Goa-Aranbol, November 28, 2008

So today I moved to a different Guest House again. I had a terrible sleeping night.
Too many mosquitoes or something. Now I have a better room, a bit more expensive but better.
Hopefully this night will be good. Just to give an idea of what is a good accommodation in Aranbol.
A room with private bath, good shower (but don't expect hot water). The bed is typically very basic with straw mattresses. Water in the room is not potable clearly. Someone told me that you should not even brush your teeth with it. There is a fan on the ceiling. Don't expect any AC.
You don't get towels, you do get sheets, which don't look very nice typically. So very basic. All this luxury can be bought by 7-8$. Price is going a bit up as more people are coming for the December season. Many rooms sit on top of the beaches and have an amazing view.
Aranbol is basically one street in parallel to two beach strips. The street goes up and is full with hundreds of stalls selling everything you can dream about. It has also many restaurants, bars, etc. This is heaven for the budget backpackers traveler. I haven't seen any hotel of higher quality, but they may exist. The typical tourist in Aranbol is blond, in his 20s/30s with many
tattoos everywhere, dread-locks in the hair, thin, barefoot and shirtless. Feels like a hippie place.
Actually you find many "original" hippies in their 40s/50s full of tattoos like the youngsters.
The law here does not enable partying, or loud music after 10 PM. Therefore the music starts in the various bars at 7:00 and goes up to 10:00.
Yesterday I say in the Loeki, which is a nice restaurant with live music twice a week. It was very nice. Full of people, all sitting in cushions in the floor. The player are mostly volunteers from the area, British, Americans, real hippies in the 50s/60s which enjoy playing for the crowd. I don't think they are paid for this. The atmosphere was very good. You get a 1 liter Kingfisher beer for 100 rupee (2 $).
I met Ela once again as she and Rishal came to Aranbol for dessert. They got late for the show. But we sat in the beach for about two hours and chatted. There are many cafes/bars right on the sand in the beach which is very nice too.
Today I started my Yoga class. It is Yengar style, meaning using many helping things like cubes, cushions, belts, etc to make sure that you get in the right and precise posture. It was not difficult today. It is 3 hours and will continue for 5 days.
So the routine for the coming days will be very lazy. Latest I can eat before the yoga is 10:00 AM. So I'm going to have a late breakfast, some reading and resting, yoga, walking in the beach, shower, Internet, dinner and back to sleep.

Goa-Aranbol. November 27, 2008

I just heard the news on the attacks in Bombay. I'm fine and quite far from Bombay.
Actually while in Bombay I was 5 minutes from the Taj-Mahal hotel which is the most luxurious in the city.
Today I had a good day. My stomach got better and I'm feeling good. I kept renting the scooter and went again to Panjin (Goa's capital) and also to Old Goa. Old Goa is amazing. It has 3 churches from the Portuguese times. It is amazing how much Portuguese influence there is in this area. All the churches are all named in portuguese names, etc. Panjim feels a bit like Lisbon. A pity that many of the colonial buildings are not so well maintained. I was reading that hundreds of years ago, Goa was as developed as Lisbon as the Portuguese had lots of business in the orient.
Today I decided to leave my room and move to another one nearby. I felt that staying close to the Mexican was giving me bad energy. She became a bad neighbor. So moving will give me opportunities to meet good ones, or neutral ones. Therefore I moved to a room, not far. The room is even a bit cheaper (I'm saving 1$) but I did not notice that it does not have a sink. I'll have to brush my teeth in the bucket :-)

Humorous and Curious Corner: In western modern countries there are traffic laws, the roads are well signed, the roads are decent, the cars are modern and people play by the rules. Therefore traffic flows decently. What you do in a country where: 1) roads are terrible, 2) There are very few signs 3) Most vehicles are motorcycles 4) there are no clear rules 5) there are cows in the streets 6) most vehicles don't have mirrors or working lights.
Eureka, my scientific mind got to a brilliant realization. In western countries the system is passive. Meaning things work without communication between the drivers. The signs, the mirrors, the lights, etc provide the signaling between cars and people. In India the system is active. Horning is the communication system between drivers. Drivers will indicate to each other their intentions by horning. After 4 days driving here, I find this brilliant. I don't need to pay attention to signs, lights, etc. The driver behind or any other driver is responsible to tell me his intentions by horning me. Therefore you see on the cars "Please Horn". Therefore this is the only system which can work in this chaos of no rules. "Horn me and tell me what you are planning to do". And amazingly it works (clearly in the Indian conditions).
Another curiosity. Today I used a Helmet as by law you have to use a helmet in the main roads. The thing is that most helmets are probably not safer than with a helmet, and many drivers carry their wifes, children without a helmet. So it is not clear what good does this law do.

Goa-Aranbol, November 26, 2008

At some point it was about to happen. I got food sick today. During the night I had a bad feeling on my chest and did not sleep very well. Also I felt some weakness. Now I have a bit of diarrhea. So I'm not eating anything, just drinking water and tea. Seems that this is part of this kind of travel. And yesterday I ate in the cleanest places I've been. It is frustrating, lots of good food around and you cannot eat.
Despite feeling a bit weak, I took the scooter to the Anjuna Wednesday market. It happens once a week and I had to see it. Anjuna is about one hour from Aranbol. It is a huge market, with hundreds of stalls selling everything India has to offer. Very nice and colorful. But as I'm not shopping at all, it was a quick browse. Later I came to my room and had a 3 hour nap as I was a bit weak. Now I'm feeling a bit better. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be through it.
Today I enrolled in a 5 day yoga class in the Himalayan Yoga center. It is Yengar Yoga, but for beginners. It is 5 days, 3 hours a day. Issue is that the center is about 15-20 minutes walk from my guest house. On the other corner of the city. It starts at 14:00 for 3 hours. I cannot eat anything prior to eat. So the plan will be a good breakfast around 10:00 or so.

