Well tomorrow will be my second week in Palolem.
It was a great choice and a great place to start my trip, so great I have just paid up for another week. I'm a crap backpacker really I always fall in love with a place and the people and find it hard to leave so I always stay longer than planned and don't get to see as much but I'm so happy and i have had such a wonderful time that I don't want to leave just yet.
My days are so fantastic. I lay in bed this morning just listening to the morning rising from its sleep. The ocean kissing the beach good morning and the birds singing sweet melodies whilst dancing around on my palm roof.
Then i had my yoga class, it is held in a bamboo hut and whilst we are twisting and turning and connecting with God we are serenaded by the sound of the ocean of the wild birds and playful monkeys outside.
Then after yoga i sat in the sun and swam in the ocean. I am not taking anything for granted, I know in every breath how blessed I am and i am just loving every moment so much.
Everyday there is a beautiful sunset. each day seems to be more beautiful than the last but for me more than anything it is the people i have met that have pulled on my heart strings and kept me anchored in Palolem.
Sonia or sharu or Shara, the girl I told you about who has three names and works in the shop on the beach has been such a sweetness in my days here. Today she called me into her little shop to eat lunch with her and her brother Gopi. We all sat crossed legged on the floor and sharu as I call her served us Chapatti and Dhal and a spicy green bean dish that she had prepared that morning. I followed sharu and Gopi with how they ate. I had read in my Rough Guide to India about the right hand rule , that you only eat with your right hand never with your left. You can hold your chapatti with the left to tear it but you can never put your left hand to your mouth as this is the hand for jobs such as wiping ones bottom. Nice rule i think i like it. anyway Indian people don't use cutlery for eating only the right hand, to be honest I enjoyed it i have no problem with eating with my fingers you just use the rotti or chapatti to soak and mop up the food and into the mouth it goes.
Tomorrow I am off to the market with sharu to buy vegetables, she is going to give me an Indian cooking lesson at her home tomorrow night. Sharu and I will be cooking rotti and curry and vegtables with spicy gravy and then sharu and Gopi and myself will have dinner together when Gopi finishes work.
I have loved getting to know them both, they are only very young, Sharu is sixteen and her brother is ninteen and when they invited me to their home i was so touched and delighted. Their family is in Karnataka, they have told me how much they miss their mother but are here in palolem for the season to earn some money for the family, then in April they will leave palolem and return to their home. I told sharu that I will pay for the food from the market and she was very shy and sweet and grateful, she has been so kind to me everyday day and we sit and talk for hours on the beach about India and her family and our lives and different cultures that it really is the very least I can do.
Also I will find it hard to say goodbye to Jun and the boys and the beach bar I sit at most days. Jun is actually from Nepal, he is a lovely guy and always saves me my sun-lounger away from all the other tourists under the palm trees.
He takes care of me everyday, brings me my lunch and drinks he is very sweet. He has asked me out for dinner a few times but i said no. I told him that i am here to pray and not to pull, ha ha "pull what miss Jacqueline" he said "I never asked you to pull anything just to have dinner with me" LOL hilarious, I spent 10 minutes explaining what pulling someone means, that it just means hooking up with someone or starting some kind of relationship of some description. Anyway he took it quite well, I told him I'm not interested in tripping the light fandango with anyone which took me another 10 minutes to explain.He has tried to convince me that it is not good to be alone all the time and i explained that I am not always alone, i talk with people in the day but I like to eat, run and sleep alone. He is still lovely and sweet and we are still friends so all is good.
Also I am not ready to bid farewell to young Misshra my cutie of a waiter that serves me dinner every night and Mukesh the manager of Parvatti, we all sit together at night chatting and playing cards and laughing and I feel so at home and just cant leave them yet.
I have made myself a promise though that I will definitely definitely leave Palolem next Saturday.
I have not just sat on the beach in Palolem for 3 weeks, not that there is anything wrong with that at all. I have ventured out to the neighbouring village of Colom which is a lovely Hindu fishing village with a few guest houses and beach huts and patnem further along the coast which is quieter than where I am . I did think about moving to Patnem because I don't like to be surrounded by lots of tourists i think it was the six years working as a Thomson holiday rep that made me develop an acute allergic reaction to them.
I decided not to move in the end as I love the Parvatti beach huts and the friends I have made so am having three weeks with them all.
Tomorrow Rupesh my loyal and trusted taxi driver is taking me to another resort, Agonda. Agonda is only about thirty minutes away but is supposed to be very quiet and hardly any tourists so it sounds like paradise to me. I am only going for the day Rupesh will collect me at 5pm and take me home to Parvatti but at least I am seeing something different and enjoying a new experiance.
I was going to venture up to north Goa for my last week in Goa but i am starting to have second thoughts. All the locals have told me to avoid it as it is a haven for drunkards and people tripping and getting stoned. back in the day i would have been on the first bus up there with sparks coming off my flip flops but I am really enjoying the sober chilled peace that I have found here in Palolem and as my dear friend Chris always tells me "Jacqueline if you don't want to have to worry about getting out of the lions den then don't jump into it in the first place" wise words from one of the most amazing human beings I have ever had the pleasure to know and those words I keep in my heart and they have really prevented me from taking that first drink that would have inevitably led to drunkenness and no end of trouble and guilt and shame and God only knows what else.
