Caged

Yesterday, Fiona had put us in touch with some people who run a taxi 'n' boat tour business. The Sunset Cruise which had been recommended by the people who own the villa had been fully booked but these people did their own Sunset Cruise. They picked us up at our villa and walked us to two motorbikes. The first part of the trip! A few minutes on the back of the bikes took us to some shacks in the trees by the river. Generally, the parts that we have seen of Goa have been pretty touristified, but, all of a sudden, this felt like India. There were small children in football shirts, two barky but friendly dogs, a cat on a lead and several wild-looking pigs. There were also, rather sadly, two "Eagles". One on a leash in a tree and the other in a sort of cage made with plastic netting. It emerged that we were the only two passengers in the ten-seat boat which was long and narrow with a flat, mesh canopy. Our driver (to use the correct nautical term) had a little English and pointed things out to us as we went down the river, past the fishing boats - all of which had people sitting or lying on them - and out to sea. There was a short passage of large waves which made me wonder how sea-worthy this rather narrow boat was. We didn't have life-jackets but, luckily, we had been immunised by not having helmets on the bikes. Once out at sea, the driver killed the engine and we watched the sun set. The driver said that he lived with two other people at his boss's house (not in the shacks in the trees) and that he would be going home (elsewhere in India) in a month when the monsoon arrived. And that he had learnt Russian in order to be able to talk to the many Russian tourists. And that he didn't really like working here.
When the sun had set, he took us back to the shacks and rode off on his motorbike whilst we waited in the dark (literally and metaphorically) with the dogs and children and pigs. After a while a taxi came for us.
The taxi driver asked us for a favour. He delivered us to look around a very upmarket jewellery and ornaments shop. We looked around and, in return, he got "points" which he could use towards buying an Easter robe for his baby.
We are very much a commodity here.