Karaoke and sunshine
First of all, I guess I should give a synopsis of the night of karaoke with Dr. Apte. Basically, after clinic, Dr. Apte invited Sarah and me over to his place for a drink, and then we rode with him in his car to the Irish Pub in Bandra. About 30 minutes after we arrived, the rest of our American crew showed up, and we had a great time hanging out, drinking beers, and smoking hookah. After a bit, Dr. Apte got up to the karaoke machine (the guy is a maniac) and sang Hotel California, all the while passing the microphone around to all of the Americans. I made the mistake of picking Bohemian Rhapsody, which ended up being the most difficult karaoke song of all time. Basically, as predicted, I made a total ass of myself in the karaoke bar....Hmm, I wonder why people around the world think Americans are buffoons. Not sure I helped our case any that night, but oh well! Anyway, the funniest part of the night was that once the night wound down, Dr. Apte left and stiffed us with the bill! Some people in our group have chosen to believe that he paid, and we just got double billed, but I think he stiffed us. Not a big deal, but kind of hilarious!
The next day (Friday) began with a very chill morning. We had told Sampada, our group leader, that we wouldn't be in clinic, so basically we just hung out and walked around. I got 3 mangos for 20 rupees, which is less than 50 cents. I also learned how to eat mangoes the Indian way (you kind of mash it up inside, make a hole in the end of the mango, and suck all the tastiness out). In the afternoon, we headed to the airport for our flight to Goa. Everything was smooth at the airport, and we boarded our plane on Kingfisher Airlines, which is basically the nicest airline I've ever been on, even if you didn't count the hot flight attendants. The whole plane smells like a spa since they pump in fresh scents throughout the flight. Also, even though it was only an hour flight, we got a meal, and it was quite good. Overall, the flight was a cool experience.
Moving on to Goa....this place is quite cool. It's basically the exact opposite of Mumbai, with as chilled-out a feel as you'll find anywhere on earth. Our hotel is nice, with all the amenities that we care about, including TV and A/C. We have cold showers, but that comes with the territory. Anyway, we're situated right on the beach, and it's really beautiful. Also, even though we're in the middle of monsoon season, we've had nothing but clear skies and sun. It's really quite cool. Anyway, after arriving on Friday, we basically chilled by the beach and drank Kingfisher beers for a few hours before strolling down the beach to check out the area. As it turned out, we're only a 10 minute walk from the town of Calangute, which is a chill little place with a bunch of streetside vendors and restaurants. Most of the shops close for monsoon season, however, so pretty much nothing is open. After a very relaxed afternoon, we had dinner at the hotel and then went out to a bar/dance club called Mango's which is a 10 minute walk down the beach in the other direction. It was a really fun time, and after many beers and a few tequila shots, we were pretty wasted. As I recall, we hung out on the beach for a while, and we finally got back to the hotel around 3am. Of course, in our drunkenness, it didn't make sense to go to sleep until we'd been in the pool, so we jumped in and splashed around for a while, finally getting to bed around 3:45.
Yesterday afternoon was pretty chill (I'm not writing about the morning because we slept through it). We walked through town, and the rest of the dudes got mopeds. I opted out of the moped thing, as I'm totally terrified of two-wheeled motorized vehicles. Basically we checked out some of the shops in town, and I picked up a few little trinkets, etc. There are some really cool crafts and stuff here, and it's all pretty cheap. For example, today I got a really cool carved wooden box with a secret lock for 450 rupees, which is $10. The same thing in the states would probably be closer to $50. After cruising through town, we headed back to the hotel, and as it turned out, I made the right decision on the mopeds...one of the dudes on our trip had taken a fall, and even though he was perfectly fine, he twisted his ankle and got a little scraped up. That totally reinforced my fear of two-wheeled motorized vehicles. After we all got back, Jesse and I went up to the room, and we were lucky enough to catch a replay of game 1 of the NBA finals (GO MAVS!). It was great to watch Dirk and JET perform their magic, and I'm feeling really good about our chances in the series. When the game ended, we went downstairs, and we were lucky enough to get involved in an impromptu cricket match on the beach with some of the dudes that work at our hotel. It's actually a pretty cool game, although I definitely could use some practice. I'm not really good at cricket as much as I really just kind of suck. Hehe.
Moving on to dinner. Since a few of our more luxury-minded travel mates decided to stay at the Taj Holiday Village, which is a 5 star resort, we all went over there for dinner. The resort really is quite nice, and I could envision staying there on another trip if I ever return to Goa. The food was great, and I think only one person in our group didn't order the lobster. It was great to eat a nice meal, and we all really appreciated it since we've been going a bit more budget overall. After dinner, we returned to Mambo's, but we were all really tired and didn't party nearly as hard. I walked back on the beach with Frankie and Justin (two dudes on our trip), and we had another little adventure. As we were walking, a dog on the beach started barking and snarling at us. We moved a bit further from the dog, but all of a sudden he just took off running directly at us, snarling and barking the whole time. Justin yelled out, "This fucker's rabid!", and we all just took off, fight or flight, running as fast as we could away from the dog. I was able to run up the hotel stairs and get away, and Justin had to run into the ocean to avoid getting attacked. It was pretty insane, and totally a "fight or flight" situation (not really fight, just flight!). Luckily we all got away totally rabies-free!
