Goa

I arrived at my train stop in Goa just as the sun was surrendering to the night sky. Though the light was falling, the energy of all those disembarking the train was quickly rising. You could feel the excited anticipation of our arrival. I hastily made plans to share a cab to with two German guys, who despite their big smiles and bigger bellies were brutish and boring. A couple dressed with a distinct comfortable style asked to share our cab as well. These two Amsterdam kids were named Tim and Ayleana and I liked them immediately.

All five of us bought a big Kingfisher beer and we plied into a cab. On the ride in I tried to win over Tim and Aye. I had a good feeling about them and wanted to stay with their energy for a while. We dropped of the Germans and found a small hotel close to a rock beach. Tim and Aye were energetic, fun, caring and a bit nutty, traits they had in common with all the Dutch friends I would soon meet. 

Tim would soon introduce me to a Dutch friend of his named 'Yop'. Yop remains once of most distinctive characters I have ever met. He appears thin and like a handsome Spaniard despite a slightly crooked and protruding nose.  He maintains some scraggly facial hair and has a large, brown fro bobbing on his head.. Morning, afternoon or night, I rarely saw Yop dressed in anything but ali-babba pants and bare-chested with a vest.

For many months prior to coming to India, Yop was squatting in the top floor of an Amsterdam house. The house was constantly full of people and noise, but he had the best set-up in the top. Tim and Aye lived there for a few months after he left as they tried to live rent free around Amsterdam. Tim and Yop were close friends and fought very openly most of the time we were together. In those first few days  Yop and I shared a healthy dislike for one another. We had to make do, as we had to share a bike and eventually would share a room. I would learn over the coming weeks that while. Yop was stubborn and a maniac, he was sensitive and cared for his friends. He'd yell, shake with anger and cry.

Yop, Tim and Aye had all grown up with the Amsterdam trance scene.  With them, I went to completely different parties and places than I would have otherwise. It was all by word of mouth and a game of being in the 'know' that I realized I wasn't used to. I would drive Yop crazy when I freely admitted my ignorance of parties and places. Yop would always heard what people were talking about and would know an even better, more secretive place as well. He was good at this game and discerning what the best party would be.

In the week surrounding Christmas, we did what most other people in Goa were doing during the day. We rode around on scooters to find different and more isolated beaches. We sped through the small streets and communities of Goa which lush and full of character. I felt reminded of the Caribbean,  though the fast bikes dodging cows and dogs reminded you that you are in India. The food was distinct and I supported many fishermen with amount of prawns and seafood, cooked in Goan style curries and koftas.

As the high seasonal population grew, it became dominated by Russians and Indian tourists. The Russians largely were not backpackers but package tourists on a 2-week vacation from their middle class jobs. They were too easily spotted as skinny girls in tiny bikinis and men with short hair and often big bellies. It was not high-class Russian tourism, Goa was very much a affordable winter escape.  The Russians would drink all day and didn't speak much English Indian tourists were a huge range from cool kids from Mumbai who smoked chillum to groups of men that could easily get 'excited' from seeing how the girls were dressed. You have to see it to believe it.

We were in the centre of it all in Anjuna beach. Walking down from our hotel along the beach was a strip mall of  loud, bright parties. Some were so packed that you could barely walk along the beach. My favourite time was always after midnight, when the tide would come in and reclaim the beach, washing it clean. You could walk come dodging the waves and sneaking through skeleton markets which were abandoned for the night and would be hectic the next day. 

After 2 weeks, the natural dispersion of travellers began to happen. I was sad to see these people leave and it took me a few days to shake a lonely, aimless feeling. I have shaken that feeling now and am far away from Goa in many ways.  I sit in Delhi now, 2500km away; it is right now a chilly, dusty, repressive city. I haven't had a drop of alcohol, a cigarette or even any meat since I left Goa about 2 weeks ago. I'll take care of business here (a Visa extension is looking very unlikely) and head up to Rishikesh where I hope to exist happily and healthily for the next 3 months. It demonstrates the great constrasts and contradictions of India that you can move between these polar places from week to week. It is a comment on my own meandering nature that I choose to move around India in such a way.