Beach, Beer and Browning

Ciao guys and gals,

Well, was a beautiful start to the day, wandered down to Calangute Beach early and was rewarded with seeing the fishing boats coming in and the nets being emptied of crabs, fish etc. Found a quiet spot and guess what you do not get any hassles if you are sitting and meditating. In fact you hear people walking towards you and then around your 'space'. The whole personal space thing took on a new dimension, considering how crowded everything else is.

Nick became human around 10am after a big night out with some 'new friends' that he made in Club Paradiso.......Indian Kiwis no less and they are friends of Ashwins from Auckland and the UK.

After some blog picture uploading, we decided to check out some local transport to Anjuna (the party beach). It is always helpful when someone tells you that to get there, you have to go to Mapusa first and change buses. Well, what a trip... the local scenery is great, heaps of tall coconut palms and something strange was with every cow in a paddock there was a white Heron type bird nearby. Hmm, maybe the cow stirs up the bugs for the bird.. nature is full of symbiotic relationships.

Buses.. Ha Ha, getting off the first was OK, but the next one was madly filling up. Needless to say the 'polite foreigners' stood back and let the locals on..... only to have the last 2 people standing on the last step, just enough for the door to close. Yes actually these ones have doors that close, unlike some others. So, we waited for the next bus which duly arrived, unloaded and reversed into its space. Sweet, seats all around... but then another bus arrived and we were told that the one we were comfortable in wasn't leaving for another hour but the latest arrival was loading up and departing ASAP. So we hoofed it over to the new bus, and were invited to sit in the the compartment with the Driver. Funny actually the bus is like 1/4 Bus driver compartment and 3/4 passengers. In the driver space there is all mention of Religious pictures (Jesus, Buddha), garlands, decorations etc. The roads these buses go along and the way they are driven you can appreciate why the driver needs as much religion on his side as possible.

Anjuna Beach... finally and we even managed to meet up with Nicks New Friends, with whom we went to Sunset Cafe for Beers and some food. Great seats looking out over the water. Could feel myself changing colour as the beer kicked in. Following being fed and watered, chilled out on some Sunset Beach loungers that the incoming tide was lapping at... Nice !!!
Yes.. there were even Cows on the beach.. how perfectly typical for here.
Decided to actually try the water and it was WET and SALTY !! Lots of floating vegetation (seaweed and sticks) and some serious sudden sand bars on the way out. The beaches here are quite steep so there is only about 10m-15m from the high tide to low tide mark. Anyway the water was ...... tepid !!, yes like a cool bath.. not as refreshing as the water was at Narrowneck before I left. So ended up doing the plunge thing, in for a few minutes then out to lie in the sun and then in again just to be wet. Hmmm, got rickshaw back to Calangute.

Picked up Train tickets for the 7th, so hopefully our third and last Domestic carrier will be on-time into Mumbai, so we can get our 1935 train to Navsari.

Nick en route to some Beach Party somewhere... I done my share of partying in beach shacks, sand getting everywhere and losing keys, shoes etc !!
Probably need to check out some goodies tomorrow, heaps of silver jewellery, leather sandals and embroidered cloths around.

Let all things happen as they will.

Cheers
Maya