Vacation ends and the ending begins!
Trip Start
Nov 21, 2007
1
18
Trip End
Dec 30, 2007
Delhi,
India
Friday, December 28, 2007
The second half of the Patnem beach thing was definitely better than the first; I stopped trying to make it into something it wasn't (cultural) and just had fun accepting it for what it was (lazy fun in the sun with great people). I never made it properly into Palolem- only made it to Chaudi once (the town affiliated with the beach where you have things like ATMs, laundry soap, and faint hopes of money transfers) and that was for only maybe two hot, frustrated hours trying to transfer money to Kunal who'd lined up my last two tickets- unsuccessfully- there's nothing quite as satisfying as borrowing like $230 from someone that doesn't f*ing have it, and then not being able to wire it to him
Tightrope
. Yah. It felt REALLY cool. But- all's well that ends well, and I'll make it up to him- dinner's on me back here in Delhi. So okay... Patnem.The huts.. I LOVED staying where I stayed, at Gotam's huts. He and his family run this hotel- but it's more than that... When staying there you are sort of isolated and become an instant family friend of the family and then also everyone else staying there.. Characters, all of them. So great. Pretty much all of them English characters. Stories about each and every one of them and many laughs shared. Due to the keyboard situation, the need to buy yet another (bigger) bag to take on the plane to get my booty home in (no, I'm not THAT fat... my Anjuna / last minute Delhi loot is what I'm referring to) and the fact that some stuff just isn't fit to print, here are some highlights:
....We are sitting in the big main hut, hanging out and talking, when we (by we I mean maybe five or six of us staying there) hear this huge crack, like a tear in the sky, and then a crash on to the ground. We're all, holy shit, what the hell was that... Gotam says, "It's just a leaf." and ignores us all. I guess I can't explain the way he was so offhand about it and how we were all sort of wide-eyed... It was freaking hilarious. It was a leaf; a palm frond as big as a tree trunk. Grandpa, who is smaller than Mom, comes out (his head is perpetually wrapped in a shawl; rather Mother Theresa-looking) with his machete and makes short work of the "leaf". Meanwhile, we're making cracks about how we use rakes in the West, I said something along the lines of, "Jesus Christ- I'd hate to be here in the fall!" and we laugh about how Grandpa just sort of materializes when something like this goes on. Good "leaf" moments.
Old Delhi's Chandi Chowk market
....We rented a catamaran for a while on the 24th (an hour, actually, the cat guy was pretty booked) and sailed around and outside of the beach areas, out to where you can see the mountains rise up in the horizon. Gorgeous. The next day, I guess that would be Christmas!- we rented kayaks and paddled out and around to Turtle Beach, which has no development on it whatsoever because it is protected (turtles lay eggs there or something). There's one restaurant (er... bamboo trunks with a parachute strung up on them for shade and one girl sitting behind a counter) there. When asked what we were going to do over there, we said we were going to go get some turtle soup. It was fun- I got caught up trying to catch the surf on the way back in to Patnem beach and ended up soaking my bag a bit and literally lost my shirt, where I'd stuck it in the back of the boat (I was wearing a swimsuit). ....Christmas eve, went out to have a spectacular meal. I mean- everyone goes out every night, but you know, you want to live it up some, and all the little places on the beach stepped it up. Fireworks all along the beach. Big ones. Having worked the Freedom Fest, I was a bit taken aback by how mothers (western) would basically let their kids run around and through what I would call a very real drop zone. ..Yikes. Indian fireworks. I had paneer stuffed with cucumber and mint with a mint sauce and tandoori cauliflower. YUM. Had to come back for the cauliflower on my last night there
Mendhi in the Making
.....Christmas night, Gotam threw a dinner party with almost everyone pitching in, it was great fun. Huge meal and all of the "tight" crew were there, and then some others that had been invited in order to make it profitable for Gotam. I have a great picture of Gotam's cousin and this French guy Bruno passed out on the beach by the bonfire's embers the next morning (I got up to watch the sun rise on the 26th- before going back to bed!)
So there are the highlights.. Sort of... I miss it much, some of the people there are just gems, gems, gems.. and I hated leaving, but upon arriving in Delhi and getting my damn cough again (I'm going to be so pissed if I pick up yet another virus here- I wouldn't doubt it) I am glad I made the decision to city it up some before coming home. I have set myself up to have like the A-Number-One worst re-entry flight in the history of re-entry flights. I fly from here to Mumbai tomorrow, having decided that I didn't really want to find out about a new (and vastly expensive and from what I understand, poorly laid out, for someone on a whistlestop) city- so yeah, that flight leaves here (IN THEORY.... No Indian flight is ever on time. Ever.) at 3:00 PM tomorrow, which means I head for the airport at 1. Then, again, in theory, I land in Mumbai at about 6 or something, and then I am at the airport for five hours before I get on my flight to Jersey. Then a layover, then to Portland. So I'll be in transit for some 45 hours or something. Awesome.
Ok everyone! If I have the time and/or inclination and/or accessability I will write tomorrow from.. somewhere. Til then, "happy journey"! Head wobble, head wobble! Yes, madam, you come to see my shop? ..Later then? ...Head wobble??
