Thursday:
Woke up, ate, curled up in a hammock with Sandra reading. Went back to Lilliput for lunch and long discussions about everything. Decided it was time to check out Arambol after Sandra had heard from her friend Rico who was her travel mate and fellow fire performer earlier in her journey (according to random people that recognized her from YouTube, she’s quite famous in Bristol).

We were in for a treat, Hilight Tribe was playing and it was an incredible show! Amazing music, the mixed scent of incense and Kashmiri hash along with stunning fire performers and dancers. We fell in love with Arambol in a very short time :) After dinner, Sandra, Rico and I walked with our arms out and our heads tilted back on the beautiful long stretch of beach.

The way back was difficult though. Average price for a ride from Arambol to Anjuna is 450 on the street, 500 through a hotel. Since it was quite late, we were being asked for 1000, finally a driver said 700 and we considered it a late night tax and hopped in. He drove for a bit, stopped the car in the middle of nowhere and told us it was 700 EACH. Sandra and I were firm in our ‘hell no’ and I pointed out I’d spent 3 months in India in 4 different provinces and there was no such thing. We payed attention to all the road signs just in case he was taking us somewhere else and kept our phones handy. He ended up dropping us off in an abandoned market in the middle of the night in the dark about a 25 minute walk from home. Thanks again for cell phones which also do double duty as flash lights!

Got home safe and sound and even after the unfortunate ending to our evening, we were still in love with Arambol. Sandra decided to move there the next day :)

Friday:
Moving day! We went back to Arambol with Sandra’s things and got her set up in a hut on the beach for significantly less than what we were paying in Anjuna. Our driver was the opposite of the last and quite entertaining, apparently Swedish girls are the easiest and Canadians are hard to get. Also, the Russians are fine because they bring their own women but the Israeli’s have a thing for the local girls.

This place is hippie/performer/awesome heaven! We wandered around the Magic Park to meet up with Rico and check things out before he had to teach a workshop and Sandra and I shopped in the village. The village was kinda neat, we had people recognize us from hilltop the week before. Sandra was the performer and I was the girl who ran across to get the drummer drumming. Met a swiss girl, Jaqueline, who makes beautiful macrame and visited (I would run into her several more times after, she was lovely), we smelled different teas, battled with ladies with broken math. I met a Bengali girl who says my ear tattoo means something different in Bengali, sounds like it will be fun tracking down the meanings, that’s 3 now.

At sunset, everyone gathers on the beach. Everyone as in the large foreign community that continually shifts throughout the season in Arambol. People play their instruments, play with yoga and perform with props, or just sit in contemplative silence while the sun goes down.

Saturday:
Took things a bit easy on Saturday. Whatever the belly bug was that I had in Turkey was back and making me look 4 months pregnant, lazy with no appetite. I spent some time blogging and tweaking the dreads and went to a place called Tantra to drink Lassi’s and tea with Steve and Papi. Took a nap in the hammock and managed to drag my lethargic self to the Saturday Night market.

Many lovely things from everywhere! Even found a great shop run by some Calgary boys and bought a beautiful wrist cuff from a Spanish man who makes them himself. Ran into several people I knew; Jelena, Sparrow, Jaqueline, even the happiest man ever from last year. Feeling at home just in time to pack up and leave again!

After Adam left, Sandra and I went back to the beach to try to find some better finger chips and relax with our books. We stopped at a beach bar and laid on chaises drinking mohitos which maybe wasn’t the greatest idea. We were being asked every 5 minutes for something and then ended up getting very expensive fake henna done. (fake because the stuff from Hampi is really just permanent marker ink) We’ve finally figured out not to give much leeway to the women, they are tricksy. Their math is broken, very guilt pressury, (promise my friend?) and they know this and know that if they bother you enough, you’ll pay to get them to leave you alone. The girls themselves are very sweet and interesting to talk to, the businessy end is just what they’ve been taught to do. We also giggled quite a bit when a housy remix of Christmas carols started playing. We certainly did not get very much reading done.

Went back and konked out for several hours, when I awoke, I had henna on my face and Shreta and Wayne had come by for a visit. There was a party at the guest house again. I can apparently sleep through anything when I need to. After a lovely visit they were on their way, shortly after, Wayne’s brothers Kurt and Krishna showed up for a visit and some dancing.  It was great to actually see their faces after 7 months of facebooking with them. Went back to sleep through the music again after they left. Seems to be a bit of my pattern, do a whole bunch of stuff for a few days, then lay low for a day to catch up physically and mentally.

