Blogs from Palolem, Goa, India, Asia - page 7

Just spent my 21st and Christmas in Palolem beach in Goa. Its absolutely fabulous here, well worth the agonising 30 hours of trains, planes, jeeps and rickshaws that it took to get here. We're staying in cute little beach huts right on the beach and wake up the sound of the ocean each morning. The weather here is tropical and warm. A complete contrast from the freezing cold we just left. We welcomed in Christmas day and my birthday with fireworks on the beach, a bottle of wine and a semi- melted ice-cream cake with a single candle that the guy running the beach huts thoughtfully brought out for me at midnight. Yesterday we woke up and enjoyed a run on the beach and a quick dip in the ocean before having a huge breakfast at ... read more

We wish you a merry Christmas We wish you a merry Christmas We WISH you a merry Christmas And wish that you were here. Good tidings we bring To you and your kin We WISH you a merry Christmas And a happeeeeeeeeee New Year Lots of sandy, flip flopping, Christmas love S&S xxxxxx... read more

It's probably deeply uncool now to say that you like Goa. But I don't care. After all, where else in India can you get a Death by Bongo cocktail for about a pound? Palolem, a beach in the far south of the state, was rebuilding itself for a new season last weekend, and there were lots of tarpaulins (aka 'Mumbai Blue') draped over shacks painted in tourist-brochure colours. I don't know whether this frenzy of construction was due to the monsoon or to the periodic enforcement of planning laws I read about. But it was probably a perfect time to visit. We landed on Friday night during a heavy downpour and with visibility at 800m. Driving south from the airport it appeared that the fields were all flooded. In the morning light they reappeared as rice ... read more

Jenna and i have decided that India is a very silly place. Not in a bad way and for no single reason; just in general... a very very silly place. There ARE rules here and laws and social conventions that are all very strict in title. There are simply too many people here to ever fully enforce anything. It is sort of beautiful but is as also sort of annoying at times. One case is that homosexuality is strictly illegal here but on the flip side it is highly common for men to walk around holding hands and showing various forms of physical affection. These are practices that would set off the gay-dar of anyone in the west but here its common place and not considered "homo" at all. Another case is traffic. Penalties for law ... read more

1/3/10: We woke up with the sound of beating drums outside our paper thin bungalow walls. The festival went on all night resulting in a lot of drunken and stoned Indians that were covered from head to toe in coloured oxide to celebrate the colour festival, even the dogs and cows couldn’t escape from the colour. I was lucky enough to crawl out of bed and witness the festival turn up on the beach for the last and final hurrah. With hundreds of Indians meeting on the beach they all ran down to meet the Arabian Sea and tried to wash oxide from their skin and clothes. It was quiet funny to watch as and even the older men were acting like children giggling and laughing as they played in the waves and rolled in the ... read more