Day 13 - Saturday/Suniwar - India's Smallest Nightclub

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Woke early (for a Saturday) due to the heat, and also because we were visiting the ASRO this morning. We travelled in the stifling minibus for half an hour before arriving at a large, white clinical looking building in a nearby town. The facility is run by a group of Roman Catholic Nuns (Goa is a former Portuguese colony, so the people speak Kolkani as opposed to Hindi, and Roman Catholicism is the dominating religion, with Hindu the other main one) and we were escorted into the main reception area, which had pictures of Jesus and Mary on the wall interspersed with semi-religious poems on posters of flowers . . . a bit surreal for a medical facility!

We were welcomed by the head nun, who took us round the doctors office and the wards. The facilities are very simple, and they can accommodate up to a maximum of 10 adult and 10 child in-patients at any one time, although they have a much larger number of out-patients who attend once a week for counselling and health checks. The whole experience was very humbling, and we all left in a very sombre mood. I have a lot of respect for Kai, who's volunteering there - I couldn't do it.

We came back to the camp and a few of us went for a beer at Pasta Hut, then down to the beach for the afternoon. The weather wasn't great, being overcast but still very hot, although the sea wasn't as warm as previously. We spent a couple of hours splashing around and sunbathing, then I went for a beer at Boomerang, the bar on the beach, with Julie and Karoline, the two German girls. We had a chat and a laugh, and met two Aussies from Brisbane. We chatted about what we were all doing here in Colva and had done previously, then agreed to meet up after dinner for more drinks.

Later that night we returned to Boomerang, with the rest of the group in tow - the barman's eyes lit up at the sight of 13 customers half-filling his bar in 5 minutes! We sat around and drank a couple of cocktails before I moved onto the cheap whiskey and coke's. I was chatting to Kai and Luna/Lone, and having a laugh, but after an hour or so Kai's non-stop talking was getting a bit tiresome, so I went to the loo and sat the other side of Luna when I returned. We had a great time, chatting and joking, while she was trying to get hold of some "snooz", or whatever equivalent they had in India. Apparently this is the Norwegian name for chewing tobacco, which they hold in their top lip as opposed to the bottom, as the Americans do. She managed to explain what she wanted to the barman, and shortly after he returned with something which seemed to be to her satisfaction. She was asked to be discrete - chewing tobacco it appears is banned in Goa, although once we knew what we were asking for Luna didn't appear to have any problems getting any from the local shops!

Luna was happy with her snooz, and I tried a bit, which she described as giving a head-rush and a slight light-headed feeling. Personally it did nothing for me, just tasted a bit funny, made my lip tingle and I kept getting bits in my mouth as I was drinking! She was trying to convince me to come to the local club, Venom, but any resistance I had was gone when she said she'd buy me a beer! We then had a raspberry vodka shot each, before heading to the club.

Venom is a very small club - the raised dance-floor is maybe 12' x 10', with mirrors on two walls giving the slight impression it's bigger than it is, and 6' standing room surrounding the two other sides. In the end, there was just me, Luna, Julie, Karoline and the 2 Aussies who went, so I was glad I did - I wouldn't have felt comfortable leaving the 3 girls in the company of two strange blokes we'd just met. We all had a great time, dancing and drinking, although I felt a little odd in a club in shorts and sandals! At one point I slipped on a wet step and landed on my backside (I wasn't drunk, honest!) but was unhurt and just laughed it off, feeling very self conscious as the club looked on and the bouncer laughed at me! As well as a beer, Luna ordered us a "shot" each (hindsight makes me think she was maybe trying to get me drunk?😊 - the barman started mixing some strange concoction of spirits and fruit juice, and the result was something red served in a martini glass which tasted of raspberry. It was very nice, quite potent, and only cost 80R each! We sat at the bar and chatted for a while, then left at 2:30, waay after our "curfew" - we'd been told the back door gets locked at midnight, but were chancing it and would've slept on the beach at a push! As it happens, we were OK, and staggered to our respective beds about 3, very merry!

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