vagatore, bethany inn, secret beach, motorbikes, and electrocuting shower handles

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written by arielle:

umn. well, after three days here i think it is safe to say that goa has grown on us. we're surrounded by jungle and ocean. it is beautiful here. AND there are hardly any tourists. it's like we have paradise to ourselves. we've spent the last couple of days playing frisbee on our "secret beach" we also switched hotels. we are now at the bethany inn which is the best hotel we've been in. we each have our own bedroom, a huge t.v. WITH - CHANNELS IN ENGLISH - a refrigerator full of sodas and candy bars including SNICKERS! and a balcony.

the only problem is the bathroom as the toilet has poor suction and the shower nob has the unfortunate problem of electrocuting us. however! after several attempts, we managed to remember those grade school lessons...something like this "molly, does electricity travel through cloth?" "yeah. i already tried it. but i think it helps some." (i then try wrapping a tshirt around my hand and grab the nob only to realize that molly's optimistic 'it helps some!' comment is in fact, nonsense.) i then sit and ponder said problem for a moment before brilliance strikes "hey molly! isn't it rubber that doesn't pass electricity??" "i think so" "do we have any rubber??" "umn, i don't think so" a bit more pondering and then more brilliance "wait! is plastic rubber?" "i don't know." but guess what! apparently it is!! so now we use a plastic sack.

and today, we rented scooter motorbike thingees. it isn't as easy as it looks. molly has trouble stopping and i have trouble turning. really, who invented this as transportation?? we went for our first experimental ride going very very slow, and were out for about half an hour. managed all right. we've decided to practice on the backroads some more. baby steps you see. and luckily there isn't so much traffic.

anyway, that is a full morning and i am about ready for a movie and a snickers bar.


PS from molly: i concur. goa has grown on me. it feels good to have my thigh and ass muscles sore from running around our "secret beach" and our room(s) rock! the motorbike is a little jarring, a lot of it has to do with driving on the left side of the road, i think. hard to get used to looking the other way. ya know, i had a dirtbike when i was a kid. i think i was a hulluva lot more fearless when i was 8 years old than i am now. wish we could find harry potter 6. rereading HP5 in preparation - probably won't find HP6 till mumbai.

alright, gonna go see what arielle found on tv (in english!) then probably more death by motorbike and the beach. mwa!

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Photos

playing on the beach
vagatore, india july 2005