goa), India. Heading back out to the Indian Ocean area called the Arabian Gulf. Next stop India. The forecast is for sunny skies and 99˚ temps. Yikes, let the sauna begin. Another new port for us so here's the historical part.
Mormugão is a sub-district and a municipal council in South Goa district in the Indian state of Goa. It is Goa's main port.
In the 1500s the Portuguese colonized part of Goa and they based their operations in there, in the place now called Old Goa. It was a separate part of the city mostly isolated from the rest of the city by water. As threats to their maritime supremacy increased, they built forts on various hillocks, especially along the coast. In 1624, they began to build their fortified town on the headland overlooking Mormugão harbor.
The sultans of Bijapur, who had Goa before the Portuguese, did not surrender the territory without a struggle. They tried several times to repossess the area but were unsuccessful. The Dutch eventually took most of the coastal area from the Portuguese including Cochin, where we will stop later on the cruise. From 1640 to 1643, the Dutch tried their best to capture Goa and Mormugão where we docked but were unsuccessful.
In 1683, the Portuguese in Goa were in grave danger from the Marathas. Almost certain defeat was averted when Sambhaji suddenly lifted his siege and rushed to defend his own kingdom from the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The narrow escape convinced the Portuguese viceroy, Dom Francisco de Távora, that he should shift the capital of the Portuguese holdings in India to Mormugão's formidable fortress.
In 1685 the new city at Mormugão was undergoing a construction boom. With the Jesuits, under Father Teotónio Rebelo, in charge and also the architects. Being good Jesuits they took great effort to avoid the ornate style of the time. The austere Viceroy's Palace still stands. In WWII it was a hotel. British agents, who in 1943 destroyed German ships anchored in Mormugão's neutral waters, used it a base of operations. Viceroys later found Mormugão too rural and isolated so the administrative headquarters were moved to the new city of Panjim, still Goa's chief city. The Portuguese were later replaced by the British. The Brits stayed until India gained its independence.
Today we are going to see three forts that were built to defend the Goa area and the harbor at Mormugão. The first was Reis Magos Fort. It was built in 1551 by the Portuguese and it was their last line of defense during the Goa Liberation Movement War. It has some nice views over the Mandovi River on the east side of the fort. You can see the city of Panjim, Goa's capital, from there as well. From the west side of the fort you can look out over the Arabian Sea. At its peak it had 31 cannons in 4 batteries. The fort's walls are constructed using laterite block. Laterites are soils rich in iron and aluminum, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Almost all of them are brick red because of the iron oxide content. If they are compacted under enough pressure they make a fairly soft rock that can be cut and shaped into blocks. Those found here must be unusually hard at some sites because using them to build large walls is unusual. After long exposure to air they turn darker and darker until they appear dark gray or almost black.
The main gate is L shaped so any invaders would have to slow down to make the turn. Just a few feet inside there's a hole in the ceiling that is one of those devices used to pour boiling oil down on any unwanted guests. There's a door in the side of the gate where it turns right. This was the fort's jail. We walked around the walls and then down to the main level to look at the buildings.
Our next stop was at Fort Agauda with its Portuguese lighthouse. The fort was built in 1612 on the banks of the Mandovi River. It has even better views of the Arabian Sea and the North Goa coastline. It's a larger fort than Reis Magos. For example the fort had a total of 79 cannons. One big advantage is that it has a fresh water spring inside the fort and they built a large water reservoir inside the fort to take advantage of that. The large supply of water was used to provide water to the ships involved in trade with Goa. Appropriate as the word 'agauda' I Portuguese means 'Watering Place'. The lighthouse was built in 1864, it's 4-stories tall and it's the oldest lighthouse in Asia.—it is four-stories tall and is the oldest in Asia.
From the fort's walls we could see a small armada of tourist boats at the mouth of the river to see the bottle-nosed dolphins that gather there. What we are touring is the upper part of the fort which served as a lookout point and high point for water storage that provided pressure to move the water to other locations. The lower part of the fort that was completely enclosed in a bastion now serves as the main jail for the area. Needless to say I did not ask if I could tour that part of the fort.
