My First few days in Palolem
So I have been at the Parvati beach huts Palolem for six days now and I feel like I have been here forever.
I love my little hut now it has all my clothes folded nicely in the little wardrobe, my family pics adorn the walls, candles on every service and my crystals placed under the window to recharge and cleanse them.
On my first day here I went and bought some beautiful cotton sarongs in red and green and blue and yellow with prints of Buddha and Shiva and the Ohm sign. I have used them to make the place look nice and bring me good luck of course. I have draped them across the tops of the the windows and over my bed so it looks pretty.
An ex boyfriend of mine Andy once told me he could tell I was a Liberian as soon as he saw inside my room in Mexico because I had colourful sarongs hanging every where and postcards of the places I have been on the walls and candles and incense burning into the night. Andy said Liberians like to surround themselves with beautiful things and pretty colours. To be honest that is why i probably god rid of him. He is one of these new age hippie types which I am all for but he refused to shower insisting the body cleanses itself and refused to use toothpaste because according to him the government are putting chemicals into our toothpaste to control us. I do think that maybe he has a lot of interesting theories and I learnt a lot from him in the 6 months or so we were together and he opened my eyes to the vanity and greed in my life but when you look at your bed sheets in the morning and they are as black as the black hole of Calcutta you begin to wonder whether this self cleansing story holds any weight. To be honest I think Andy has done far to may hallucinogenics and trips to be talking any sense anymore. I suppose he was right about about a lot of stuff but my God he was wrong about so many other things, but that is a different story, a different country and a different adventure.
I have settled into life in Palolem as if I have lived here before. I feel so relaxed and comfortable and at home here and have had so many wonderful moments and enjoyed so many laughs and shared so many smiles in the last six days that I find it hard to remember my life before Palolem.
My first day I rose about 9am, that is late for me really especially when I am overseas because I like to get up early and make the most of the days. I went for a walk along the beach from the south where I am staying right up to the north tip of the beach. It really is a beautiful beach especially in the morning before all the tourists crowd it with their greasy bodies and chatter. In the mornings it is just the local people the workers making there way to their places of work at the various restaurants and beach huts. There is usually a game of cricket going on somewhere on the beach, the Indians love their cricket and it is a joy to watch a load of fit young men running around and sweating all over the place.
The beach cleaners are always down on the beach early doors with their brooms and their big hats to shade their faces from the Goan sun and there wicker baskets sweeping up the rubbish from yesterday so the tourists can park themselves nicely on a clean beach and spend the next day getting it dirty again.
A waiter that works at the place where I sit most days, Jun told me that the beach cleaners are furious that the local police have enforced a cut off of music and the service of alcohol at 11pm. Jun was telling me that when Palolem's nightlife could go on into the next day the beach cleaners were always finding wallets and cameras that drunken tourists had dropped in the sand but now everyone is off the beach at 11pm the chances of anyone being so plastered that they loose their belongings is pretty slim. (they haven't seen me on a mission i thought, i could loose my camera before i even get out of the taxi outside a bar if i had had a little starter whilst getting ready)
I'm glad all the music goes off at 11pm. it makes it a lot easier to stay sober and behave one self if the rest of the resort is going home to their beach huts at 11pm too.
If there were all night parties on the beach, dancing around bonfires while sipping on mushroom shakes like on the beaches of Thailand I don't really know if I would have been able to resist the temptation for the last 6 days.
I paid for 1 week up front on Sunday morning, I just want to relax and sit in the sun and rest my bones before i head into the cities. i know it will be intense travelling alone into Mumbai and Delhi so I want to relax, learn a little Hindi and get to know the culture before hand .
I have spent most days just reading on the beach. i am so engrossed in Shantaram that jun has taken it off several times so i will eat my lunch and enjoy it without reading.
The nice thing too is no body really hassles you like in some countries I have lived in. There are a couple of fruit Sellers that work together that shout out to you throughout the day but they are little old men, how they carry that huge wicker basket full of watermelons and papaya and bananas I will never know, the poor man is bent over like a question mark and his mate is walking with 2 sticks. The poor things have got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana skin, but they are there everyday walking up and down up and down.
There are a string of little shops along the beach selling ali -baba trousers and sarongs and jewellery and the pretty girls wander form greasy tourist to greasy tourist trying to make a few rupees, but they are pleasant and sweet and I have enjoyed getting to know their names and a little about their lives.
One girl i met called herself Sonia. She sat behind a menu board shading her pretty face from the sun next to my sun lounger. I said that it was and English name and she said she had had the name Shara for fifteen years and she was bored of it and wanted a change.
What a good idea I thought, She said her mother calls her Sharru but all her friends call her Shara and the tourists call her Sonia. Lol, how clever I thought I could have done with three names when I was in my twenties living in Greece and I was spoilt for choice in the boyfriend department. There was always one on the phone, one on my arm and one on the subs bench ha ha ha . Not anymore though I have taken a vow of celibacy for my India trip, I know India will be worth it.
So I have been at the Parvati beach huts Palolem for six days now and I feel like I have been here forever.
