One month out
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Goa for two weeks, much less gone from New York for a month. These jam-packed days of yoga/beach/dinner/music have really flown by! Some days it feels like I'm not doing much, but that's kind of what this place is for. It's so easy to lose time in Goa, but now I'm formulating a plan of escape.
Meanwhile, I present some of what I've been doing.
-- Bea, Benoit, and I went to Mapusa last week to get glasses made. It's a city about 40 minutes away (by taxi/scooter, or 1.5 hours by bus). People say that Goa isn't really India, and though I somewhat disagree (but admit it's quite a bubble), getting off the beach was a good reminder of that fact. I got an eye exam (300 Rupees/7 dollars), and then ordered two pair of glasses made ($40 total). One of them is a pair of prescription sunglasses! I've never had any before, always just doubled up my sunnies and regular ones. We're going back later today (everything in Mapusa closes from 1-3 or 4 for the heat) to pick them up, I hope they turn out ok.
-- Yoga class every day has been great. My teacher's last day here is on Saturday, after which he's heading back to teach in Dharmasala. I was planning on going there later anyway, so hopefully I can study with him some more. I met an Italian friend in class, Franco, who videoed an entire two-hour class on his camera. I got the files from him, which is awesome; it'll be nice to be able to review his teachings, and to share a little bit of what the class is like with friends and family (hi, mom!).
-- I really lucked into a solid hut neighborhood here. Bea, Ben (Montreal), Dan and Rory from Nottingham, and Maya from Brighton have made great company, one of those rare times in life when a small group comes together for a short time and everything just clicks. I really appreciate the 2 Pac crew!
-- A couple friends from NYC have arrived, Ami and Jonathan, it's been fun showing them around town, trying different restaurants (mmm paneer butter masala). Their first day I took them to a sunset gathering, this place on the beach where there's a big drum circle and such. Lots of dancing, contact juggling, fire dance, hooping, yoga, meditation, etc., all in one place. What can seem ridiculously cheesy elsewhere seems to fit here; I love that in Arambol people just kind of go for it, do whatever they feel like without worrying about it.
-- I haven't been partying much at all, which is ironic since Goa has a reputation for being a party place. This year seems much more quiet than last year, lots less people even for the end of the season. I have attended a few events that were pretty fun, but it took me ten days of acclimating before I felt up for it; I party enough at home. Yes, the music is almost all trance, but hey, when in Goa...Most of the time though, chilling with the 2 Pac crew has been more than enough for me, a fire and a guitar. We even took a Qi Gong class together, heh.
-- Yesterday there was the annual Arambol carnival, the theme of which was small insects. It was really big, ended up as a massive parade down the beach toward sunset; a lot of the costumes and general vibe reminded me of Burning Man.
I'll post photos from Mapusa, the carnival, the crew, and everything else soon. Admittedly I've been quite lazy about sitting in front of the computer; it's been a month since I quit my job, I think the staring-at-a-screen habit has finally been broken. So I have a bit of a backlog of pictures to work on and post, but I hope to get around to them soon, maybe even this evening. Or maybe tomorrow...
So now it's getting really hot and I'm starting to think about where to go next. When I first arrived I was a bit chilly at night in my hut, but now I wake up sweating (or I'm woken up by wild dogs fighting outside, though I'm getting better at sleeping through them). I have a rough itinerary mapped out in my head (Gokarna, Mumbai, Pushka, Rishikesh, Manali, Dharmasala), but I like to only book one leg of travel at a time; who knows whether I'll really like or want to leave a place quickly until I get there. But I'm thinking of leaving Sunday, which gives me a little more time in this lovely place.