A very interesting mix of people are here and that suits me. An Ozzie couple Brad and Tracy are the best laugh. He is about six foot three and looks like a ZZ Top member with a very long gray beard and she is great fun and really nice but quite quiet, well for an Ozzie! We met the other night and when I left they were still going at it. Last night I chatted to a couple of lesbians and they were most entertaining. I have been walked home by an extremely beautiful Russian girl who insisted on seeing me make it safely back to my shack. I still managed somehow to get a nice little cut on my forehead though.
I wake up around nine or ten and go down to the beach passing a few shops just opening. First it's good morning sir "you want taxi?" Then all the motor bikes, hundreds of them and "you want bike sir?" I get to the German bakery ironically full of Israelis and have my chai and a good breakfast with the smell of incense permeating the air as they purify and get ready for the day ahead having first made Shiva happy.
I walk along the beach just past all the beds and go for a swim in the warmest sea I have ever swam in then wander back to my shack where I usually put the fan on and wait out the few hours until about four or five when we all congregate at The Sporting Heroes Bar where we never watch any sport. Drinking is the only sport there but the decor is the best and it's comfortable. I have now got to know and trust the owner and take my laptop which they plug in and play and it's nice to watch the resulting increase in drinking speed and people starting to dance. As well as Sporting heroes I have found another spot on the opposite end of the beach which is very chilled and a whole new crowd are there. Each bar has it's own community of revelers and I have now got to know a few.
I have had some really great food. Tuna steaks, king prawns and tender calamari are my favorite so far. The other night Paddy a sixty year old roadie who has worked with so many bands over the years picked me up on his scooter and took me further down the beach to an Indian restaurant with another crowd I have got to know. The food there was delicious but I nearly didn't live to tell the tale. On the way back he was so pissed he nearly crashed twice. I'm on the back saying "please don't kill me." We made it in one peace and had a good laugh about it. He was only doing about ten miles an hour though. Last night Brad, Tracy, two Germans with very little English and two Israelis and I went out to the Surf club which is owned by an English couple. The live music was excellent and we had a blast and all walked back along the beach stopping off along the way for a few more beers. We ended back at Sporting Heroes. We were back in our corner again and I heard a familiar voice. It was a friend I met in North India last time so we celebrated. Suddenly I turned and saw Brad lift his glasses and confront a guy who I had just been talking about saying what a prat he was. He had been trying it on with Tracy and suddenly I found myself getting really annoyed by this oaf and got up to have a go but Brad beat me to it and saw him off. No fists actually flew but it came very close.
Soon after this a plain clothed policeman came in and I decided to leave and go to bed.
There are a few stories developing with some of the characters but it is still a bit early to write about them as they are just beginning to unfold.
Friday 3 December 2010
Sunday 28 November 2010
Mumbai/Goa
So the last couple of days in Mumbai seemed to revolve around avoiding the intense heat and humidity by finding an air conditioned watering hole as soon as possible while trying to delude ourselves we were just going for a walk. Meeting people was as easy as saying, "going out". "Anyone coming?"
A week in Mumbai and I was ready to leave as although I liked it there was nowhere to really relax. Smuggling girls and booze into our room was a little exhilarating but we ran the risk of being thrown out of the "Christian hostel" which I am quite surprised I wasn't. The manager came into the room as an impromptu party in the room was in full swing and I had a bottle of vodka which we had put into coke bottles right in front of where he came and stood. He was more concerned there were girls in the room. Off we went and ended up with a guitar and our booze singing by the gate of India. What a night!
My last day was a repeat of the last few but I managed to get my stuff together and left for the station sweat pouting off me at nine pm. I arrived at Victoria station, quite an amazing building and went into the chaos. I found the information office and was told the train left from platform sixteen. I wandered down the platform and found a group of westerners, Welshmen actually and sat next to them. They had arrived that day and were going to sleep on the station until seven the next morning. Too hardcore for me. As the time came closer for me to depart I wondered why there was no train so I asked an Indian and he told me I was on the wrong platform. No Sixteen sir. Number eighteen. You sure? Yes sir so I ran across and boarded the train with about five minutes to spare.
On the train safely I found my bunk next to a westerner who I started talking to immediately. I was so happy to be in the cool second class carriage with air conditioning and felt that I would not faint as I had almost done the night before. I found out that Ian was planning to DJ in Goa and he had some nice music equipment. He said he would get hold of me as he only wanted small parties of fifty to a hundred people. He offered me a sleeping pill and I soon drifted off to a fairly peaceful sleep. I woke up the next morning feeling really good and well rested and decided to ask where my stop was which is just as well because it was the next one. I was ready and saying good bye to Ian I jumped off to be met by the usual barrage of rickshaw drivers. Having an idea of the price I asked and was quoted the right amount three hundred rupees and as it was a fair way I felt it reasonable.