I love my little hut now it has all my clothes folded nicely in the little wardrobe, my family pics adorn the walls, candles on every service and my crystals placed under the window to recharge and cleanse them.
On my first day here I went and bought some beautiful cotton sarongs in red and green and blue and yellow with prints of Buddha and Shiva and the Ohm sign. I have used them to make the place look nice and bring me good luck of course. I have draped them across the tops of the the windows and over my bed so it looks pretty.
An ex boyfriend of mine Andy once told me he could tell I was a Liberian as soon as he saw inside my room in Mexico because I had colourful sarongs hanging every where and postcards of the places I have been on the walls and candles and incense burning into the night. Andy said Liberians like to surround themselves with beautiful things and pretty colours. To be honest that is why i probably god rid of him. He is one of these new age hippie types which I am all for but he refused to shower insisting the body cleanses itself and refused to use toothpaste because according to him the government are putting chemicals into our toothpaste to control us. I do think that maybe he has a lot of interesting theories and I learnt a lot from him in the 6 months or so we were together and he opened my eyes to the vanity and greed in my life but when you look at your bed sheets in the morning and they are as black as the black hole of Calcutta you begin to wonder whether this self cleansing story holds any weight. To be honest I think Andy has done far to may hallucinogenics and trips to be talking any sense anymore. I suppose he was right about about a lot of stuff but my God he was wrong about so many other things, but that is a different story, a different country and a different adventure.
I have settled into life in Palolem as if I have lived here before. I feel so relaxed and comfortable and at home here and have had so many wonderful moments and enjoyed so many laughs and shared so many smiles in the last six days that I find it hard to remember my life before Palolem.
My first day I rose about 9am, that is late for me really especially when I am overseas because I like to get up early and make the most of the days. I went for a walk along the beach from the south where I am staying right up to the north tip of the beach. It really is a beautiful beach especially in the morning before all the tourists crowd it with their greasy bodies and chatter. In the mornings it is just the local people the workers making there way to their places of work at the various restaurants and beach huts. There is usually a game of cricket going on somewhere on the beach, the Indians love their cricket and it is a joy to watch a load of fit young men running around and sweating all over the place.
The beach cleaners are always down on the beach early doors with their brooms and their big hats to shade their faces from the Goan sun and there wicker baskets sweeping up the rubbish from yesterday so the tourists can park themselves nicely on a clean beach and spend the next day getting it dirty again.
A waiter that works at the place where I sit most days, Jun told me that the beach cleaners are furious that the local police have enforced a cut off of music and the service of alcohol at 11pm. Jun was telling me that when Palolem's nightlife could go on into the next day the beach cleaners were always finding wallets and cameras that drunken tourists had dropped in the sand but now everyone is off the beach at 11pm the chances of anyone being so plastered that they loose their belongings is pretty slim. (they haven't seen me on a mission i thought, i could loose my camera before i even get out of the taxi outside a bar if i had had a little starter whilst getting ready)
I'm glad all the music goes off at 11pm. it makes it a lot easier to stay sober and behave one self if the rest of the resort is going home to their beach huts at 11pm too.
If there were all night parties on the beach, dancing around bonfires while sipping on mushroom shakes like on the beaches of Thailand I don't really know if I would have been able to resist the temptation for the last 6 days.
I paid for 1 week up front on Sunday morning, I just want to relax and sit in the sun and rest my bones before i head into the cities. i know it will be intense travelling alone into Mumbai and Delhi so I want to relax, learn a little Hindi and get to know the culture before hand .
I have spent most days just reading on the beach. i am so engrossed in Shantaram that jun has taken it off several times so i will eat my lunch and enjoy it without reading.
The nice thing too is no body really hassles you like in some countries I have lived in. There are a couple of fruit Sellers that work together that shout out to you throughout the day but they are little old men, how they carry that huge wicker basket full of watermelons and papaya and bananas I will never know, the poor man is bent over like a question mark and his mate is walking with 2 sticks. The poor things have got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana skin, but they are there everyday walking up and down up and down.
There are a string of little shops along the beach selling ali -baba trousers and sarongs and jewellery and the pretty girls wander form greasy tourist to greasy tourist trying to make a few rupees, but they are pleasant and sweet and I have enjoyed getting to know their names and a little about their lives.
One girl i met called herself Sonia. She sat behind a menu board shading her pretty face from the sun next to my sun lounger. I said that it was and English name and she said she had had the name Shara for fifteen years and she was bored of it and wanted a change.
What a good idea I thought, She said her mother calls her Sharru but all her friends call her Shara and the tourists call her Sonia. Lol, how clever I thought I could have done with three names when I was in my twenties living in Greece and I was spoilt for choice in the boyfriend department. There was always one on the phone, one on my arm and one on the subs bench ha ha ha . Not anymore though I have taken a vow of celibacy for my India trip, I know India will be worth it.
Hey Ron, Just to say that I am loving your blog, when I am back in Africa it will be weird thinking that you are in India and we are both blogging about our experiences. Anyway, you take care you old boot.
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