Tuesday, was the first of several girls days which have been lovely. Went to the internet cafe and caught up on things for a couple hours. Back to the beach, this time Cafe Lilliput. We went to the upper balcony and had our first dose of actual Indian food. I missed you mushroom mutter! The scenery was lovely as well as the music, no messed up raucous tunes distracting the conversations. We’ve also taken to pinching eachother to return us to the moment, we both have busy brains and the tendancy to lose ourselves planning if we’re not careful. Walking down the street and pass a cow? Pinch. Sitting in the shade with the sea in front and a lovely breeze? Pinch.

Went back to our rooms to get ready for the evening. We had to test out Shiva Valley to ensure it would be an appropriate location for my birthday festivities the week after. It passed. We adopted ‘George’ who has been abandoned by his Israeli friends, and when we were crossing the rocks to get to the other side of the beach, we adopted Steve, an Oregonian who has been a good addition to the conversations. Once there, I managed to find Jelena and her brother and noticing that it was our first time really dancing together (not counting breakfast bowl dancing at BM in ’09) and that we had had to come to the other side of the planet to do it. The music was really good and I’m starting to learn to keep my eyes open when I dance because I keep losing my balance in the sand otherwise. Not even sure how I got in the habit of closing my eyes but I’ve been annoying myself with it since I noticed a while back. We didn’t shut down this party, it went until past midnight but when you’re expecting the night to end at 10:00 and you’ve been dancing hard with that in mind and it goes way longer, one can be pretty exhausted.

Wednesday was less exciting but no less enjoyable. We hung out with some cows and drank ginger tea. I moved back to the room with the hammock which was pleasing, trying to figure out if I’ll be able to fit one on my balcony… My dreads have started to completely fall apart, apparently my hair is too healthy. This is what I get for never dying it and rarely heat treating it. Papi was kind enough to share his experience and come over to start unhealthy-ing it so that they can start behaving better. I think they’ve gone from age 2 (not listening and running amok) to about age 4 (starting to figure out that mommy knows best but still tripping up the stairs). Soon they’ll be in the awkward, gawky years.

Went to the Wednesday market, almost overwhelming! Didn’t even know where to start and ended up mostly wandering around, noting how everything was what will be later sold in festival markets back home. Also inspiring us to create more. Instead of seeing something cool and thinking, I want that, we look and think, I can make that, but with a tweak here and an adjustment there and maybe a little… It will be interesting to see what I’ll be able to pull off by festival season :)

Slept about 4 hours. Even on the other side of the planet, my body still likes to wake up at 8. Apparently time zones have nothing to do with it. Wandered about the beach a bit a bit and found internets and met one of my neighbours who would become a constant companion. His name is ‘George’ from Iran. His name has been changed to protect his identity. He’s been living in India for about 5 years as a student and is currently partying his ass off until his arranged marriage takes place in a couple months. He’s a little afraid of his future wife that knows nothing but the studious boy he’s been portrayed as. I mentioned it’s highly likely she’s thinking the same thing and to just be open and honest from the start, he might be surprised. He’s pretty much the comedian of the place and occasionally introduces himself as ‘Insane from Iran’. You can tell he’s been here a while in that he adds where he’s from in the introduction as he knows the question will be asked within seconds anyway if he hadn’t already provided the answer.

Heard from Jelena, YAY! And Adam and Sandra, YAY! And made plans to meet at Shorebar and then check out the Saturday night market. I had no idea how to get there so ‘George’ offered to show me and we hung out with his friends until Jelena and her friends showed up. Later on Adam (after a brutal 16 hour bus ride from Bangalore!) and Sandra arrived so I had 3 much loved Albertan faces to keep me company, bliss! We sat and chatted until it was too late to go to the market, and continued to chat until Shorebar packed up and turned out the lights. Adam and Sandra made plans to join me in Anjuna the next day as they were both staying in boring Panjim.

Slept in finally and got Adam and Sandra settled at Sai Prasad and it was time for the beach!! We had some ‘finger chips’ (fries) and booze and then Adam and I ran across the beach like 5 year olds and jumped in the ocean. We thought we had avoided most of the rocks but I still scraped my ankle, at least stingy salt water is good for it. We danced around the water for a bit before drying off and heading back to do the lame but necessary things like laundry. What a difference in mid season! It’s ready the same day! No having to wait 3 days in monsoon with nothing every really drying and a musty smell that never goes away.

