Blue skies and beaches

I’m in Goa, getting really tan and kind of loving it. The beach here is really nice but reminds me of Miami or the south of France where everyone’s got a racket with lounge chairs and bars. Most of the beach where I am (Baga beach) is full of this. It’s still lovely though.

Some random thoughts today:

My henna has now faded to a sad looking orange and I keep looking down and thinking I have some weird skin disease. It’s actually really creepy.

Kate wants me to write an ode to the squating toilet but I don’t think I’ll go that far. Let me say that I actually like the squating toilets. I know, it’s weird and I didn’t think I would. But they’re actually cleaner than Western toilets and the public ones on the whole don’t smell nearly as bad. Maybe I lucked out, but let me say that I’ve used them from Malaysia to Cambodia and India and on trains and they’ve really been clean.

I don’t understand how the toilets can be so clean and yet people toss trash on the street like it’s no big deal. Seriously, you’ll see someone unwrap a candy bar and just drop the wrapper even if there’s a trash can two feet away!

People have generally been pretty friendly, especially when we wear our Indian clothing. Although it’s interesting how many men (even the taxi drivers who just want you to use their cab) think saying, “Hey baby” will get any woman to turn around. We call that sketchy and it gets you ignored, my friend.

I want to learn how to ride a motor scooter. Everyone drives one and I’d really love to be able to cruise along with them. Yes, I know that I can’t learn here but I want to once I get home. I’m thinking it might be the perfect way to get around the city.

Funny story from a few days ago. A middle-aged lawyer caught us on the beach at the chairs we were on and kept bothering us (after I’d said several times that we weren’t interested and didn’t want to go to a club with him) until the beach attendants actually asked him to move. The horrible part came after we left and I looked to my right to discover that he’d followed us from the beach to try and convince us to have dinner with him. I don’t care if you’re a lawyer. Following us from the beach where we said we weren’t interested down the street is not going to get the three of us at a club with you. And he put a lot of emphasis on the three of us. Ick.

We climbed a fisherman’s path through the cliffs to get from Baga beach to Anjula and even though we were about to die from the heat, it was one of the most gorgeous walks ever. It was even better because we managed to do it in flip flops. Hardcore? No. But definitely death-defying.

Cows really are everywhere here. And they do just chill out in the road and let people swerve around them. It’s really funny. Even here in Goa they are in the most random places. There were some in a bay during our cliff walk chewing on trash, several plopped along the beach when we were walking and even one who sat right next to a woman who was on her beach chair. The look on her face was priceless. A “Holy crap!” mixed with “you have got to be kidding me.”

Oh. And did I mention I’m tan? Like really tan?