South Africans in India - Part 6: Gokarna and Goa

Mangalore

Arrived an hour late, and Aurora was sick from sleeping upright. The bus was so bumpy I was also feeling sick. Turns out there is a Pharmaceutical company conference taking place, and there are no hotel rooms available in the town.

Navabad Hotel gives us a hand and finds Hotel Highland Residency, with a vacancy. A man says 'come' and we follow him to his taxi, and when we arrive, the guy asks for Rs100 for a 3 minute drive. I am pissed off cause if we knew we'd be overcharged, we would've taken a metered rickshaw. So I say, ok, I'll pay when we're checked in.

The guy agrees, and has no idea where the hotel is. We follow him around up flights of stairs that end in walls, and eventually find the place after 10 minutes. You would never guess this place is a hotel from the outside.

It has the biggest room we've ever stayed in, for Rs1000. It has 4 beds. Well, it's the only room in town.

We sleep for 3 hours, and watch India vs. SA test cricket. We are massacreing them. What a thumping! India is 136 all out, and by 6pm, we are 345 for 2. We eat our cheese sandwiches, then go for lunch at Bharat Mall.

It's nice. AC food court. We eat fries and chinese food. So much noodles. We get tickets to see Tron. We wait in a bookstore, and then watch Tron. Awesome. We bought the 'Monster popcorn & drinks'.

Some asshole was talking on his phone during a crucial part of the movie. I snapped my fingers at him, but couldn't get his attention, so like Sam Flynn, I throw a coke lid disc at him. He returns during intermission (Yeah, Indian films have intermission), and says 'Do people throw things at you in your own country?' and I ask 'Do you talk during movies in yours?' He replies 'Yes', so er, OK. Dumbass.

We go to the DVD store, and I buy Planet Earth BBC documentary (with David Attenborough narrating), and the Heavy Rain Move edition. Oh Boy. We get pizza hut takeout, and go back to the hotel. We watch like 6 hours of TV and do laundry.

Gokarna

We have super cheap Indian breakfast outside the hotel. Like, 4 dishes and 3 drinks for Rs90. Absurd. We take a rickshaw to the wrong train station, and then take another rickshaw to Mangalore Junction, 7km away. The man drives like crazy.

The train is very empty, and it's difficult to believe we are 'tatkal' tickets, but anyway. On the way, we realise Kumta station makes more sense than the stop we had planned, and get off early.

We get a rickshaw to the bus stand, and leave on a rather full bus to Gokarna. We find a room for Rs275, watch the cricket for a bit, and then go out for an uninspiring thali. Aurora went dress and trinket shopping while I stood around. An evil 14 year old made Aurora buy her dresses, while I spoke to a boy outside. Aurora realises rats have eaten through the dress, so she returns it for a different one. We go back to the room and watch Time Travelling Hot Tub. It's actually pretty funny.

Day 69

We check out and rickshaw to Om beach, and walk a kilometer on the beach with our backpacks, to the part of the beach with huts and cafe's. We have breakfast in Dolphin Cafe. Old Dutch hippies, young dutch couple, a guy playing a guitar in a hammock, and breakfast is good.

Walk on, look at a beach hut, but it has no security features. A crook could break in using scissors. So we put our stuff down and I go looking. Nirvana Cafe has a cottage, their last one, for Rs600. It's nice, quaint, has a flush toilet, mosquito net, fan, drying line. So I wash all my clothes.

We bathe and swim, and eat at Nirvana Cafe, having pasta and burger. The sunset was nice. I have a beer outside on the beach and we sleep pretty early.

The beach	Rasta Cafe
Beaching	Cows and tourists mostly
Sunset on Om beach	Sunset detail
hehe cows on beachs.	always amusing

Day 70

Woke up at noon, and walk to the 'trail' for Paradise Beach. It is not well maintained, and involves some bushwhacking and perilous cliffs. I tripped and would have lost a toenail if I hadn't lost it already.

Half Moon beach is practically deserted, and we swim for a bit - sunbathe, swim, and then go to a cafe nearby for a Pepsi. Frenchies are everywhere, in some sort of commune. A kid is learning to walk, and the parents are excited to see it unfold.