As we approached Arombol I liked it straight away. Surrounded by palm trees and hills it is exactly what I was hoping for. The taxi driver took me to one place but the rent was too high so we went further along and I bargained the owner down to two hundred and seventy five rupees per night and as season is coming up and the prices will sky rocket I took it and have paid up to the third of Jan. The room is big I have a double bed, electricity, a fan, a balcony,a table and a chair. The outside loo is very clean and I even have a hot shower which I have to switch off to make it cold enough. It is a two minute walk from the beach. I like!
I have been meeting people easily. The weirdest was meeting Ian as he got off at another station but is also in Arombol. I bumped into him in the street. Then the day before yesterday I met a yoga teacher that I met way up north in Ladak last year. While chatting to him a very nice girl joined us and I was invited back to her place. We had a few drinks and then I left. She is going to an Ashram for a week but will be back so I hope I see her when she returns all bliss-ed out from seeing her Guru....I dunno these old hippies hey.
Yesterday I was having my breakfast and started to chat with a lovely German girl we ended up spending the whole day together but she was leaving in the evening. Dam! Oh well at least they are talking to me. There is still hope. So that pretty much brings things into the present again. I think I'll go for breakfast.....
A week in Mumbai and I was ready to leave as although I liked it there was nowhere to really relax. Smuggling girls and booze into our room was a little exhilarating but we ran the risk of being thrown out of the "Christian hostel" which I am quite surprised I wasn't. The manager came into the room as an impromptu party in the room was in full swing and I had a bottle of vodka which we had put into coke bottles right in front of where he came and stood. He was more concerned there were girls in the room. Off we went and ended up with a guitar and our booze singing by the gate of India. What a night!
My last day was a repeat of the last few but I managed to get my stuff together and left for the station sweat pouting off me at nine pm. I arrived at Victoria station, quite an amazing building and went into the chaos. I found the information office and was told the train left from platform sixteen. I wandered down the platform and found a group of westerners, Welshmen actually and sat next to them. They had arrived that day and were going to sleep on the station until seven the next morning. Too hardcore for me. As the time came closer for me to depart I wondered why there was no train so I asked an Indian and he told me I was on the wrong platform. No Sixteen sir. Number eighteen. You sure? Yes sir so I ran across and boarded the train with about five minutes to spare.
On the train safely I found my bunk next to a westerner who I started talking to immediately. I was so happy to be in the cool second class carriage with air conditioning and felt that I would not faint as I had almost done the night before. I found out that Ian was planning to DJ in Goa and he had some nice music equipment. He said he would get hold of me as he only wanted small parties of fifty to a hundred people. He offered me a sleeping pill and I soon drifted off to a fairly peaceful sleep. I woke up the next morning feeling really good and well rested and decided to ask where my stop was which is just as well because it was the next one. I was ready and saying good bye to Ian I jumped off to be met by the usual barrage of rickshaw drivers. Having an idea of the price I asked and was quoted the right amount three hundred rupees and as it was a fair way I felt it reasonable.
As we approached Arombol I liked it straight away. Surrounded by palm trees and hills it is exactly what I was hoping for. The taxi driver took me to one place but the rent was too high so we went further along and I bargained the owner down to two hundred and seventy five rupees per night and as season is coming up and the prices will sky rocket I took it and have paid up to the third of Jan. The room is big I have a double bed, electricity, a fan, a balcony,a table and a chair. The outside loo is very clean and I even have a hot shower which I have to switch off to make it cold enough. It is a two minute walk from the beach. I like!
I have been meeting people easily. The weirdest was meeting Ian as he got off at another station but is also in Arombol. I bumped into him in the street. Then the day before yesterday I met a yoga teacher that I met way up north in Ladak last year. While chatting to him a very nice girl joined us and I was invited back to her place. We had a few drinks and then I left. She is going to an Ashram for a week but will be back so I hope I see her when she returns all bliss-ed out from seeing her Guru....I dunno these old hippies hey.
Yesterday I was having my breakfast and started to chat with a lovely German girl we ended up spending the whole day together but she was leaving in the evening. Dam! Oh well at least they are talking to me. There is still hope. So that pretty much brings things into the present again. I think I'll go for breakfast.....
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