The amount of Russians in Goa is amazing. I heard that they have cheap charter flights over. You see them everywhere. In Aranbol you the younger beautiful blonds, in other southern beaches like Calangute you see older Russians.
Today was not a very good day. But I'm optimistic.

Goa, Aranbol, November 25, 2008

Today I had a great day (maybe except for the end)
I woke up at 7:00, after a great night of sleep. I'm typically sleeping 8-9 hours and very well.
I went out to the balcony where I have an amazing view of the sea. My balcony is actually sitting on the ocean, on a cliff. The view is amazing, specially early morning and sunset. I decided to exercise my Yoga on the balcony. I did a full 70 minutes of practice and the highlight is that I managed to do "amidat rosh" against the wall (headstand). In the balcony there is a very convenient wall. I decided to try and use the wall for the "amidat rosh". And suddenly on the 1st try I was standing on my head. It felt easier than I thought. I was so surprised. Felt good.
Later I took my scooter and traveled to Panjin. Panjin is the Goa's state capital with about 100000 people. I was really impressed with Panjin. Colonial Portuguese with Indian colors.
It is much cleaner than typical India. You find lots of stores, churches, monuments with Portuguese names. Imagine that the Portuguese where in Goa before they discovered Brazil.
Many buildings do remind Portuguese architecture (and what we see in Brazil). At the same time, people look very Indian, and the Indian atmosphere is there.
At some point it came to my mind that this would be the perfect place for Ela to live. Nice, quiet, and very central in Goa. Therefore I send her an SMS telling her that I'm in town and asking where she lives. Guess what after 30 minutes or so, I met Ela on the streets. She had send me an SMS saying that she was in town but I met her before the SMS came. Wow what a coincidence. We sat for Juice for an hour and agreed to meet some other time. She said that Rishal was also in town doing some business. She is cleaning a house that they are renting in Arpora. She said that this is the home of her dreams.
I took my scooter and headed for Calangute. After about two hours, behind me where Rishal and Ela again in their car. We got together for a drink. Too many coincidences in a single day.
This is beating statistics.
Driving with the scooter around is so nice. You get to all kinds of different spots and gives you a completely different perspective that if I stayed in Aranbol only. I'm getting to be pretty good on the India driving. In the highways you need a helmet. Someone driving on my side warned me. But I did not have one. I was in danger of getting a fine. Tomorrow the bike owner will try to get me one. Except for highways, nobody wears a helmet, which is more dangerous but much more fun. It is nice to have the wind coming on your head and face.
I decided to keep the scooter for two more days at least. Tomorrow I'm going to the Wednesday market in Anjuna which is quite recommended.
I also inquired on the Yoga classes in the Himalayan center which I'm most probably will join.
It is a 5 day class, 3 hours a day.
Last but not least, I ate something in Panjin which did not make me good. I'm feeling a bit weird. The place was the cleanest Indian Veg restaurant which I've been so far. But the North Tally did not get well on my stomach.
So far Aranbol seems the best place for me in the North. Ela said that Palolim on the south is also pretty nice, but quite far away. So I'm staying at least till the end of next week here, and then will see.

Friday I'll probably start a 5 day class in the Himalayan Center. They charge 2500 for 5 days, 3 hours each.

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.

Goa-Aranbol, November 23, 2008

After a 13 hours train trip from Pune to Goa we arrived in Madgaon station in Margao.
The scenery is quite a bit different, more colorful, lots of churches on the way. Today is Sunday and at 7:00 AM we saw many people on the churches. From Margao we took a taxi for about 1100 rupees to Mandreem. Zvia my Yoga teacher had recommended that I try the Dunes guest house in Mandreem. In fact the Dunes is beautiful, very nice huts in a very quiet beach. You almost feel that you are not in India. Kind of a small resort with more elderly tourists. The place was very nice, but we felt we wanted at this point a more central beach with more action. So we took a taxi to Aranbol which is not far away from Mandreem. Those are some of the most northern beaches of Goa.
As said before I'm traveling with Tamara my Mexican friend. She left most of her luggage in Puna and will go back and forth from there to different places.
In Aranbol took us a few hours to settle on a guest house. Ones proposed on lonely planet are difficult to find and people take you wherever they want. Ultimately we settle on a guest house which probably has no name. Supposedly it is the Sunny, but not sure. It is right on the cliff with a wonderful cliff and ocean view. A bit more on the side than the center where you have tons of bars, restaurants and stalls with clothing and all other stuff. You see Yoga, Ayuverdic treatment, and other treatment signs everywhere. Many signs in Hebrew, including a Jewish House.
Restaurants have all kinds of food, vegetarian, seafood, chicken, etc. And also the beers are not extremely expensive. This place is supposedly an old hippies town and in fact you see some 60 years old hippies around. The weather is a bit warm, and most people walk without shirts, barefoot. A real beach atmosphere.

Tomorrow we are planning in renting a moped, which goes for about 150-200 rupees a day ( $5)
and we will go around to check other beaches. Aranbol is quite on the north about an hour from the other more centric beaches and is not as convenient to go to other activities which happen more on the southern beaches. Therefore we will explore a bit before we settle on a different place. Not sure that I'll stick around with Tamara and she has some other interests than mine.

The trip on the train and getting here was good but tiring, now we will relax a bit.