Today we caught the slow bus to Ponda (not intentionally) to get a connecting bus to the Sahakari Spice Farm. You could’ve walked faster. It laboriously moved along the dirt road. I won’t complain too much. The whole 3 buses cost us 80c (40rupee) each way. The public transport is very cheap, takes a long time to get anyway and is guaranteed to be an adventure along the way, with the Hindi music, colourful passengers and interesting sights as we travel to our destination.
Cyril is our tour guide at the Spice Farm. We receive a garland of jasmine flowers round our necks and a welcome drink of freshly prepared hot chai tea. Cyril takes us around the couple of acres of show-farm and tells us about the many spice and fruit plants grown there. Vanilla, jackfruit, ginger, cinnamon, pawpaw, allspice, cardamom, cashew, curry leaf, nutmeg, turmeric, banana, jasmine, and many others.
At the end he tells us about the tradition the workers have of jumping in the creek to cool off at the end of the day. He said we couldn’t do that, however, he wanted to keep the tradition of cooling us down by trickling cold water laced with citronella and lavender on our necks and down our backs. A bit of a shock to the body it was. Then we had an all-you-can-eat vegetarian lunch. All this for 400rupee ($9AUD). Most tour companies charge around 1800-2400rupees ($36-48) for this trip. We paid $12. Bargain day all up.
We visited the markets in Ponda to get some fresh fruit and met a bull along the way. The Indians revere them, so they wander everywhere, including on the footpaths. Peter and I struck up a friendship with one. There were many colours in this market of fruit, vegetables, pasta and saris.
As we were leaving, the sound of a drumbeat lured us to vacant block outside, where a woman hammered two poles into the ground and held them taut with guy ropes. Two young children began performing acrobatically. Then the young girl climbed on the makeshift high wire to further entertain the ever-growing crowd. They were good at their performance, and were rewarded handsomely by members of the enthralled throng.