monsoon season in goa!

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july 23 friday

so the other day we were walking all around vagatore trying to find bicycles for rent and after we'd walked for hours and not found any bikes , this guy in a bright yellow rain slicker pulls up on his moped and asks us if we want to be extras in a bollywood film. of course we say yes and take his name and number.

his name is slash. his number didn't work. but lo and behold, he showed up this morning and got us a taxi to the next town over where they're shooting a film.

so today we hung out in a club and on a beach and watched a bunch of fruity looking men do a bollywood dance scene in the rain.

more updates on our big beach scene later....


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july 25 monday

random thoughts by mbaade:

tonight is our last night in vagatore. heading down the road to anjuna tomorrow to find new lodging. the hotel must have 1) a library, 2) a TV, and preferably have nearby 3) internet, 4) laundry service, and 5) reasonably priced food; it will get bonus points if it's 6) within sight of the beach. these are the amenities by which we measure greatness in goa.

i dream of drying my clothes in a dryer. drier? when something is dry, it can always become drier... but is the appliance spelled with a "y" or an "i"? according to dictionary.com, both are correct; the adjective AND the appliance can be spelled either dryer or drier, dryest or driest. in any case, i dream of clothing that is properly shrunk ... or is it shrank? again, according to dictionary.com, it can be either. shrank OR shrunk OR shrunken. fascinating. ... the POINT is that i wish my clothes were smaller and drier and smelled like bounty.

wow. that took entirely way too much effort.

the monsoon is in full force here on the west coast of india. in actuality, it's probably in full force through most of the subcontinent, but that doesn't really apply to our lives so it doesn't matter. because we haven't had rain gear, we've been at the mercy of the consistent precipitation for the past few days and have only ventured out so far as to the interweb 20 feet away and the restaurant, chinatown, which is about 50 feet away. chinatown has come to grow on us. our waiter, a small indian man who's probably in his late 20's or early 30's, has a voice that makes him sound like i imagine a member of the mafia sounds when he attempts to speak. our waiter's voice comes out raspy and forced and sounds like he should be on his deathbed with emphysema instead of serving us paneer tikka masala. but he's young and doesn't smoke. wonder if he got hit in the throat? at any rate, he's my favorite character in this town.

so back to being at the mercy of the monsoon and trapped in our hotel room between chinatown and the interweb... today we took a bus to mapusa to purchase rain gear. arielle and i now have lovely matching rain suits - foggy clear plastic jackets with an elastic rubberband thing that goes under the chin to hold the hat on, and plastic pants with elastic waistbands. i'm not gonna lie, they're hott! we will rock that business up and down the streets of vagatore and anjuna! why? BECAUSE WE CAAAAN! monsoon schmonsoon! HA!

also: "kill bill vols 1 & 2" are brilliant, though i prefer vol 1... i have become an ardent quentin tarantino fan, mostly thanks to arielle. need to see "reservoir dogs" again sometime, though; i hardly remember it.

i do not like the jewish hippie boy who is next to me. we see him around often. doesn't give me a good vibe. annoying really. urgh. why is he talking to me? i think this is my cue to leave.

i wish i had HP6 waiting for me upstairs.


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july 27 wednesday

update by mbaade:

soooo.... yesterday we put on our nifty rain gear and walked the 3 km to anjuna to find a place to stay. after walking around the cliffside "beach" to several run down "beach front" shacks and after being accosted by several young girls trying to take us to their shacks and sell us their jewelry, we came to the conclusion that ANJUNA SUCKS. we came back to our lovely hotel, the bethany inn, in vagatore and, with tails between our legs, asked if we could possibly have our room back. of course, though, our room was gone, but another similar one would be ready for us in about 4 hours.

so we went to chinatown and got drunk and waited for a room. and, lo and behold, while sitting in chinatown IT STOPPED RAINING! so we took our drunk selves down to the beach with the frisbee where we attempted to play, then gave up and just played in the shallows and walked around until 3 tourists walked by. arielle hopped up to go take pictures of the hairy ball thing on the beach that they were taking photos of, and we met the three guys who took our old room. we played on the beach until well after dark and it was LOVELY for it to be A) not raining, and B) play on the deserted beach in the dark.

today it is also not raining, just cloudy & humid, so we took a walk to chapora to buy books. chapora, apparently, is full of drug dealers and used to be run by pirates , but really it's a nice little town with the only bookstore that's open anywhere nearby during the monsoon.

alright, enough rambling. yay for vagatore.


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july 28 thursday

today was lovely! had breakfast @ chinatown (we're sooo in love with the mafia!) and then came back to read & watch TV. i finished "the davinci code" SUCH a good book! was worried that i'd find it lacking after all that i'd heard about it, but it was pretty damn good. then it wasn't raining so we went to the beach! played frisbee, taught arielle how to tackle while there were no men around, did a round of alexis' house o' pain, tackled some more, went swimming.... and then a whole shitload of men showed up so we put our clothes on and went to sit on a bench on the point and enjoy the view. as we watched the ominous clouds roll in, we decided to leave and walk back to the hotel and juuuust as we were leaving it started POURING! got drenched but were laughing the whole time, much to the dismay of the shop owners who'd ducked for cover, picked up our CLEAN laundry, and then went to chinatown for dinner where the mafia showed us how to play backgammon and arielle and i made up our own rules for blackjack. and now i'm sunburned and ready to go paint the town red... but really we'll probably just read until it's time to fall asleep.

and that will be lovely.

oh, and yes there have been massive floods just north of us in mumbai and there have been riots in delhi, but we're in goa and absolutely nothing happens during the off season, so no worries!

loooooove from l'india! -rambling molly

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