Everyone leaves Goa… except for me. I didn’t want to go back to Mumbai since I already have seen the city so I decide to stay in Goa and see where the next week by myself takes me. Luckily, Shia arranges for me to hang out with some of her friends that we met during the first night at Alcove: Aman and Ashneet and Eddie. They are all kick ass and speak amazing English (which is definitely a plus). When Shia ad the twins head to the airport, my new group of friends pick me up at the Taj and I say goodbye to my luxury accommodations before I set off to a shitty guesthouse.
I thought they were going to just drop me off at my guesthouse (that Id already picked out) and hang out with them later, but they offered to let me stay with them at their hotel in Baga Beach because there was an extra bed in Eddie’s room. JACKPOT! So I got a free nights stay. =)
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| A beautiful Temple in Goa |
Once I settled into my room, we all went to the hotel bar where there was also Karishma and her husband. The first thing they do is order a round of jagerbombs. Am I on the jersey shore? No, but apparently they love jagerbombs. So we do 2 of those and then order a cocktail, and then do a kamikaze shot. This wasn’t the night I was envisioning in my head but it’s turning out pretty awesome!
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| Poor quality picture but here is Aman, Karishma's husband, Karishma, and me all doing jagerbombs! |
We then move locations to Brittos on Baga beach. We have some good Goan food and drinks until we move next door to Anthony’s where there was karaoke going on. Of course, I HAVE to sing at least one song, so I choose my staple choice: Nancy Sinatra’s these boots are made for walking. I am a terrible singer but luckily everyone who was before my sucked so I ended up being a hit! Who knew? We decided to go to another bar until Aman got a bit ill from drinking so we called it an early night at about 1pm. Ya, that’s early here… even on a Sunday. To wrap up the night, Karishma and I shared a Dosa, which is a very thin pancake that you dip into sauce. It’s a popular breakfast item as well as late night drunk food and hit the spot.
The hotel was really comfortable but very basic considering Americans hotel standards but a report compared to the guesthouse that I moved to in the afternoon. I say goodbye to my new friends and they drop me off at Evershine Guesthouse in Anjuna Beach. We drove up and down the main road about 5 times before finding it in the back of another guesthouse. That’s what happens when you go to a country that has no street names.
As a prelude, let me say that my experience over the next few days at Evershine guesthouse was amazing… However, when I first arrived, I was in total shock that I was going to be staying at this, to put it nicely… dump. It was run down, had very little amenities, a trickling showerhead, and had a long muddy driveway. But it was run by the nicest women ever, Sebastiana, and had plenty of super cool backpackers for me to meet. Oh and did I mention it was cheap? It was about $3 a night to stay there. So it was worth it. I never really spent time at the guesthouse, especially alone. There was always someone there for me to talk to. In fact many of them had been there for weeks so they knew the good places in the area to go to. Definitely a different experience then the Taj hotel huh?
I arrived in the afternoon so I had the remainder of the day to mosey around to do whatever I wanted. Thought it rained in the morning, can you believe that the sun finally came out to play?! It was beautiful outside and only the second day of sunshine id seen since driving to Rishikesh. So naturally, I ended up going to the beach which was more rocky then a beach. But I found my little corner of sand, broke out my ipod and listened to some jams while I soaked up the first decent rays i've seen since I've been in India. It wasn’t long before I had teenage gawkers interrupt my relaxation time and ask if they could take a picture of me, or just take one anyways. So rude. But I was able to center my chi and enjoy the surroundings.
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| Peace from Anjuna beach |
That night I ended up going to a smoothie bar right next to the guesthouse because I heard they had wifi. I ordered a sandwich (very rare in India) and surfed the web while the cloud of smoke filled the room. What I didn’t know about this “smoothie” shop was the smoothies weren’t their number one product. It was definitely weed and there was a lot of it. One gentleman in particular came up to me just as I arrived and we started talking about life in goa. He moved from Sweden to live the simple life. Facts about this man: 55 years old, professor of hematology (has done research and lectures about stem cell research and patients with cancer), quit his job, has 7 tattoos, unfortunately has multiple sclerosis, smokes A LOT of cannabis (probably a result of his MS), and has lived in Goa for 3 months. So clearly there was plenty to talk about. I ended up staying the “smoke shop” all night. Not to smoke, but because it was the local hippie haven and there were people walking in and out all night. They all seemed to know each other and look and me and say, “Oh hey, there’s a new face! Whets your name? Yadda yadda yadda.” I felt very welcome, and when you’re alone, company is always welcome. Not a bad first day being a single female traveler in India.
