Dogs, beaches, cows, telly and the loudest man in the world.

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Sunday - Day 18

This morning, I was rudely (well I thought so anyway) awakened by the Indian family in the two rooms either side of me. They were organised by who I could only guess was the Father - the head of the household - with the LOUDEST voice ( I could hear his relentless bellowing through my earplugs we use for samba!) I have ever heard in a family atmosphere. He was quite jolly and it was obvious he had a lot of love and pride in his family, but there was a real air of authority about his voice and it didn't let up from 9am until I left the room to get away from it. He walked from room to room hurrying all ten member of the family along and stopping to ask Denis why he was sleeping outside with all the mosquitoes and that tonic water is a medicine and not to be drunk. I grinned and beared it but only because we'd made noise outside late at night so he was entitled to make noise early in the morning. Luckily, they were only staying two nights, so once they'd been on a massive outing in a whole minibus for the family, they were gone.

Denis and I trudged our hungover way to Mango Tree to get some breakfast of omlette, toast, tea and for Denis, a Bloody Mary. Denis told me of his travels in South America which made me want to go there... Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia mostly. After my premature awakening, I decided it would be a good idea to go home and have a nap, so once Kelly had arrived at Mango Tree to meet us, we both went together, watched a bit of Indian Telly, followed by some REALLY cheesey English telly featuring the little blonde one from SClub7 and a random dinosaur, then slept for a bit.

Afterwards, it was out for the evening to Andy's San Fransisco bar for some Schezuan mixed rice and more masala papad! On the way home I passed a supermarket to get some more milk and this time, some chocolate cereal... nom!!!
I had a bit of time before becoming really sleepy to give Auntie Jean a call, although this time, my credit ran out half way though the conversation!! Can't seem to get it right when I ring her. Next time.

I've been so busy lately, what with meeting new people, going out for dinner etc, that I haven't had time to wite much of my blog. I'm actually typing up from notes on New Year's Eve! It's possible, however, that being in a little group of three makes it more difficult to make new friends. It's quite easy to be comfortable and unsociable in our little group, although I do love it and how much we all have in common!

Monday - Day 19

I went again to the centre and on the way, nearly got thrown off my scooter by some dickhead who decided to overtake a lorry without either beeping or looking first. In India, there are a type of speedbump which they call 'rumblers'. These are triple speedbumps in a row and it makes for quite a bumpy section of road. This was where this particular tool decided to overtake a lorry, so I guess at least he wasn't going too fast! I actually shouted at him, calling him a dickhead... I'm not sure if he understood what one of those was though.
I got to the center in one piece, a little bit furious so decided to have a cigarette before starting dogwalking. Ron, an Indian guy from the centre - the one who showed me around on my first day - was also having a cigarette so we chatted and he allowed me to vent my frustration over the overtaking dickhead at him, which I appreciated and which made me feel a lot better!

Today was my first day walking the dogs in the 'overflow' kennel. There were around ten dogs in smaller cages and were as sweet as the ones in the other kennels, especially one black lady dog who features in a video I made. There was also a growler who although absolutely beautiful with a lovely sleek black coat, did not want to come out AT ALL. As I walked the dogs, I chatted to one of the other volunteers, Lorraine, who had just returned to Goa from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is on my list of places to see, so she told me a bit about it and gave me some good advice. Apparently it's VERY clean but people are a LOT more blatant about asking for money there. She said it was reasonably cheap to get to by air as the ferry didn't run any more and that it was absolutely beautiful. Perhaps I'll got there and then Thailand... or the other way around. It was nice to talk to her.

Once all the dogs had been walked, it was still quite early, so Denis and I decided not to put our names down for lunch and go somewhere else instead. We ended up driving through Chapora and stopping at a restaurant called Welcome! they did the best Dal I've had so far there - LOADS of garlic and only 60rs. We wandered up the road in Chapora and had a look at a few shops, some of which were making the coolest clubby clothes out of old fabrics and neon strips etc. I didn't buy any though as I think I've got enough clothes for the moment :-)

Denis left me in Mango Tree where I sat on the internet for five hours... so long that the bar staff actually had time to leave work and come in again for their evening shift!! During a slightly stressful internet session of finding out I'd overpaid my van insurance by a month and then that the van wasn't starting for the Jen, I briefly chatted to Rory on Skype before finding my Mum on Gchat as the battery ran out. Oh well, 5 hours on the internet with no power supply is pretty good.

