woods and glades!

drove down to silvassa on dec 1'06... with folks. was good fun. got to my first glance at a union territory. silvassa is the capital of dadra and nagar haveli. 20 kms off silvassa is daman and diu, another UT. silvassa means 'woods and glades' in portuguese.

the constitution says that these states are under the presidents rule... thats the reason we didnt see any billboards of politicians marking their territory, like dogs peeing around to leave their mark. but that also means that this state is not top of mind for allocation of center funds... which is very visible. the only thing these guys live on is the tourist traffic and limestone trade. we could see huge chunks of marble being hauled in and out tof the town for finishing work i guess. by huge, i mean one block of 10 ft x 10 ft x 10ft. H - U - G - E.

anyways, if you are headed there sometime... here is a big time saving tip. daman is divided by damanganga river into moti (big) daman and nani (small) daman. from mumbai nani daman is further off than its bigger sister, but dont even try to go there. the beaches are awful! moti daman on the other hand has better beaches and has my vote hands down. silvassa is 185 kms from mumbai which is a 4 hour drive. a good weekend getaway away from the crowds. thats my dad in the pic. i think he liked the place.