coffee, coffee, chai, chai

Cow in Goa
Originally uploaded by ddboo.

Ok...where was I...We left Cambodia and hit the islands in the south of Thailand for a week of R&R before the madness of India. First we went to Koh Samui, where there were lots of old western perverts and lady boys (oh and a beautiful beaches and fresh seafood restaurants). We even went to a lady boy cabaret show. interesting to say the least. Honestly some of these guys - you cannot tell there men at all, they do a fantastic job of looking and sounding like women. But the best part was none of them actually new the words of the songs they were singing. They were classic drag / karaoke songs like private dancer and various Cher tunes..but their mouths were completely off the whole time, I don't think they were even mouthing words at all, just random mouth movements but they were so passionate and into it, we were rolling on the floor. It was hilarious. I made a small video clip of each great performance, this was not to be missed by anyone. We got out of there after one day and went to Koh Phangan. The first two nights we were in Hat Rinn beach which is where the monthly full moon parties happen. There is usually about 10,000 people at this party every month - its a big rave and totally not our scene, to many people too much madness and debauchery. 5 years ago I would have loved it. We rented a motorbike to explore the island and look for a better place to stay cause our beach was all rocky. I drove the bike and An was on the back, we were too cheap to rent 2 bikes (yet another lesson learned the hard way) the next thing we know we came over this big hill and the other side is suddenly all rocks and sand. The bike skidded out and landed on my LEG. OW. Yah it hurt. No it wasn't broken. No I didn't get it checked out (well I did, but by a Canadian med student, not a Thai doctor). It seems to be healing nicely, its just all scraped up and bruised. An got a couple of scratches as well. We had to pick the bike up and get it back up the hill, which was the worst part of the whole ordeal because we didn't want to even go near the stupid bike. Turns out we blew the back tire out and had to have it fixed on the way back, that was pretty cheap. They did charge us about 100$ when we returned the bike for all the scratches, but we still got out better than expected. Lesson learned, lucky we didn't get hurt...and we did actually end up finding a great place to move to for the following day.

That night back in Hat Rinn beach we did what people do there which is drink "buckets" where they put a small mickey of vodka, soda water and some red bull into a bucket with straws and you share with a bunch of people. After a couple of those we were up dancing to the grease soundtrack on the beach (by dancing I mean hobbling on one leg and gyrating awkwardly). Definitely one of my prouder moments in life.

The next day we got up early and moved to Thongsala beach. Beautiful bungalows right on the water. We read, swam and recovered from the accident for 3 days. it was really relaxing, not many people around, alot of Jack Johnson playing everywhere, white sand and palm trees swaying - hammocks on every post and tree. I think An finished three books while we were there?

As much as we loved Thongsala, the show must go on and we were getting really excited for India, although I could have spend another 2 months in South East Asia, there is so much to do and see. Cambodia is the one place I wish we had more time and will definitely go back. I would have also loved to go to Burma, maybe next time. Although I would also love to go the the Arctic and the moon so..who knows.

I will miss the banana pancakes dearly. And the photocopied books that cost 2$. Oh..and the Thai massages and facials. Yes I will miss it all, even the smell of fish sauce all over Vietnam, which actually tastes alot better than it smells. mmm...fish sauce.

We took the sleeper train back from the islands to Bangkok where we flew from Bangkok to Columbo, Sri Lanka. Slept for 3 hours in a hotel room, went back to the airport at 2:45am to catch a flight to Goa, India.

Arriving in Goa was madness, there was so much going on at the airport, 50 taxi drivers grabbing our bags trying to get us in their cab, us trying to change money and not get totally ripped off. We finally found the bus stop and travelled by bus for 3 hours to the town in Goa we wanted to go to (Palolem). We were the only foreigners on the bus and most of the people were going to school / work. I chatted to one guy on the bus who mentioned that everyone is getting excited for the world cup of cricket which will take place in the West Indies. Sorta like the soccer world cup but huge in India and many other countries. Canada actually has a team in it. Should be fun here once it starts. We spent 2 days on the beach in Goa where we met alot of Indian people who were just as interested to talk to us as we were them. One guy invited us in his shop, made us chai tea then took us out to play pool after the shop closed. Another waiter at a restaurant didn't have the dish we were looking for and told us to come back the next day and he would have it for us. We came back the next day and he had it. I have noticed the people are very talkative, they talk a mile a minute and talk about deep stuff, Iike family problems, spirituality, religion or love. They also like to know personal things about us..like marriage status, religion etc.

And the food, oh god. Its so good. Fish curry and fresh naan and pakoras, every night. We have been eating so much Indian food, each dish better than the next. We have decided to try one new thing every day so we usually order something safe - like fish masala and something else we cannot even pronounce. Last night we ordered ginger fish which was the first bad dish we have had since we got to India. The rest has been so good, I don't think I can get sick of Indian food.

So we spent our 2 days in Goa eating, swimming and boogie boarding. The waves there were perfect for it and we howled like hyenas every time we caught a big one. It was so funny. I think we were just laughing more at us laughing. If that makes sense.

Then we took a 17 hour train to a town called Alleppey. The train was supposed to arrive at 11:00pm, it actually arrived at 12:30am which is apparently normal here, everything is late. We had pre-booked 2 upper lever sleeping bunks so we have privacy and it is supposed to be the best place to sleep. We got on and there is some guy in my bed sleeping refusing to get out. Lucky the Indian guys in the same bunker as us were really nice and basically told him to get out of my bed in a not so nice way, I was just glad to get a bed. I would not recommend top bunk for anyone who is claustrophobic as you are about 1 foot from the ceiling of the train and the fan is blowing right beside your head. The privacy part was nice - but that's really it. Thank god for gravol, we popped two and were out for twelve hours. We woke up to the sound of vendors walking up and down the isles selling biriani rice and masala chai tea for breakfast.