The man on the guitar plays the Lion King, and then segues into an amusing serenade to the necklace seller. A man with necklaces is of course, standing in front of him, trying to sell necklaces, saying 'My friend'. The song went 'Because I'm your friend, but we're all your friends, so free necklace for everyone!' or something. The necklace guy gets some false hope and bugs us for the rest of the day.

A couple describe Paradise Beach and it doesn't sound that Paradise-y, and we are feeling lazy, so we go back to Om beach to use our room. I play some cricket on the beach. I go out for 4 runs to a catch, lame.

In our room	On the walk
The view
On the walk	towards Paradise beach
Some rocky beaches	French hippies

We find a restaurant with a vibe, and order Israeli food. There were about 12 Israelis, and I ask them in Hebrew where they're going. The girl swaps to English, luckily, and says they are going to a Jungle restaurant with mattresses, and that it's free. It sounded pretty adventurous.

We leave too, and find a restaurant with Bob Dylan playing. We buy little bottles of rum, and have a good, if tiny, pizza. We eventually talk to some people there, including a Czech woman and Norwegian professor, who were in some awkward relationship. We go along the beach past a bunch of fires, and sit at the one at the end outside Nirvana Cafe. There are fireworks, and a troupe of musicians sits down and we all sing along. We met a guy from Cape Town with dreads and shaved sides, and we traded some 'Yowzit bru! Ja hey!'s. Some Indian guys who worked at an expensive resort nearby sat down next to us. The one was a naturalist, and the other a tabla player. We had a whole band. Two flautists, two guitars, and drums.

Sun setting	Sun setting detail
We were happy	and we were crazy
Other people were crazy too	more spiders in our room

Day 71 - Tue

We get up, check out, and leave our bags in a telephone box at the cafe. We hang around for a few hours, Aurora in the sun, myself in the shade. After breakfast, we walked all the way back to the rickshaw. The beach was apparently full, according to some guy. We took a nice ride back to town, and checked into the same hotel for Rs250 this time. We watched some tv, then walked to see the city's temple, and the rest of Gokarna. It's a nice town.

It's a full moon, so everyone was drawing mandalas on the ground. We walk past hundreds of school children, and Aurora pets them. The Beach is dirty, with cows and fighting bulls. The sunset was ok.

Medieval SUV	Kids
Chicken and Mandala

We look at some interesting clothes, and then eat at Mahalaxmi rooftop restaurant. Aurora was disciplined, and did not buy any dresses. The place had light stars (like a lamp shade), which were filled with bugs. There was a good Indian Masala section that went on for 3 pages of menu. Cats! There were little kittens everywhere.

We went home, and watched Wild Things, but they cut the best scene when Denise Richards gets out of the pool. I said to Aurora that it was one of the greatest cinematic shots in film history, which caused Aurora to act scornfully, she being a film student. I was pissed off that I couldn't express my appreciation, so I sat outside writing a treatise on ethics.

Goa

Woke up early for the 8am bus. It was a long bus ride! I slept a little, but was dead from the heat. We arrived in Panaji after a few minutes in Margao, trading buses.

We arrived in Panaji, or Panjim, and tried to walk from the bus to a hotel, but got lost. We took a rickshaw, (which had doors!) to Cathedral San Sebastian, which looked like it was a residential area. We found a decent room on 31 January St. They asked 700 for a shit room, but we ended up getting 600 for a nicer room, with tv, window, books, double size room.

We had breakfast at about 2pm, at an Indian resto that only gave one item at a time. They delivered my mushroom chilli, which was great, but was almost finished by the time I got my rice. Aurora had a dosa.

We took the bus to Old Goa, which was really pleasant. The cathedral was a UNESCO site, and huge. We lulled around the canteen sipping a Fanta, and invited a German woman to our table, who seemed as much on holiday as we were. She was a mom, named Merika, on holiday to meet her architect, whom she was now dating.

Old Goa	Parks
Ferries, as Goa is mostly rivers	Writing in the cathedral
Statue of Gandhi petting a goat	The nice lawns of Old Goa
Inside the cathedral

She went with us to see the river, and went back on the bus with us. We stop at a bizarre wax museum first, with the most awesomely strange caricature of a drug user i've ever seen.

