Goa

So Vidhu, Rohit and I are in Goa now, having a relaxing, splendid time. After a 12 hour train ride from Mumbai in which we gorged ourselves on the food and drink that was constantly being offered us by roaming attendants "MASALA CHAI, GALUB JULUM, COFFEE, LASSI..." we broke up the monotony of eating with sleep. We met a lovely Indian family, traveling to Goa to visit relatives. They were an oddity here, in that they were of different castes, she a Goan Christian while he is Hindu, nevertheless a happy couple now residing in Dubai. The husband, Ginesh (sp) offered us Bacardi rum, and seeing that no one wanted any, I (being the ever vivilant hospitable neighborly type) couldn't let the man drink alone, so we downed a couple of rather tiny cups of rum and cokes (which aided in my getting some deep sleep on the very jerky, loud train). I hadn't had a drop of liquor since the plane ride almost 3 weeks ago. Needless to say later that night my broken toe had blown up to the size of an angry red sausage and I've got a rather strange bump under the knuckle where no bump should be. It's really gross.

Anyway, it was good to be out of Mumbai, and the further away we traveled from it, the cleaner the air smelled and felt, the more relaxed I got. They had a very cool bathroom on the train, it was Indian style hole-in-the-ground, but instead of leading to a noxious cavity of rotting poopies it was just a hole that spit out it's contents onto the train tracks that raced by underneath. It was an exciting experience to watch my pee fly away at 40 miles an hour, and sometimes I went to the potty just to see if I could aim it enough to get it to fly out without hitting the sides of the shoot. Unfortunately, I was barely able to keep the pee from hitting my ankles and feet, let alone aim it straight while being jostled around in a squatting position. It just took too much skill. Nevertheless the main advantage of the Indian style toilet that is sans container is that the typical "toilet side" smell that has till now accompanied our train voyages was missing.

Rohit just commented to me that I wrote an entire paragraph about peeing. Perhaps not the most interesting subject for anyone who happens to read this. Oh well!

Anyway, next I'll tell you guys about the spice farm we went to today and the hotel with the pet monkey named Chives. More later.

The picture of the four poster bed is my hotel room in Goa, the Tamarind Hotel. Really nice.