So, I just ordered a salad and a tea and decided to type up a blog. I spent about five minutes trying to ask the waiter what was in the “avocado salad”. I kept asking if there “is lettuce in it?” And if not, can I get some? After a few tries he understood me and quickly scurried to the back only to return with an avocado. After we established the fact that I knew what an avocado was, we moved back on to the subject of lettuce. The waiter had never heard of such a thing - not uncommon here - so I just went with the cabbage instead. When I received the salad it was garnished with a piece of “garnish”, aka lettuce. Sometimes that’s how it goes here. Oh yeah, I’m here by the way:
I dressed up for the occasion and am now wearing a shirt and underwear for the first time in five days. I’m kind of formal like that when I blog... Actually, I do put on a hoodie, or “medieval hooded shirt” as Vishvanth calls it, to go to bed at night cause it gets pretty chilly, but other than that I have been working relentlessly on my tan. I’m in Mandrem, Goa, for the week and then will be heading... somewhere I guess? The plan is to stay in Goa for another week and then head down south (I’m in the northern tip at the moment) to explore that part. It’s been absolutely gorgeous during the day here though, hovering around low 30’s for the most part. Mandrem is really quiet for the most part and it’s only a couple of kilometers away from Arambol which is pretty busy for its size. Everybody here is either a hippy, a yogi, a senior, or a backpacker. It’s not normally my scene but I’m absolutely having a blast. And by blast, I mean I’m reading a lot and hanging around the beach and going to bed no later than 10:30. Oh oh oh, and I’m doing a lot of this:
There is a line in the book Shantaram (really really good read by the way) that goes something like, “ a man must love his bear” - makes sense in the context of the book - and that is exactly how I now feel towards scooters. A man must, and I do, love his scooter. I’ve had it for the past 3 days and I’ve just been cruising for hours. It’s such a good way to get to know the place and the roads are relatively quiet here so it’s fine- I wouldn’t think of doing it in Madurai, the traffic there is insane. The first day on my two-wheeler was the most adventuresome. Although my destination was only 2 kilometers away and I only had to make one turn, I still managed to get lost. I ended up driving for a while even after I had realized I was lost because it was just so cool to see a different side of Goa. Goa is absolutely gorgeous and within a fifteen minute drive from the hotel I’m staying at, there was this:
It’s just mind boggling that there is a mini-slum literally walking distance from where I am staying. You’d never know it unless, well unless you got lost like I did. I kept driving through and saw some fishermen at work and some construction workers working on a new bridge. I'm guessing that most of the fisherman and construction workers inhabit this little slum.
This week has been really quiet and exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something that wouldn’t involve moving around too much because of my back. As I liked to remind the girls I was living with whenever I had a chance, I do have a bulging disc now! Then they’d say something about how I was a drama-queen and blah blah something else. If only they knew haha. I’m officially off the anti-inflammatory medicine as of today and my back feels alright. It doesn’t feel as good as I was hoping but I’m sure it’ll get straightened out soon. Looks like I’ll have to hold off on the squats and dead lifts I had planned on doing...
I’m planning on going to Vagator and Chapora tomorrow to check out the towns because they have a ton of Portuguese remnants. Goa was one of the few (maybe only?) places in India that was colonized by the Portuguese and they were driven away not too long ago. So the architecture is different than the rest of India and it’ll be cool to check out some of the churches and buildings there. Other than that, those are my only plans. I have a ticket booked from Mumbai to Delhi on the 15th of January. I don’t have a ticket from Goa to Mumbai yet but I’m working on it. I was planning on going by train but the trains are completely booked out until the 20th of January. So I’m either going to have to get lucky and snatch up one of the few FT tickets (Foreign Tourist tickets that they reserve for foreigners) or go by plane. Once there I plan on doing a short trip to Ellora and Ajanta to check out their caves and temples. It looks unreal. Google it! I’ll be meeting up with Hannah, roommate from Australia, in Delhi for five days and then I was planning on returning to Toronto. I received an email from Project abroad confirming that I paid for a two month travel insurance plan when I was sure I had only purchased a one month. The results of this are tragic and it is looking very likely that I’ll have to keep on traveling for another 2 weeks to a month. Sometimes you just can’t win... Come ce dice “sarcasm” in espanol?
Noah
Some other pics from when I got lost:
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