Midnight Mass
Both Indian and foreign revelers descend upon the small island of Diu for New Year’s Eve. This old Portuguese settlement is covered with nice beaches, brightly painted buildings, and lots of cheap alcohol, especially important in the dry state of Gujarat, our home for the past 2 weeks.
We arrived in Diu Town the day before New Year’s Eve, surprised to find the prices quadrupled from our guide book rates. However, as we wandered around town and were besieged by Indians trying to talk to us and take our picture we soon realized the island was overflowing with too many visitors. For a respite from throngs of drunk Indian men using New Year’s as their yearly drinking binge, we decided to ring in the New Year at a former christian church turned museum/hostel with a smaller throng of drunk foreign backpackers who at least didn’t stare at Cara incessantly or insist vehemently on shaking our hands or taking our picture.
On a scale of 1 to 10, the New Year’s Eve party in Diu would have normally been a 7 with loud music, friendly people, beautiful weather, and plenty of food and drink. Being surrounded by a wall of zombie-like lecherous Indian men in the courtyard dropped that down to about a 5. Retreating until the end of the night perched on the rounded roof of the church (partially for the view but largely to escape the horde) with fireworks blazing all around brought it up to a 9.
Happy 2007!
Tags: India
Adam
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