Then it was off to Hilltop, where I had gone dancing last April. Much more crowded, much more people to meet, and a lot of fun. I danced, Adam and Papi played with Poi, Sandra hooped. I played with both the poi and the hoop and managed to not injure myself or anyone around, but just barely. Law here means the music shuts down at 10:00. Or depending on who’s been paid off, sometime between 10 & 4. This time it was around 11:00 and then everybody’s left wondering what’s next. A fellow in the crowd happened to be a fire juggler. Another from South Korea, happened to have a drum. So a big semi circle developed around the drunken fire juggler with some serious skills and the crowd created a rhythm with the drums, clapping, someone had a shaker, another kinda beatboxed for a bit. Once the juggling was done, he joined up with another fellow and they played with fire staffs and did some crazy cool stuff. Afterward, there was a lull and I was all, ‘SANDRA GET IN THERE!’. I ran over to the drummer on the other side and his rubber arm was twisted to play more and then Sandra worked her hoop magic for a while. The crowd dispersed when the lights started going out and we hung out with a couple from Puna until security finally convinced us to leave. 2 nights with Adam and we shut it down both times :)

In the morning, we did a quick run to the market before Adam had to leave. Thankfully, we passed an elephant so he was all happy as he hadn’t seen one yet and he’s been in India since Jan. Somehow after that and him packing, there was still time for a beer but just barely. While we were sitting a young Russian fellow came back from the rocks gushing blood from his foot, I’ve never seen so much blood all at once in real life. He just kept saying ‘no problem’ while they finally convinced him to elevate it while I went for my first aid supplies. He got bandaged up with my antibiotic ointment from my dogbite in Turkey and sterile gauze (my first aid kit is very international with the random supplies I’ve picked up along the way). We tried to tell him to not go in the sand and keep it clean but he proceeded to get a tattoo right there and I saw him the with the same bandage the next day, and it was filthy. It’s that whole youthful invincibility thing I suppose, I just hope it doesn’t get infected. Somehow in the bloody chaos, Adam made it to the airport in time and after several delays and missed connections, made it to Kolkutta where he’ll be working until he returns to Canada in April.

Last day of work before the trip started proved to be rather hectic, missed a lunch date and stayed a bit late and a doctor’s appointment ran way longer than expected. Managed to fit in a lovely Thai dinner with Karen and Malik though before getting to the airport. I arrived in Vancouver,  a little delayed, they kinda laughed because I was worried the delay would mean a sidetracked backpack, I’m too used to the paranoid 3 hour early arrival at airport mentality. I had a wonderful chat with the attendant at the ticket counter about Flamenco and India (she’s Indian and her daughter dances Flamenco with one of my instructors) and magically I was upgraded to business class for the longest leg of my flight, Vancouver to Taipei (thank you!). Lots of lovely legroom but I tend to sit in padmasana most of the time anyway and as I was reading about Thai monks (thank you Paul), it seemed appropriate.

Once in Taipei, I met a couple who live just north of Vancouver who have been traveling the world on a regular basis since the early 70′s as well as a man from Manchester who had been stuck at the airport for days due to multiple delayed flights. These were the faces that would keep me company for my brief stint in China. Being there made me wish I had more time so that I could visit my sister and her family who moved there in August last year but it was not  in the cards and I’m fortunate that she will be returning for nearly 2 months in the summer. From there, I flew to New Delhi and OMG I’m in India!!!

Night and day difference from last year’s dumbstruck arrival. Mostly because that was night and this was day. And it’s a shiny new airport. And I knew what I was doing. Shared a cab to Karol Bagh neighbourhood with an Australian couple who was staying near the Major’s Den, where I was staying. It had the same trees out the window that I had at the Ashram and it was a little chilly *gasp* and the room was bigger than the flat I’m moving into when I return home. Basic, clean, cheap, and walking distance to what I might need like internets and water. I checked mail, made photocopies of my passport, and then dodged rickshaws, cows and motorbikes like I’d never left. Had an early night so that I would be ready for what the next day would bring. A 7:00am cab ride to the airport.

Once at the airport, I met some other Calgarian’s who were en-route to Varanassi for a wedding and we chatted until it was time to board our flights. Mine was delayed for 2 hours, no surprise, the fog was thick and as I’ve flown to Goa 3 times now, it was nothing new. I had no connecting flight so the only thing I had to worry about was my ride waiting for me on the other end. I tried to call but couldn’t get through and ended up with a phone number from the attendant that insisted I take it and call him if I ever return to India. My lily white skin is making me stand out a lot more than last time where I was darker when I started than my touring friend Neena, who is Indian.

Finally got to Goa, grabbed my pack and my friend Papi was waiting with his ancient and much beloved Enfield named Edna that was just fixed that morning after a year and a half in hibernation. Riding 70km on the back of a motorbike with my pack was not as scary as it sounds but it did feel like I had ridden a camel by the time I got off. I keep having to insist that it’s not Edna, it’s me, as Papi is very sensitive about Edna’s feelings.

First stop was Ainsley’s bar, Shooters in Baga. Ainsley had recommended a place for me to stay so we left my pack and went to go check it out. Got there and the Psy was pumping and there were hammocks!! Done. Went back for my bag and some rum and once back at Sai Prasad, danced on the rooftop with my new neighbours. This is what I came for :)