Wax Gandhi	Wax Last Supper
This is your face melting on drugs	And this is the man holding a snake in the ceiling, when you're on drugs

It's worth reading the sign, spelling mistakes original:... (--Drugs--): An educational model of a human destroyed by the use of narcotic drugs. This statue is intended to increase and spread awareness amoung the younger generation to refrain from the use of narcotics and smoking. The "hooka" is another form of smoking and is in vogue in some parts of the World. It is equally harmful.

So smoking tobacco will make your face melt like a chemical burn victim. Uh huh.

Some really nice trees	As sun sets on Goa's rivers

We left back to Panjim. Merika was surprised by the Rs7 fare for a 20km bus ride, which was a shock since she had arrived last night, and had not yet took cheap transport. We decide to meet at 'Down by the River' in an hour.

We get a nice reserved seat, and drink lots. Pitchers, and multiple Honeybees and Old Monks. I order fish, and it is good, but small. I also eat a piece of chicken paratha, not knowing until I picked it up. But I tried it since I was offered, and since it was likely safe to eat. It was good, but a bit of a waste of chicken. It's not that tasty stuffed between dry wheat.

Merika was a bit tipsy, and we all went to the karaoke bar downstairs. It's pretty good, with some really talented locals singing rock n roll hits, and this one guy was a real crooner type, and this other chick a real songbird. I sing 'It's not unusual' and we all have a round of drinks. We sing Michael Jackson's 'We are the World' with some rich Goan Indians. One had even been to Cape Town. It was a very young cosmo modern crowd. Ridiculous, after all this travel through non-party land.

Aurora and I fight a bit about feminism. I forget what exactly. Something about a double standard I perceived, which she didn't recognise. We walked Merika home, since we were all a bit tipsy, and it was a kilometer away.

Day 73 - Thurs

I feel sorry for Merika, who was going to Palolem at 8am or something. We had a long breakfast at a lonely planet recommended place. It was 'since 1953', and was made out of pieces of an old ship. It had little balconies and good food. It almost killed the hangover.

We took a bus to Mapusa, and then Anjuna. It took a while, and we got off 800m too late, so we walked for half an hour with our pack before finding our guest house. Our room at Silver Moon was kinda shit for Rs1600, and said we were going to go get some cash from the ATM. But actually, we checked out 3 other places.

Hi ho silver! I don't know why I took this photo.

We ate at Dominoes pizza, ugh. We craved its mainstream commercial tastes, but my stomach turned immediately. We came back and told the guest house we were only staying for 3 days. Since they have a 3 day minimum, the 2 day remainder would hurt them, so they upgraded us to a nicer room. It was acceptable now, so we agreed.

We walked to the beach, which had a nice view, and lots of stalls and people, and find our way down to the real beach. We found a place called Tantra, which had beach beds on stilts. It was awesome, so we stayed. Amazing sunsets and cocktails.

We walked to Curlies and ate supper. Falafel. There was a small party, but I was not feeling social, so we left after a bit of hopping around. There was a big 'Hill Top' party, but we skip it.

Day 74 - Dec 24 - Fri

We woke late, and ate at 'Starco', since 1973! We organised a motorbike through the hotel for Rs350/day. It's a good Yamaha 150 with a red spider web pattern. A real cruiser. It only had 4 gears, and screamed at 80kph,

Zombie masala	Breakfast joint

We go to Vagator, under the Chapora Fort. It is dirty, and has about 10000 Indians on the beach, from various tour buses. There are about 10 white folks, spread out. We go to the end of the beach, and about 15 guys take photos with us, and lots with Aurora. We go over a hill to Small Vagator beach, and it is only whites, in super bikini gear. We get orange juice and listen to a guy's cds. Rubbish music. He wanted Rs500 for 2 DVDs, but we buy 2 for Rs60. We said we didn't really need DVDs, since we were at the beach.

The beach was a bit odd, being segregated. When we returned to the big beach, it was empty. Only the 10 white people bathing.