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| The smoothie shop's two kittens that love to snuggle next to me |
I woke up late but there’s no shame in that! I’m living the dream in India. And I can do anything I want today… I take it easy and lay around in the morning talking with a few folk around the guesthouse. Then I had a solo lunch/dinner at this amazing restaurant called Blue Tao. I had chicken tikka which was f%*#ing mouthwatering! Be jealous. Afterwards I discovered some people form the guesthouse went on an acid trip in the jungle, but I chose to wander around the village looking at various shops.
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| Chicken Tikka = amazingness |
Then the evening rolled around, bringing the mosquitoes out to life. Oh and did they LOVE me. I had been pretty lucky and had only been bitten a few times since arriving in India, but this evening was absurd. I sat in the hammock outside my door and I thought that my mosquito cream would be sufficient for my exposed areas. Boy was I wrong. I thought my pants were very itchy because I just changed form my shower. But no, I apparently was being annihilated by mosquitoes through the hammock. My legs and ass looked like I had herpes there were so many bites! Embarrassing? Yes. Painful? Yes. Fun? No. So I sat in my room and sulked for the next hour and a half while I thought about revenge and tried not to itch. I wanted to do one of those moves that dogs do and scrape my butt along the carpet. Ugh!
Eventually I got the nerve to open the door and resume conversation with the others. They were off to get some food and beers. I followed suit and joined Tatu from Finland, Siyuri from Japan, and Stacy from the UK. We all shared stories about our travels and talked about the life we escape when we backpack for long periods of time. After, some of us go off to Curliest for some more beers and meet up with another Evershine resident, Tal from Israel. We throwing some brews back with the locals until we hear about a trance party going on at Primrose, which is a Russian bar in Vagator beach. When we arrive, there’s not many people there, but the music is raging so we jump on the dance floor. It ended up being a blast though there were only a few of us. The only bubble buster was the Aussi who was the most obnoxious person I've ever met. He talked in length about how he was wanted for a felony charge in Australia and has been on the run since he was 19. During his one of his many tangents, he proceeded to whip out some cocaine and do a couple of lines on the table in the middle of the restaurant. I suspect he won’t be around for much longer… Strange I’ve never seen so many drugs then I have in Goa. Group evershine survived the crazy night and headed back to the guesthouse shortly after.
My final day in Goa I went out with a bang. Tal, Tatu, Stacy and I went to the beach and got a couple lounge chairs in the sun. We drank some chai until we got hungry so I got the seafood soup. It was the worst thing I've had in India. It was about a tablespoon of over cooked seafood in hot water… plus sand. It was gross but we managed to bask in the sun for a few hours on the Arabian Sea. We eventually got really hungry cause the seafood soup really didn’t satisfy our aching bellies. We went to another beach restaurant and I devoured some hummus with pita bread and an order of vegetable noodles. (I needed a change of pace in cuisine) Tal was then nice enough to buy me my first coconut... I hadn’t had one since id been in India! And it was oh so delicious.
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| Tatu, me and Tal at the beach |
Chilling in my room was the next order of business while talking to Sabastiana who arranged my taxi and train ticket to Hampi for the next day. She honestly was such a doll for helping me in every way possible.
That evening, Tal was jamming at the Sea Rock, which is a bar down the road. A bunch of us went to go check out the live show and it was amazing! I would have gladly paid to listen to the tunes. We threw back some more beers while some drank complimentary tequila shots. I passed, not only because just the thought of drinking low-grade tequila after a few beers makes me want to vom, but I also had to wake up at 5am to catch my 7am train to Hampi. At the end of the night, we all exchanged contact info and whatnot. I look forward to hopefully seeing some of them in California or elsewhere.
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