Upon my arrival in India, one month ago this Sunday, I felt a sense of calm and well-being wash over me. And I thought, wow, I haven’t even hit up a monastery or done anything spiritual yet. But it turned out my brief euphoria was actually jet lag. I am safely over that now, and have spent the majority of my time here… working. But that’s not particularly interesting.
I have gotten to do a bit of traveling, namely going to Goa. It used to be chock full of hippies partying on the beaches, but now it is overridden with tourists (much like myself). So we went to the beach, which was pretty much like any other, except for the cow strolling through the sand. And I just can’t help myself, every time I see one, I get this incredible urge to shout, “Holy cow!”
The other thing that made this beach different from all other beaches was that every few feet someone was persistently trying to sell us something- jewelry, wall hangings, fruit, nuts, clothing, ice cream, massages, manicures, pedicures, water sports, henna tattoos, etc. As I passed one guy, he said to me, “Would you like to buy my child? I give you a very good price.” The kid was really cute with curly hair and ice cream smeared across his face. Let me tell ya, if the whole thing wasn’t in jest, I would’ve made him a pretty good offer.
Tried the local liquor called feni. There’s two kinds- one distilled from cashews and the other from coconuts. Even after the alcohol was mixed with an entire bottle of 7-Up (or whatever the Indian lemon-lime soda equivalent is), it still tasted like the wrong end of a horse and gave me an instantaneous headache. I guess you get what you pay for (one drink of feni = 35 rupees = 90 cents). We stayed at the Casablanca, which had many charming features including padlocks to lock our doors. The best part about the place was the sign by the pool that read:
12) In case of emergency contact barman or waiters
13) No lifeguard or duty
All in all, good time in Goa. Pictures can be found here:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=217334268/a=123174408_123174408/t_=123174408
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