"Big" Vagator Beach, with lots of Indian tourists	Pretty cool lake at the beach itself
I think this is "Small" Vagator Beach	It was kinda tropical beachy

We went back home, and spoke to Ashkay, a creepy guy who woke us up that morning. He is a couchsurfer, but one to avoid. We don't know how he knew which room we were in. He contacted Aurora when we booked the room. So when he introduced himself, and invited himself in, we were a bit disturbed, but accepted his behaviour. But it was all a bit strange. We couldn't wait to ditch the guy.

So we said we needed to head to the beach on the bike, and so he couldn't join us. We didn't actually go to the beach, but tried to buy each other some presents for Xmas. We didn't find anything affordable, so ended up compromising and buying trinkety bits.

We went to the beach and parked at San Francisco's, and walked to Sunset bar. We had some nice White Russians, and an awesome greek and avo salad. We went to Curlies, but stopped at a private function on a dark hill.

It was only a fire and music, but it had a good vibe. We got a rum & coke mixed from their ice chest. The big guy says it's our first and last drink, but we were happy cause it was a good night already.

We continue to Curlies, but stop at Tantra for red bull & Romanov. We talk to Martin, a German guy, with a wife and daughter, but who came to Goa, cause he needed to. Nice, I said. He joined us for our walk.

Curlies had an entrance fee, but we balked and got in for free. It was a huge party. We ate falafels on the side of the beach, prepared from scratch for Rs50. We chilled next door to buy water, to save a few rupees, and met a Norwegian guy who had gone mad. I offered him a light, and he started flowing in French. I smoked a bidi.

The party was pumping. Fireworks for an hour maybe. Good DJ playing a Robert Miles mix. It all sounded like the X Files. We slowly returned home, stopping at Lilliputs for some mainstream slooshy. Ashkay was there. We danced in the water, since it was high tide. When we returned to the bike, it was the only one left in the parking lot.

Day 75 - Dec 25 - Sat

We woke late, well rested, and aimed for Arambol. We didn't eat until 2pm. We rode first to Vagator from the Chapora end. The Fort was unimpressive, so we try again to find Arambol.

It takes about 2 hours to find a place 13 km away. We ended up going almost to the tip of Goa. We decided everyone we pass must be lost. Finally we get close, and ask for directions. Arambol is pretty average, but Double Dutch restaurant is awesome. Quiche, ice tea, white wine, pesto cheese and avo salad.

The Vagator fort was on this uninteresting hill	Double Dutch restaurant notice board

We go to the beach and park next to some Bob Marley beach umbrella place. A Russian chick is next to us, in a really skimpy bikini, getting massages, oblivious to India's taboos. We swim for a bit, and my book gets interesting. We decide to leave before the sun sets. We check out some spots to maybe stay, and our ride home is a lot quicker.

We arrive and greet a guy, Julian, who is carrying a towel and looking jolly. He reminds me of Manny from Modern Family, but more Indian American. He says he's bored, so we invte him to have some rum with us. He seems cool enough, and we say lets go eat in half an hour. He also thinks Ashkay is a creepo, and goes on an extended spiel until he's like 'Don't mention him. His existence upsets me', or something equally flattering.

We walk to the beach with pre-mixed rum & coke, and meet his dorm mates at Sunset bar. We have a decent meal, with drinks. The Avo salad is less impressive today. We split from the English group, (a bit too English, yeah?), and go to Curlies.

It was a bit slow, so we decide to go to Hill Top. It's a taxi ride away, and Julian likes to pay for stuff, but being Jain, he is not as attuned to the way that music builds up, and how one makes their own party, and how most people in the world don't care about others.

He gets a bit sad, because he has to leave tomorrow, and the music just died and all the other parties are a bit lame. But I was happy.

The Hill Top Club was the birthplace of 'goa' trance and hence 'psy' trance. So it had some significance for me. It was really cool for a little while. Nice anenomae, cool projector tricks, and funny DJs. The DJs had pink mohawks, and were playing distinctly dark music. Then abruptly, the party ended. A single set, and the police shut it down.

So, the birthplace of trance was a bit of a sell-out. And when it stopped, the place became like a high school. People skindering everywhere. Julian somehow found a bunch of Danes. The guy was dressed like a gangster, but was a bit of a joke. When we met, the one guy who looked like Patrick Bateman had hooked up with the hot girl, and so the gangster cursed, in some understandable Germanic vocabulary. Afrikaans does help sometimes. But then the rest of the night they chatted so fast, and it made no sense.

