Goa-Aranbol, November 24, 2008

My 2nd day in Goa
Yesterday I kind of split from my Mexican Partner. She went a bit Kookoo.
Everything was fine. But after she smoke a Hash cigarette she become very introvert and
only wants to be by herself in quiet. She is still around, but does not talk. She is now mostly
in silence and enjoying her joint. In all is good to me. She was starting to be a bit heavy on me.
Today I had a great day. I woke up early, went for a long walk on the beach, got into the water etc. Aranbol does not have the greatest beach in the area but is pretty nice. You can walk many kilometers and you see dozens of fishermen and their boats on the way. The water is not crystal clear, but is quite warm.
Later I rented a Scooter and went to explore the other beaches around. You can rent a scooter for 150 rupees a day ($3) and you need to leave your passport as a deposit.
The scooters are a bit on the old side, 100 CC but run pretty nice considering that mostly you don't exceed 50-60 km/h anyway. The roads are not that great. Goa driving is much, much better than other parts of India, and it is not as crowded. All drive without a Helmet.
Aranbol where I'm staying is one of the farthest northern beaches of Goa. I wanted to get to Anjune a bit southern, as I was thinking in moving over there in the coming days.
On my way I passed through Mandreem which has beautiful white sand beaches, but is a bit on the lonely side for me. Then I got to Vanador which is supposed to be the party place. Claimed in Lonely planet to be driven by the many Israelis which stay over there. Looks nice, but again the beach is not very close to the guesthouses and not very attractive to me.
Next I got to Anjuna, which was quite disappointing to me. In the lonely planned it sounds attractive. But what I found is again a larger village where the guest houses and the action is quite far from the beach. The beach is also very rocky. In Anjuna there is the Wednesday flea market which I'm planning to go.
I kept going south and hit Baga followed by Calangute. Baga looks nice. Quite spread out though.
Calangute is much bigger, full of older tourists and Indians. It seems that the Indians enjoy their vacations over here. So the place is much bigger, many more businesses and people, but not the kind of people I'm looking for.
In general, so far I feel that Aranbol has the best mix of western people, nice beach and some good action in restaurants, bars, etc. For now I'm not moving.
Some people call Aranbol the Israeli beach. In fact I hear lots of Hebrew, mostly Israel Young boys and girls at post army age. Many Internet Cafes, lots of workshop signs everywhere and stalls selling stuff.
Humorous corner: I feel very safe in my driving, I have no problem with the other drivers and have started horning like a real Indian. The horning is mostly to inform others that I'm around. Today I had a bit of a scary moment when a cow suddenly appeared in front of me. I horned but she didn't move :-) Anyway those are the kind of things you need to deal while driving in India, cows, dogs and some other animals will be on your way.

While reading one of the Osho books one big paradigm in my like was put in question.
While working for Intel I've been trained to be RESULTS ORIENTED. Meaning the results are more important than the means and that is what counts. Osho claims that western society is too results oriented and that you never get happiness from the results, but from the way you do things here and now. I think that this thought is making me a lot of good. I'm less planning. I'm less imagining what will happen tomorrow and taking one day at a time. I'm enjoying the moment more.






I'm happy that you are all feeling well. I'm taking one day at a time, as things keep changing day by day.