Next, it was back in the small bus for a drive along the back roads to the Penha de France region. We passed through several fishing villages. The fishermen here use two types of boats. During certain seasons it's legal to use large trawler type boats for fishing. Outside that season the fishermen use smaller ring net boats for fishing. Most of the smaller boats with their nets still stowed at the stern were in the harbor, so it's either trawler season or they fish early and are back before 1pm.
Traffic is not too bad here until you hit the cities or villages, inside those boundaries it's every man or woman for him or herself. It seems like the drivers here use their horns as much as they use their brakes. Our mini-bus driver was an expert at negotiating the crowded, chaotic streets. He used his horn in slightly different styles to indicate: "Look out I'm coming!" "Why are you stopped in the road?" "Don't you dare try to get in front of me!" and "Back up, it's two narrow and I want to get through!" During the trip we had several stale-mates where neither vehicle wanted to be the one to give way. The only one we lost was to a much larger truck belonging to the Indian Navy. There our driver had to back up and find a place to pull out. The driving style here is what I usually refer to as full speed or nothing. If the driver is not on the gas he's on the brake and not he's not gentle in the use of either one. There's no such thing as maintaining a speed, he was either accelerating or brakeing. This led to the passengers nodding back and forth like an Orthodox Jewish man praying. The streets provided the up and down motion. They have speed bumps on all their major highways and most of the streets. Anytime you are nearing an intersection or roundabout there's a speed bump or two. This caused a lot of braking because the bumps had to be approached in acceleration mode and you don't slow down until the bump is practically under your front tires. These were not violent motions in any sense, well maybe he was a little late slowing down for some of the speed bumps, and you never really felt unsafe. It was just a unique style of driving. I don't mean unique to the driver, I mean unique to India. I've driven in Italy and New York City, they're a bit aggressive but they drive much more smoothly. It's a little like NASCAR driving. Go as fast as you can for as long as you can and then get on the brakes for the corners.
Our next stop was at Fort Khorjuemt in Aldona. It's located at the mouth of the Mapuca River. It's the smallest fort we visited but it has some great stories connected to it. Once a female spy, disguised as a man, infiltrated the fort to inspect its defenses and the compliment of soldiers stationed there. There's a small chapel just inside the gate. Well calling it a chapel is a little to grandiose. It's actually just a niche built into the wall that resembles the front wall of a chapel. There's a hollowed out arched space that would pass for an apse. There is an altar with reredos. In the reredos there's a niche with a wood framed picture of the Madonna and Child, actually there's also another smaller one too. There were fresh flower garlands around both pictures and on the altar as well. Apparently the fort is decommissioned but the chapel is not.
As we have done in all the other forts we climbed to the top of the wall and walked around. The views are not as impressive from this small fort but we could see a quarry or mine in the distance.
After another short drive we came to The Only Olive. A house that caters private parties. They had awnings set up in the front yard and there was a buffet inside. The menu was great. Often on HAL Shorex they go to places that will either serve USA style food or tamed versions of the local food. Not here, thank goodness! The served a salad that looked good but not very unusual so I skipped that. They had Chicken Cafreal (I would have called this chicken in green curry) and it was delicious. It might have been toned down a little but it had some heat to it that made it perfect. They also had Vegetable Caldin, which turns out to be curried small okra with coconut milk and spices. Goan Prawn Curry, this was a red curry, also with some heat and small shrimp. Also delicious. Desert was Bibinca, small layers of cake made with coconut and thin brown layers of a sweet substance (possibly with some cinnamon) in-between. It was served with vanilla ice cream and it was very good too. It was a great meal served in very pleasant surroundings by gracious people. Oh I almost forgot, it included a bottle of Kingfisher Lager Beer. I saw signs for it everywhere we went. Apparently it's the beer to have in Goa.
Then it was all aboard for the drive back through the small villages and the city of Goa to the ship. Goa is a prosperous area of India. No begging, streets impeccable by Indian standards. The people are friendly. Wish we had another day here. This was a great Shorex trip, I'm glad we picked it.
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