Later on, Denis, kelly and I went to Shore Bar, a place I hadn't been to before. There seemed to be a lot more English people in there but no one seemed amazingly friendly. A couple of guys sitting at a table kicked a dog who came to say hello, whilst the police had recently been around so there were no ashtrays on the tables. There was a dog fight going on under our noses which escalated as we were leaving, but there was a sweet man sitting at the tandoor oven with a few tiny kittens and the Mummy cat which was nice. Denis seemed down, he left early, so Kelly and I went to mine and watched more telly. We came to the conclusion that India is about 15 years stuck in the past. Men have moustaches, the TV is cheesey, the music is old school (but not cool) and the English TV which is chosen for Indian broadcast is old, over the top and verging on the slapstick. I think they pick that type of programme specifically.

Tuesday - Day 20

Today, I went with Kelly to her normal breakfast place. A shack by the side of the road near the petrol station in Vagator that sells baji (curried chick peas), samosas, bread and fried chilis. Baji cost me 10rs and a cup of chai (nice masala tea) was 5rs. It was so tasty, but the atmosphere by the side of the road is very male orientated. We sat alone, ate alone and left as the men stared, I guess wondering why two English girls had chosen to get involved in local breakfast.

I walked the overflow dogs again today and made a friend in the black lady from yesterday. She walks so nicely, stops when I stop, doesn't pull... but WONT go back in her cage. I have to lift her front paws into the cage and then pick up her back half and shove her in otherwise she just stands and looks at me. Once she's in she's in though. I opened the cage of the growler from yesterday and then ignored him, in the hope that he'd venture his way out. Trouble was, there was a little yapper the other side of the 'room' who scared him back into his cage once he'd had a little sniff out of the door. Shame. Tomorrow is another day for him...

There were sooooo many more puppies here at the centre today. I think the weekend discoveries make for a high puppy count.
I took lots of videos at the center today, in the hope that one day I can upload them to facebook and everyone can see what sort of place I'm at. I tried to explain things well so there was nothing missed out, but I could always think of more to say.

After being at the centre, I met up with Kelly who had been chatting to her boyfriend on Skype (aww) and we headed to a new beach we hadn't been to before... White Rocks at the far end of Big vagator beach. We walked around some rocks onto this smaller beach and wondered if we were in the right place (as we'd kind of arranged to meet Denis there, although he didn't turn up in the end), so continued walking around some more bigger rocks which lead to nowhere, although a man appeared from nowhere as were exploring... a possible merman...? The currents in the water looked rather dangerous though, so not sure how he managed to get out alive... a definite Merman!

The rocks here formed some great shapes of many obelisks all together in a what looked a bit like a mad rocky city. Check out my photos and you'll see... www.flickr.com/embleywembley

We settled on a bit of sand where there were no sunbeds (as we couldn't be bothered to buy anything from the bar) and relaxed in the sun. Whilst Kelly was asleep, I saw many things: masses of Kites (small Eagles) circling above the hills around us, a cow wandering up to most people on the beach and sniffing around for food and getting chased away by an Indian woman with a stick, a man hang-gliding from the top of the hill to a lower part of the hill before walking back up and doing it over and over again, crabs making little holes to hide in...

Once Kelly had woken up and the sun had started to go down, we decided to go and see if Denis was OK at his house. We arrived, he arrived and all was fine so we went to Noble's Nest for fish curry - I don't think I'll have Goan fish curry again as they use a whole fish which has many many bones... possibly a mackeral? As we sat and ate, we met a fellow Englishman - Rob, from Brighton. He seemed OK, although a little boastful of how much money he had and the things he'd done, but we gave him the benefit of the doubt and a possible river cruise on Sunday was on the cards.

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