Gokarna, OM Beach, Jan 2 2009

Tomorrow is my last day in OM beach, I'm traveling to Kerala starting in Cochin. The last few days have been very relaxed. Waiting for new years. Thinking where the big party would be, etc. Many people talked about going to Kuttle beach which is a 20 minute walk. But in the night and not being completely sober would be tough. So ultimately I stayed in OM. Had a great dinner with my Serbian friend Ivana and some other people. Wow amazing King fish. I have figured that eating with my hands makes food more delicious than ever (on a side note, I used to criticize my daughter Daniela for doing this at home). It seems that using your hands increases your senses and things are even more tasty. Very early in the evening everybody was either drunk or stoned in this beach. So everybody is happy and smiling, etc. Around 10:00 PM a few fires where lit on the beach and people started singing, playing all kinds of instruments. Therefore the atmosphere was great. Watching the fire is amazing, you don't get bored any second. At some point I decided to go to sleep and it was already 5:00 AM. Later I heard that the party in Kutle beach was a flop, was police was all over and stopped the party at 11:00 PM.
So the days pass by with this wonderful lazyness of not doing much. I'm doing some kind of fitness exercice every morning: Yoga, Jogging, Walking and then swimming in this fantastic little beach. It is so refreshing. Spend a long time in the water and then on the sand (when the sun is not very hot). New Years is an Indian holiday and the beaches are full of local Indians.
The majority don't know how to swim and it feels that they haven't been much on beaches. They get crazy about playing in the water.
In many cases you see them watching the western women in their bikinis and quite astounded. I can imagine how different it looks to them from the local women which bathe on their clothes.
They are wonderful people. On the few occasions that you get to talk to them
They typically keep asking your name, country, etc. At some point it gets a bit tiring as they are so many. But when you do get to the next level of conversation you find wonderful, knowleadgeable and good people.

About drugs: It is just amazing the amount of people that you see consuming drugs around. From Charas to other more heavy stuff. I'm a passive smoker of cigarretes, joints ... You just sit aroudn and it is in the air. It starts with breakfast and goes on for the whole day. If not drugs, lots of drinking goes on. So people are happy, friendly, talkative, etc.
Also there is always a place where someone is playing some instrument.
On the 31st, I met quite a few people that wanted to have a great trip experience. So a few I know tried LSD. I'm too old for this stuff and too afraid to try it. But I'm learning a bit about it through the experience of others.
Today I wanted to jog on the beach, but I have a little wound on my leg and it hurts. So put some medicine on it and will wait for it to be better. Wounds here for some reason don't heal very fast, so I need to be careful.
It will be hard for me to leave as with time (I'm more than 10 days here) you get to know many people around, in the guest house, in the beach and you feel like home.
But so far every new beginning has been better than the previous. Therefore I'm sure Cochin will be great too.