Dolphins

Last night I met my neighbor in the next hut over, a guy from Belgium. We went to dinner at my favorite place (which he agreed was fantastic; another opinion is not plausible), where we met an American. I don't think I mentioned it in Gokarna, but I happened me meet my first Americans in India when I was there, a couple from San Francisco (of all places) and their kid. Anyway, I met another American, this one from Omaha, which was very exciting for me, this place being a little overloaded with Brits, Israelis, and the rest.

So this Belgian guy (I can't pronounce, let alone spell, his name) tells me he has come to Goa for a quiet place so he can write a book and corresponding screenplay. I asked what it was about and he said he was going to write a pro-drugs story, whereas pretty much every book and movie involving drugs ends in disease, despair, etc, his will have a happy ending. Interesting.

On our way back to the huts we got sucked into talking to a guy that gives rides on his boat to go see dolphins (or rather my Belgian friend did while I took a quick swim). It turned out a couple of girls were going at 8:30am and he said if they agreed we could go along. Well this morning they agreed and we went out to see the dolphins.

For the first half hour or more we didn't see anything but some birds (and gorgeous scenery, but that doesn't count in this particular case). I was beginning to be discouraged, but after going to the next beach north we struck relative gold. We saw I would guess ten or fifteen dolphins, slowly and casually coming up for air and swimming nearby. It was very cool, with the highlight being a baby, maybe just over a meter long, "jumping" (for lack of a better word) out of the water right near the boat. Very, very cool.

I checked out of the hotel and I'll be catching the train to Margao tonight. Palolem will be missed.

More beach

I don't have a whole lot to report today as I'm in the same town, swimming, reading in the shade, watching the sunburned Brits pass by, and eating at the same restaurant every lunch and dinner (Droopadi is the name of it).

Tomorrow I'll be heading to Margao, in central Goa. It isn't much of a tourist spot, but my 7am train departs from the train station there the next day.

So today is my last day in this seaside paradise, which is a little sad, although I'm really looking forward to my visits to the ruined city at Hampi and the ancient man-carved caves after that. It'll be nice to have some actual sights to go see, although I'm sure I'll be wishing I could take a dip in the Arabian Sea when I'm wandering around in the heat out there.

The final leg of my journey involves an unfortunately long stay in Delhi (three and a half days) due to the train schedule (there was no way I was taking a bus for that 1,396 km journey. I'll spend a month in Delhi before I do that). I have no idea what I'll do for that long seeing as how I've already visited for a few days, but I am curious to see how I feel about it after getting acclimated to this country (if you remember correctly I did not particularly enjoy my first visit).

Cyclones: Lame

Cyclone Phylan came to the coast of Goa yesterday, and I wouldn't have even known it was a natural disaster if I hadn't happened across the news. It was basically just windy and raining, and it wasn't even that windy or raining that hard. Today it's sunny and beautiful, and last night it even cleared up and I saw my first Goan sunset. It was amazing.

Yesterday afternoon I went to get a new book (#6 for the trip), then went for a haircut. I'm not sure if anyone noticed since I'm usually wearing a hat in the pictures and the beard tends to overshadow the hair, but it was getting pretty long. So I got a haircut for $1, including shaving around the edges with a straight razor and a little head massage after the fact. It was quite nice. After that I walked out to the beach to see this:
Not a bad little surprise.

By the way in case anyone is at all interested (probably not), these are the super random books I've read (and in the case of the last one, are reading currently). They've been purchased at train stations, roadside stalls, bookstores, and from a table by the side of the road, so my choices have been somewhat limited. Anyway, in chronological order of when I read them:

The Godfather, by Mario Puzo
The Stand, by Stephen King
The Witches of Eastwick, by John Updike (LAME!)
Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens
Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathon Swift

So yeah it looks like the cyclone is over, swimming is allowed (and recommended, if you ask me), and all is right with the world.

Figured out the weather

So I checked the Indian news right now and found out the reason for the "No swimming" thing:

http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20091111/812/tnl-cyclone-phyan-threatens-india-s-west.html

I get to be in a cyclone!

Palolem done right

Last night I had the best Indian food of my life. The guide book suggests a place on the beach and says the quality of food and chef are way higher than usual for the price, so I figure I'll try it out. I had paneer tikka masala, and it was just absolutely fantastic. Needless to say I went back to the same place today. I'll probably eat there at least once a day as long as I'm in Palolem.

This morning I took a walk out to Neptune Point, a spot that juts out from the beach, separating Palolem beach from the next one over (as shown on the right). A Spanish guy I met in Nepal had recommended the place as being a little pricier but much nicer than the places behind Palolem beach, so I went to ask about rates. I'm now staying in one of their huts for $12/night (I was paying 6 for a crappy room on the main drag away from the water. They wanted $16 for this place but my skills of negotiation prevailed). If you can see the cluster of three huts by the large rock on the left, right on the water, mine is the one in the middle.

The view of the main beach from my hut is the picture below. I think I'll being staying here in Palolem for the next three nights until I move on from Goa. It's very easy and nice here, besides the continued unfortunate weather.

I finally have my swimsuit and they shut down the swimming because the wind has supposedly made the surf "dangerous". It's really not that bad, I could easily swim in it, but the men with rifles feel differently, so I don't chance it.

Here is a video of the view from where I'm now staying.

Gokarna to Goa

Yesterday, still at Gokarna, I went for a little hike. I hiked over the hill to Om beach, then over another hill to Half Moon beach. It was a very nice hike, with just small paths through the dense forests, between the beaches. I also saw some more monkeys!

I spent the afternoon at the various beaches, then settled back in at Kudlee beach for dinner. As it got dark the weather turned from overcast to thunderstorms. I met some Englishman at dinner and sat, talked, and attempted to take pictures of the lightning. I succeeded on a good one, as you can see.

This morning I headed over to the train station (a $3 cab ride), then bought a ticket on the local train (30 cents for an hour and a half train ride). It is considered a local train, so there aren't any a/c options or advanced booking (which was just fine). I hadn't ever taken what they call "Second Class", which consists of bench seats and barred windows. It was okay for a short journey, but if I was going overnight or for many hours it would not be fun.

Anyway, I made it to Palolem (after a 4km walk), in Goa. It reminds me of Pokhara, Nepal, in that there are a lot of tourists along with shops and restaurants that cater to tourists. The only real difference is the ocean instead of a lake.

I grabbed a spot along the beach for some pakora (curried, then fried vegetables) and Kingfisher beer. I had a Kingfisher in Kochi and it was pretty much terrible, as well as 100 rupees ($2), but in Goa the taxes on alcohol are much lower and the beer isn't mixed with the preservative it is elsewhere in India. The result is much better beer half the price, even in a tourist restaurant on the beach.

The weather continues to be unseasonable, as it rarely rains in November around here, yet it has rained every afternoon for the past three days in Gokarna and Goa.

I had read that Goa would be heavily influenced by the Portuguese as it was their territory fairly recently, but I have yet to see it. Maybe I will as I stay here a little longer. One bit of tourist luck is that they actually sell swimsuits here! I've been swimming in my underwear, like the locals (except theirs is a bit more revealing), but now I finally have a legitimate swimsuit to wear, which is very exciting.

Banofi Pie

I pretty much just hung out at the beach since last post, so I'll provide a haiku about my amazing banofi (banana and toffee, I think it's actually spelled "banofee", but here they spell it banofi) pie I had last night:

Oh, banofi pie,
Perfect crust and filling too.
A good beach day great.

I'm beginning to realize this blog is somewhat food oriented, but so am I, so there you go.