Tuesday, December 23, 2008

GOA!!!!!!!!!!

So, Ive been living here in Goa for about a month now, life is very easy and very slow and unless you push yourself to do something not much happens, albeit it, not much happens very slowly. Today is the Christmas eve ans I can here jingle bells ringing out from the restaurant next door, bit early at 9.30 am but its Christmas I suppose. I arrived here on the 22nd of November, tim

e passes quickly with little drama.
Today has been a good day, my first malaria test came up negative only one more to pass tomorrow and then I can start to feel paranoid about some other illness rather than this one. Perhaps I'll start with dengue fever. I dont know, Ive had strange headaches, muscle pains and fever for the last couple of weeks and convinced myself during fretful sleepless nights that i was dying of some terrible cerebral malaria, only the though of an unqualified crazy nurse jabbing needles into me stopped me from charging head first to the nearest hospital. But today the fear got to me and to the pathology lab I bolted, one small jab in the finger and Im half way to being malaria negative and half way to wo

ndering what the hecks the matter with me. hey ho, its too easy for the smallest of ailments to become life threatening diseases when your heads full of lonely planet dangers and annoyances pages, throw the books away theyre evil in more ways than one!
Ive just come back from setting fishing nets up for the day. Its such a wonderful feeling to swim out into the ocean and set out the nets for youre supper. I felt full of laughter, freedom and smiles and maybe with my friend Godwins help we might catch something.
Im staying at Godwins place on the beach here in Agonda and its a blessing that Im here, all the other shacks and huts on the beach are really buisness ventures but Godwin and his wife Jenny have 4 huts on stilts and a couple of rooms all in their own garden slap bang on the beach. Theres no attach

ed restaurant no fancy amenities or jangly lights and essentially you live with them. They hang their clothes up in the garden, the kids come and play guitar with me, Jenny cooks my dinner from time to time and Bingo the dog ignores everyone in an aloof head of the household kind of a way. I like it here and I like Jenny and Godwin, theyre good souls, sure theyre making money but in a laxidazical way. As Godwin says, "we dont need the money this just pays for the housekeeping" And he's right, he works as a marine engineer for Shell 6 months of the year abroad, six month home, good money, but he doesnt show it, and as such that makes him even more likeable.Ive been taken out to his new home he's building for his family in the hills above agonda. Its three stories, marble floors, internal balconies, 4 or 5 bedrooms, its not really to my taste but beautiful none th

e less and even more beautiful when I found out he designed it all himself while onboard the ship for six months!
Its starnge to be here though, in so much that its starnge to be placed in a catholic community in India. Half of this beach is catholic half Hindu, part of the portugese legacy. The difference is very noticeable and I like the change. The Catholic Indians are much more approachable and I have to say seem to be much more honest and reliable. Perhaps that has something to do with not sinning, I dont know maybe its just Jenny and Godwin's way. But to see their kids wandering around the beach with Singing Santa's chiming jingle bells is pretty surreal! This is about as far removed form snow, elves, sleighs and lapland as I can imagine, but its kind of nice too, in a perculiar way. Apparently we all get invited in for fruit desert a

s Christmas, no turkey though, maybe fish, who knows. I would certainly recommend anyone come here and stay with this family, if you want to do nothing but relax and unwind for a couple of weeks then this is the place.
Right now though most of Goa is deserted, and the recent bombing in Mumbai seem to be the cause, no ones making any money and on brief excursions up and down the coast the situation seems to be much the same, very quiet. Even the ever popular Anjuna flea market was deserted when I turned up, as was Anjuna and as such I found it rather a pleasant place to be and could see why all the freaks turned up here in the 70's.
My days consist of 45 minutes Reiki on waking, a few sit ups and pr

ess ups, 30 minutes meditation on the beach in the early morning before breakfast, then lazing about doing whatever springs to mind till about 5pm when I do Chi Gong before the sun sets, grab my evening meal and a couple of beers, write some music then head to bed. Its a nice way to pass the time but I couldnt do it forever. Im yearning for a big city and some movement, which for me is really strange as I actively avoid noise and chaos. But the time is coming when I need to see some bright lights,neon signs and cars, just to get a lungful of it all to remind me why I really want to be anywhere else.
So, with that in mind Im heading to Bangkok on the 30th. Flying out of Delhi, yet another flight I know, but what can you do? Theres no way across for me now, Burma is a logistical nightmare and in essence

Im forced to concede, if a little too easily, that flight is the only option. If I felt like I had more time and like I was really the commanding officer of this trip then I'd find some other way, but as such I dont. Its one thing Ive come to realise, that without my bike this trip loses a large part of its meaning, its direction and its purpose. A big part of me wishes I'd rode across Iran and Pakistan regardless of my fears, though another part of me knows that would have been a big headache or a potential distaster, but when I think deep I feel it would have been alright. So the bike is sold, Godwin seemed to take a fancy to it and he's bought it from me for the amount I paid, I think I could have got more money if I'd waited and sold it to some foreigner but it would have meant a whole load of hassle and time and as such Im glad its gone to a good home. Its strange though because Im really rather sad to see it go regardless of it being a rattly boneshaking arse kille

r of a ride that is forever needing attention. Still I have to confess Im really rather fond of it, rattles and all.
So the extra Malaria test is negative, woohooo, so I can cross malaria of my list of potentially fatal diseases Ive caught and start mulling over what other deadly ailment I could have, tick born encephalitis, Dengue fever, hepatitis, rabies?
So, today I head south down the coast to a little deserted beach called Polem and gently work my way back up home on the bike. I have to concede that all the armfuls of flak people give Goa must be from people who have never been here or have never ventured out from the place theyre at. Sur

e there are places that are hotel block nightmares,like Calangute, but like anywhere thats not the full story, and certainly in the south there are beautiful coconut beaches with not a soul on them. You only need to rent a bike and head up or down the coast and you soon find these little enclaves with a few shacks and isolated beaches, perfect seas and no-one around.
So I have about 7 days or so before I leave for Thailand so theres a few things to organise, Im planning on travelling with very little so Im sending the majority of my stuff home. Its always the case that you bring far more than you ever need, I do it every time, and right now I just want as few possesions as are necessary to give the freedom I feel I need to just move with little hassles. So until after the New Year and Thailand I wish you all a beautiful Christmas and New Year, many blessings Jonny

★ 0 Comments. | Jonny, Tuesday, December 23, 2008 11:06 PM