It was kinda obvious they just wanted to hook up and ditch us, but we seemed to be stuck in some taxi together. We went to Curlies. We had a bit of trouble getting them to pay their share of the taxi.

Getting to Curlies involved a long walk through a forest. They had no idea about Anjuna, and were pretty lost already. So it sucked for them, but we felt no remorse, since the guy was Danish psycho. Poor Julian felt forlorn, and worse since Ashkay would be at Lilliput.

We stopped at every party on the way home for a few mintues at a time, but they were all charging Rs400 or Rs500 to get in, and the music was just average. So another night maybe, but it's Xmas, so no problem.

I bought an awesome green laser pointer from a guy on the beach. I talked him down to Rs500, which as it turns out was a really good deal. We tried to buy more from other vendors but no one would take Rs500, and often they offered to buy our laser from us.

Aurora's aura	Fun with shutter speed settings

Day 76 - Dec 26 - Sun

We took the bike to the beach, and ate at 'Janet & Johns'. We lounged about for like 5 hours. We saw a pack of dogs chasing a cow, who was running down the beach.

Anjuna beachin	Sun settin

Prudence sang 'Baby don't hurt me', and her girl, Georgina listened. It was beautiful. Best karaoke I've ever heard.

We biked to Baga beach after the day on Anjuna beach. When we arrived, some seemingly drunk Indian guy tried to grab Aurora, but sensing that he might, I grabbed him by the shirt when Aurora yelled, and I yelled at him like a mad person, and for some reason, I lapsed into a South African accent. He was so scared he ran away. His friend said he had had too much to drink.

We had a really cheesy pasta supper on the beach, at Laxman's, and then went to Britto's Karaoke. There were lots of Indians singing terribly, and we were mixing our own rum into the cokes from the bar. I sang one song, Night Shift, but otherwise we just hung out with these two guys, Rikesh and Meenoj. They were tourists from Bangalore. IT guys. We shared our rum and the Kodaikanal goods.

The gooey cheese sauce was probably Aurora's downfall. Too cheesy and tasty in India is never a good sign. I went to the bathroom and when I came back, Aurora was crying. I asked the Indian guys what happened, and they didn't know. Then Aurora threw up, exorcist style. She leaned over the ledge and vomited over the balcony. But instead of being discreet, there happened to be about 40 tables of British tourists watching, so suddenly there was cheering and clapping, and it was really funny, but not for Aurora.

She was sick, so I drove her home immediately, but all in all, an interesting night. I was a bit drunk myself, and brushed my teeth with the water from the tap, accidentally.

Day 77 - Dec 27 - Mon

The results were not good with the teeth brushing, but I felt better by checkout time. We got new sheets, because Aurora had a little special exorcism later last night. We were very sick of rum now. We took the bike to Om cafe, and had some amazing sandwichy thing. We tried to find a new place to stay.

We stopped by at Tantra's, and they said we could rent on the 28th and 29th. The guy, Hashim, who was in charge, probably had FAS, or had smoked himself retarded, because it took him about 5 minutes to understand what days the 28th and 29th were.

Outside Tantra's	Minimal Goa traffic

We ate there, and watched Australia's MasterChef. There was only Callum and Adam left. The suspense was horrible, knowing that we wouldn't see the last show.

Dinner at Oasis Cafe was nice.

Day 78 - Dec 28 - Tue

We checked out of Silver Moon, and the girls next door had left us chips and pringles and a note wishing us well on our trip. I don't know why they were so nice. I offered them my mosquito coil the one night. I guess that was it.

The taxi was asking for Rs80, so we refused and just walked with our backpacks. I mean, Rs80 is not a lot of cash, but it's only a 4 minute drive.

We stop briefly for orange juice and breakfast at Coco bar, and then sit endlessly at Tantra, waiting for them to get their act together. We move into the big room, put our things in the big metal box, and go next door, to lounge around, eating sweet potato chips and basil mayo. Real paradise-like.

Then Hashim appears, and asks if we'll share the room with 2 others. We grudgingly say ok, we'll pay half price, cool. But he wants 1000, down from 1500, and we don't think it's fair. He gets hostile angry and says we only care about the money, but it's clearly not true: there is a qualitative difference between having your own paradise-beach-love-shack and sharing said shack with random strangers, and that difference is worth precisely Rs750.

