Tens

With Juul and Amir


Back at the beach we bought a tennis ball to throw around. Quickly many other people wanted to play and soon we had over 10 people vying for the ball. Praj is by far the worst thrower I have ever seen, to say he throws like a girl would be a tremendous compliment to his abilities. The ratio of men to women at this beach is probably 10 guys for every girl. The guys wear all kinds of skimpy revealing bathing suits, some guys were even wearing tighty whities, which when wet shows much more than anyone wants to see! The women on the other hand were very covered up, but they also appeared unready for the beach. The women were wearing full ethnic Indian sari attire along with shoes and purses into the ocean. I understand if your culture dictates that a woman should stay covered, but wearing clothes like that in the water seemed very out of place. While at the beach I have had at least 10 people come up to me and ask if they could take a picture with me and while I walk the streets people stare at me. I feel like a mini celebrity, it is quite fun!

The waves here are by far the strongest and fastest coming waves I have ever experienced in the ocean. I can be standing in water that is calf deep and then a wave will come and hit me in the shoulders or the back of the head. A big wave came and knocked down a group of guys and they were carried by the wave into the back of me and I fell and was then carried into Praj in a mess of bodies.

We found a restaurant for dinner that served Chinese/Indian/Mexican/European food and had karaoke. The place was run by a woman from England and her husband who was born in India and spent most of his adult life in England. The majority of the patrons were couples where one of them was European and the other was Indian. The food wasn’t great but the karaoke was really good and we had a great time. We met a girl at the bar, her parents owned it, and we were asking her about being a foreigner in Goa and what the night life was like here and where Praj and I should go. Praj convinced her to sing an Avril Lavigne song and since I love me some Avril I sang along at my table. While she was singing I noticed her dad, a very large man, point me out to his wife and tell her to keep her eyes on me. “Sorry guy, we were just asking questions” I thought. Then I found out she was 15 and I could understand his protective glare. We promptly ended our questions and thanked everyone for a nice night.

We moved from one hotel to another because we found a better deal on a room that was cleaner and closer to the beach. Before I came to India, there is no way that Praj would have stayed in a place like this but he is learning to like it and the added adventure it provides. Why stay and eat expensive if these are not the things that are most important and if the cheaper things are only slightly less nice than the expensive ones. Is one night in a 2000 INR room better than a week in a 350 INR, I don’t think so and Prajwal is starting to agree.

Indian men’s lack of inhibitions do not end on the dance floor, this activity is carried into the beach as well. I mean no disrespect to Indian men because I think this is the way all people should behave. When in the ocean they run and jump and dive and shout and behave like children. I think this is something that we often lose in America, the ability to have fun without worrying what other people think. We are told me must be quiet and reserved and that it is unbecoming to act this way. I think just the opposite; this is the way we should act, because there is no denying that it is fun to behave this way.

While out to dinner, Praj and I started talking to a couple from the Netherlands who are vacationing for 10 weeks after doing social work in India for 5 months. We talked and argued about the differences between Europe, India and America and then all four of us took a cab to a party in the jungle. Praj and I had passes that we had gotten on another day to be allowed in for free. We were told that the party was too full and that no one besides couples would be allowed. With the help of some name dropping, large smiles and false promises (namely the same promise Praj makes to everyone “I own an apartment in New York city, you can some and stay with me”) they agreed to let us into the overcrowded party. Once inside it wasn’t very crowded at all, but it was still a good time. The man who had taken Praj and my picture on the boat cruise was there and wanted to join us in dancing. We welcomed Amir and all of us danced together in a loose knit circle. After dancing for a while Amir came to me and asked me if I didn’t like him. I reassured him that we did and that is why he was dancing with us. I asked him why he would think we didn’t like him and he said we were all dancing too far apart from each other and that we should all be much closer. I reassured him that this is how friends dance together in America and he was happy again.

As we left the party we were unable to locate a taxi and started on the walk home. A SUV drove passed and offered us a ride and we graciously accepted. The SUV pulled up to a police checkpoint and the police started to demand passports, which only one of us had. The police made the driver pull over and they looked in the SUV and asked questions in a demanding tone in a regional dialect. We were nervous, we didn’t know what was going to happen or what they wanted. Do they want money? Are we going to go to Jail? Something worse? It turns out they were worried about our safety and were interrogating the guys and telling them to take us straight to our hotel and if anything happened to us, the guys giving us a ride would be in trouble. Much different than why we thought they had stopped us but it’s good to know the cops are looking out for us.


His grace is surpassed only by his looks

I am so jealous of this mustache!

View from a urinal

The real dog beach