Today has been very chill, just hanging out in town and relaxing. Unfortunately another girl on our trip fell off of her moped, and she got a little banged up too, but nothing too bad. Again, I'm quite glad I stayed away from the mopeds. They're so dangerous, I'll never get on one as long as I live. Right now we're about to go back to the hotel and probably just kick around the hackey sack on the beach. I could use a Kingfisher, too, so we'll probably do that.
Anyway, this has been the longest blog post ever, but a lot has happened. Sorry for being loquacious (I just really wanted to use that word). Peace!
The next day (Friday) began with a very chill morning. We had told Sampada, our group leader, that we wouldn't be in clinic, so basically we just hung out and walked around. I got 3 mangos for 20 rupees, which is less than 50 cents. I also learned how to eat mangoes the Indian way (you kind of mash it up inside, make a hole in the end of the mango, and suck all the tastiness out). In the afternoon, we headed to the airport for our flight to Goa. Everything was smooth at the airport, and we boarded our plane on Kingfisher Airlines, which is basically the nicest airline I've ever been on, even if you didn't count the hot flight attendants. The whole plane smells like a spa since they pump in fresh scents throughout the flight. Also, even though it was only an hour flight, we got a meal, and it was quite good. Overall, the flight was a cool experience.
Moving on to Goa....this place is quite cool. It's basically the exact opposite of Mumbai, with as chilled-out a feel as you'll find anywhere on earth. Our hotel is nice, with all the amenities that we care about, including TV and A/C. We have cold showers, but that comes with the territory. Anyway, we're situated right on the beach, and it's really beautiful. Also, even though we're in the middle of monsoon season, we've had nothing but clear skies and sun. It's really quite cool. Anyway, after arriving on Friday, we basically chilled by the beach and drank Kingfisher beers for a few hours before strolling down the beach to check out the area. As it turned out, we're only a 10 minute walk from the town of Calangute, which is a chill little place with a bunch of streetside vendors and restaurants. Most of the shops close for monsoon season, however, so pretty much nothing is open. After a very relaxed afternoon, we had dinner at the hotel and then went out to a bar/dance club called Mango's which is a 10 minute walk down the beach in the other direction. It was a really fun time, and after many beers and a few tequila shots, we were pretty wasted. As I recall, we hung out on the beach for a while, and we finally got back to the hotel around 3am. Of course, in our drunkenness, it didn't make sense to go to sleep until we'd been in the pool, so we jumped in and splashed around for a while, finally getting to bed around 3:45.
Yesterday afternoon was pretty chill (I'm not writing about the morning because we slept through it). We walked through town, and the rest of the dudes got mopeds. I opted out of the moped thing, as I'm totally terrified of two-wheeled motorized vehicles. Basically we checked out some of the shops in town, and I picked up a few little trinkets, etc. There are some really cool crafts and stuff here, and it's all pretty cheap. For example, today I got a really cool carved wooden box with a secret lock for 450 rupees, which is $10. The same thing in the states would probably be closer to $50. After cruising through town, we headed back to the hotel, and as it turned out, I made the right decision on the mopeds...one of the dudes on our trip had taken a fall, and even though he was perfectly fine, he twisted his ankle and got a little scraped up. That totally reinforced my fear of two-wheeled motorized vehicles. After we all got back, Jesse and I went up to the room, and we were lucky enough to catch a replay of game 1 of the NBA finals (GO MAVS!). It was great to watch Dirk and JET perform their magic, and I'm feeling really good about our chances in the series. When the game ended, we went downstairs, and we were lucky enough to get involved in an impromptu cricket match on the beach with some of the dudes that work at our hotel. It's actually a pretty cool game, although I definitely could use some practice. I'm not really good at cricket as much as I really just kind of suck. Hehe.
Moving on to dinner. Since a few of our more luxury-minded travel mates decided to stay at the Taj Holiday Village, which is a 5 star resort, we all went over there for dinner. The resort really is quite nice, and I could envision staying there on another trip if I ever return to Goa. The food was great, and I think only one person in our group didn't order the lobster. It was great to eat a nice meal, and we all really appreciated it since we've been going a bit more budget overall. After dinner, we returned to Mambo's, but we were all really tired and didn't party nearly as hard. I walked back on the beach with Frankie and Justin (two dudes on our trip), and we had another little adventure. As we were walking, a dog on the beach started barking and snarling at us. We moved a bit further from the dog, but all of a sudden he just took off running directly at us, snarling and barking the whole time. Justin yelled out, "This fucker's rabid!", and we all just took off, fight or flight, running as fast as we could away from the dog. I was able to run up the hotel stairs and get away, and Justin had to run into the ocean to avoid getting attacked. It was pretty insane, and totally a "fight or flight" situation (not really fight, just flight!). Luckily we all got away totally rabies-free!
Today has been very chill, just hanging out in town and relaxing. Unfortunately another girl on our trip fell off of her moped, and she got a little banged up too, but nothing too bad. Again, I'm quite glad I stayed away from the mopeds. They're so dangerous, I'll never get on one as long as I live. Right now we're about to go back to the hotel and probably just kick around the hackey sack on the beach. I could use a Kingfisher, too, so we'll probably do that.
Anyway, this has been the longest blog post ever, but a lot has happened. Sorry for being loquacious (I just really wanted to use that word). Peace!
posted by david.m.marcus at 3:20 AM
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