There was a mouse temple (Elephant God, Lord Ganesh loves mice)	The confused mice!
Our beach shack	Chillin on the beach

Filling in the forms takes an hour, because, I presume, Hashim just smoked his 3rd bong of the day. We took a day nap, and woke up just after sunset. We went to Shiva's Valley for supper.

It was really good, and after Hashim, we figured maybe there was something in the water, because they served double everything. So now the bill was Rs340, for 4 drinks and 2 huge meals. A second guy came up to us and asked 'What did you order?' so we told him. Haha.

These 2 Austrian guys, Ben and Phillip were nice. They took a taxi straight from Mumbai, for Rs14000. Um. But yeah. They brought out a chillum, and we shared with them until someone asked us to stop. The music was good, and the female dj didn't turn the music too dark. We put on yellow lumo paint. We left at 12 or so, had a drink at some bar, talking to an English girl and Nepalese guy on the way.

Day 79 - Dec 29 - Wed

We had hangovers. Not enough water. At 11, we get up and try move to a new hut, but it takes 1.5 hours of waiting, so we eat nearby, and then move our stuff to a nicer room. It was Wednesday, which is Anjuna's flea market day. We walked through to a taxi, and had to pay Rs100 for a taxi due to high demand.

We go to the ATM, and it gives out Rs5000 in 100s. We walk and book a bus ticket to Hampi on the 3rd. It was full for the 2nd. It was expensive, Rs850, and left from Mapusa. We buy alcohol, look at paintings, and then walk to the flea market again.

Dresses, trinkets, organic salads, and then to the sunset, which was cloudy and disappointing. Sunset Cafe was really busy. Cocktails and pasta. We were planning on partying, so went for a rest.

We went to Curlies again, which cost money again, but we didn't pay again. We just waited around until there were no people around, and said '300? That's not worth it. Who's playing? Nah'. We painted ourselves with lumo yellow paint, and then proceeded to paint every person in the club. Not joking. Maybe 50 people.

Some douchebag, a big fat drunk, but friendly, like a down syndrome, took a big fingerful and smeared it on my shirt unwittingly. Then 5 guys from Gujarat crowded us, since we were so cool, and one guy didn't understand personal space, or that lumo paint does not bind us, or that trance music is not a highschool circle dance. Eventually I had to shake his hand every few minutes to assure him we were all cool, just partying away from him, please.

Upstairs was cool, good music, but a sausage fest after about 1am. We went to Lilliputs, and danced in the water a while. A very likely gay Indian did a Patrick Swayze dance, and 2 white girls ran up to him and kissed him and ran away in turns. He replied by doing a great flashdance move in the water.

Day 80 - Dec 30 - Thurs

Woke up and turned on the fan. It was a hot day. We walked to the end of Anjuna beach, and saw a pack of school kids in uniforms. They all walk from the opposite end of the beach, so it looked like a blue invasion.

We had some great breakfast. 'Spanish' and 'Italian'. We saw the boat we wanted to catch, but missed it. We ran to a smaller boat, but it cost Rs200, so we didn't take it. It was meant to cost Rs20, according to some local, so we didn't take it out of principal, even though it is a fair price in most countries.

So instead we walked. Aurora was not entirely convinced, but it worked out alright. We climbed over interesting rocks, with 1000's of scuttling crabs and fish. Fishermen stood around at the edge, and old naked men skanked about, finding nudist peace in the rocks. We turned towards a path to avoid the naked men, and went over a hill.

A 16 or 17 year old boy appeared, and asked 'Naked girls?'... 'Um, no.'... 'Beautiful girls?'... 'Um, no, just a naked guy'. Aurora left earshot, and then it got weird. 'Beautiful naked guy?'... 'Um, no, old ugly wrinkled naked guy. Er.' ... 'Sex'... 'Um'... 'Sex and Money'... 'OK! yeah, well, Anjuna has lots of hot chicks buddy, but it's just school kids right now'... 'I want sex and money'... 'Ok good luck'. Luckily he kept going. I don't know. I guess he was a child prostitute.

We got to the Cliff Shack bar, which is on a secluded beach that bans hawkers. It was really nice, and we sat in hanging chairs, but there were no waiters, so we left.

We carried on to Baga, and walked across the river part because it was still low tide. Baga was a fucking circus. It was nothing like Anjuna, except for the sandy watery part. We walked until the border of Calungute, and had drinks at Xaviers, or something. We're not sure, because we sat on the beach chairs of another club whose sign said Xaviers, in Russian, crossed out.

We were crowded by servants for a few minutes, then they left and hardly came back. We drank, and a book salesman came by, which was handy. I recommended Blink, which was a good book. She also got Midnight's Children, which was missing the last page. Aurora burnt her toes, against my desire to 30 SPF her.

I bought a cloth I didn't need, and hardly wanted, but at least I supported the beach girls, ONCE. We saw a Rs100 boat taxi, but decided to walk anyway. The tide was high now, so we took the bridge, dodged some scary dogs, and traversed the cliffs in howling wind. We managed fine, and got back before sunset.

Was pleasant weather	Aurora sun set
Goa wasn't so bad

We ate at Lobo's. A nice place, good food. It's a bed restaurant. You get a bed and they serve you in bed. Kind of like The Itis in Boondocks, but without the heart attack. We walked the opposite direction from Curlies for a change, towards San Francisco's. The club next door was funny. They had decent circus trance, but there was no one inside. There was a mesh net and a Rs300 entrance charge. So, there was a big party going on just outside the mesh net. I told the bouncer 'Good luck haha'. We walked back and forth a bit. Lilliput's was a bit lame.

We came back to the trance circus and ate falafels from the random vendors, but now the music had turned strange. You know those ridiculous sound clips they use? They had "God's Love! SIR YES SIR!" and a monotone spiel about "Time Simulation. Remember a good party. Now remember how happy you were then. Now hold onto that feeling and be happy in the present. The Time Simulation is complete"

Day 81 - Dec 31 - Fri

We woke late, walked to the laundry, and got a haircut. I just asked to be shaved. New year. The guy gave this mind crippling head massage and asked if I wanted more for a fee. Sneaky, but I refused.

Walking along	Haircut
A trash bag full of maggots	More walking around

We passed a trinkets store, and a guy said 'Anything to make your New Years more enjoyable?'. We thought 'Hmm. Why would a trinket salesman ask that?' so we went in, and the guy was like 'HELLO! People call me the Pharmacist. "I can get you anything. E, Coke, Angel dust, MDMA, heroine, opium, what do you want?" We didn't buy anything though.

We needed more money, and took the long walk to the ATM, though caught a taxi back most of the way. We bought long life milk to mix with our Mokador, to make White Russians.

We ate at Oasis Cafe. For some reason, the waiters became useless until 2011. We went out to watch the sunset and sat at Five Five next door. Indian and Italian food, and watched some amateur fireworks.

Sun setting on 2010	Beach bed

Back at Tantra, we saw ambient percussion guitarists plus their blonde entourage. Hashim reminded me of my buddy Yotam, except not as smart.

Hipster percussive guitar musicians + groupies

We went to Curlies for the new years. Rs800 for the two of us. We didn't argue, figuring it evens out the 3 nights we didn't pay anything. The place was already packed, and we aimed straight for upstairs.

Some thug was escaping and a guy yelling after him, so I grabbed him by his shirt neck as he was stumbling, while the guy caught up and punched the crap out of him. He was some kind of thief and pervert. I hate criminals almost more than I hate the police, so when one is at my mercy, I don't show them any.

I patted the bouncer on the shoulder, saying 'Bhaiji', to get his favour, and he let us in, while staving off the hordes of others wanting to get in the VIP upstairs. No 'stags' allowed. We got Rs60 cokes, gaffawing at the bartender. We added our own rum, sitting at a floor table with some Indians.

The guy at the table said '147' and I stared blankly for a few seconds, and asked 'BPM?', and he said 'yeah'. He had been listening to Psy for 12 years, and DJing. He said when he lived in America, he was making little weekend trance parties, and the only other trance DJ he could find was a South African and his girlfriend. So they put up the SA and Indian flags. Cool.

It was a nice group of people. We used up the last of our flourescent paint. A Russian girl puked. A Californian and Sudanese guy danced with us for a bit. The Sudani said you didn't get this music back home. But I figure the guy lives in the US now. You don't see many Sudanese, to be honest.

It was a raucous party. Some guy drew half a heart on his chest with our paint and then hugged people, making a heart shaped blob on other peoples' clothing.

New years at Curlies

Day 82 - Jan 1 - Sat

We got our laundry, used the internet, ate at Shiva's for breakfast, then had a hard time getting served at 3 different restaurants. Everyone had lost any sense of responsibility. Eventually, we ate at Avalon Sunset, recommended by Lonely Planet. I got barbequed prawns that were pretty good. We looked around in the flourescent paintings shop for an hour or so, but I couldn't find one that was really perfect.

Shiva's

Day 89 - Jan 2 - Sun

It was our last proper day in Goa, so we decided to try party at the Sea Horse that night. We met the DJ earlier, an Israeli guy named Goren, and he gave us his flyer.

We spent the day outside Shiva's valley, in day beds, eating mueslix, avo lafa and beer, and just lying there with an almost empty beach. There were a few topless French, and Israeli children throwing bottles in the sea, and being buried to their heads in sand.

Beach cows	Cow & egrets

We went back to our 'home', had some 'Irish coffee' while talking to some Americans at Tantra. It was a bit gross, so we moved on to mojitos at Lobo's and a big dinner. Pasta and soup. The Sea Horse party was pretty good. Nice full-on Israeli trance, and we sat upstairs and danced a bit.

More sunset, okay?

We put down our camera at home, and came for a last round, Old Monk and our coke bottle. The party moved around a big bonfire until the water threatened it. I tried arguing with the laser pointer man, but he was pushing his luck.

The newspaper confirmed that we were in the right place

Day 84 - Jan 3 - Mon

We had a day to kill. We left Tantra, and walked to Om Cafe, and had a nice wrap and buckwheat sandwichy thing, and sat for as long as we could, then walked the rest of the way to the bus. We got onto an empty bus, except for this crazy kid.

His parents were outside the bus and said that we could buy him for a special price. Aurora scared the child to his delight, and for 30 minutes, the kid got crazier, until he was repeating what we said in chirps. We bought him an ice cream, and he got off the bus.

We fed him icecream	...and he went crazy

The bus took the long way to Mapusa, but we still had almost 4 hours, so we went to our trusty Cafe Coffee Day. We had drinks and surfed the internet, and then just waited at the bus stop, looking for a big Island Travels bus. We got on with a crowd of backpackers.

At first, the bus seemed awesome. Our sleeper was at the very back, and resembled a giant nest, or some movie set for an orgy as we were shoulder to shoulder with our neighbours, but then it turned into the bumpiest ride of the trip, so much that sometimes we flew a meter into the air, and landed, and you could hear the bus go 'OWW'.

Our Catalunian neighbours were happy, and above us was an Irish couple, the guy of which had long dreads. We stopped at Ankola, which was almost back at Gokarna(!), and I ate a puri bhaji, which is a puff ball with spicy sauces.

Getting off the bus, I watched as the conductor rifled through a girl's bag. He panicked and put it back and let me through, but I looked closely and thought 'Hmm that is a girl's bag'. I told the girl who was there, and she freaked out. We had a short yelling match, with the guy's point something like 'Nothing is missing!' and our point being, well, a bit obvious.

It was 1am though. For 2 hours I lied in my bump chamber thinking how best to approach the situation in the morning. You don't want to get tied up in other people's problems, especially in India, and going to the police would be almost impossible logistically, so I resolved to tell the driver. Maybe the guy would lose his job, but I'd be ok with that. I mean, he is the conductor!

In the morning, we awoke at Hampi, and an Israeli guy, who was travelling with the girl was yelling about his bag being missing. He was incredulous. I went up and told the driver what I saw, and he just nodded, almost like 'yeah, so?'. I figured the driver was complicit. So, telling the driver did nothing. I took a photo of the thief. Of course, innocent until proven guilty, but yeah, he was the suspect. The Israeli guy was defeated and said 'What can I do? Nothing'.

The conductor thief