I think instead I am going to take the advice of Dinesh the owner of my beach hut and take the train out of Goa to neighbouring Karnataka. I will leave my things here at parvatti and just take a small bag of things to last me a couple of days. There are some old ruins there and it is now a World heritage site. I have looked it up in The Rough Guide and I like the sound of the little town of Hampi with its majestic river and bustling bazaar and temples.
I have always dreamt of enjoying a train journey through the countryside in India so I will be fulfilling another dream.
So many dreams and so many becoming my reality.
I feel truly blessed
It was a great choice and a great place to start my trip, so great I have just paid up for another week. I'm a crap backpacker really I always fall in love with a place and the people and find it hard to leave so I always stay longer than planned and don't get to see as much but I'm so happy and i have had such a wonderful time that I don't want to leave just yet.
My days are so fantastic. I lay in bed this morning just listening to the morning rising from its sleep. The ocean kissing the beach good morning and the birds singing sweet melodies whilst dancing around on my palm roof.
Then i had my yoga class, it is held in a bamboo hut and whilst we are twisting and turning and connecting with God we are serenaded by the sound of the ocean of the wild birds and playful monkeys outside.
Then after yoga i sat in the sun and swam in the ocean. I am not taking anything for granted, I know in every breath how blessed I am and i am just loving every moment so much.
Everyday there is a beautiful sunset. each day seems to be more beautiful than the last but for me more than anything it is the people i have met that have pulled on my heart strings and kept me anchored in Palolem.
Sonia or sharu or Shara, the girl I told you about who has three names and works in the shop on the beach has been such a sweetness in my days here. Today she called me into her little shop to eat lunch with her and her brother Gopi. We all sat crossed legged on the floor and sharu as I call her served us Chapatti and Dhal and a spicy green bean dish that she had prepared that morning. I followed sharu and Gopi with how they ate. I had read in my Rough Guide to India about the right hand rule , that you only eat with your right hand never with your left. You can hold your chapatti with the left to tear it but you can never put your left hand to your mouth as this is the hand for jobs such as wiping ones bottom. Nice rule i think i like it. anyway Indian people don't use cutlery for eating only the right hand, to be honest I enjoyed it i have no problem with eating with my fingers you just use the rotti or chapatti to soak and mop up the food and into the mouth it goes.
Tomorrow I am off to the market with sharu to buy vegetables, she is going to give me an Indian cooking lesson at her home tomorrow night. Sharu and I will be cooking rotti and curry and vegtables with spicy gravy and then sharu and Gopi and myself will have dinner together when Gopi finishes work.
I have loved getting to know them both, they are only very young, Sharu is sixteen and her brother is ninteen and when they invited me to their home i was so touched and delighted. Their family is in Karnataka, they have told me how much they miss their mother but are here in palolem for the season to earn some money for the family, then in April they will leave palolem and return to their home. I told sharu that I will pay for the food from the market and she was very shy and sweet and grateful, she has been so kind to me everyday day and we sit and talk for hours on the beach about India and her family and our lives and different cultures that it really is the very least I can do.
Also I will find it hard to say goodbye to Jun and the boys and the beach bar I sit at most days. Jun is actually from Nepal, he is a lovely guy and always saves me my sun-lounger away from all the other tourists under the palm trees.
He takes care of me everyday, brings me my lunch and drinks he is very sweet. He has asked me out for dinner a few times but i said no. I told him that i am here to pray and not to pull, ha ha "pull what miss Jacqueline" he said "I never asked you to pull anything just to have dinner with me" LOL hilarious, I spent 10 minutes explaining what pulling someone means, that it just means hooking up with someone or starting some kind of relationship of some description. Anyway he took it quite well, I told him I'm not interested in tripping the light fandango with anyone which took me another 10 minutes to explain.He has tried to convince me that it is not good to be alone all the time and i explained that I am not always alone, i talk with people in the day but I like to eat, run and sleep alone. He is still lovely and sweet and we are still friends so all is good.
Also I am not ready to bid farewell to young Misshra my cutie of a waiter that serves me dinner every night and Mukesh the manager of Parvatti, we all sit together at night chatting and playing cards and laughing and I feel so at home and just cant leave them yet.
I have made myself a promise though that I will definitely definitely leave Palolem next Saturday.
I have not just sat on the beach in Palolem for 3 weeks, not that there is anything wrong with that at all. I have ventured out to the neighbouring village of Colom which is a lovely Hindu fishing village with a few guest houses and beach huts and patnem further along the coast which is quieter than where I am . I did think about moving to Patnem because I don't like to be surrounded by lots of tourists i think it was the six years working as a Thomson holiday rep that made me develop an acute allergic reaction to them.
I decided not to move in the end as I love the Parvatti beach huts and the friends I have made so am having three weeks with them all.
Tomorrow Rupesh my loyal and trusted taxi driver is taking me to another resort, Agonda. Agonda is only about thirty minutes away but is supposed to be very quiet and hardly any tourists so it sounds like paradise to me. I am only going for the day Rupesh will collect me at 5pm and take me home to Parvatti but at least I am seeing something different and enjoying a new experiance.
I was going to venture up to north Goa for my last week in Goa but i am starting to have second thoughts. All the locals have told me to avoid it as it is a haven for drunkards and people tripping and getting stoned. back in the day i would have been on the first bus up there with sparks coming off my flip flops but I am really enjoying the sober chilled peace that I have found here in Palolem and as my dear friend Chris always tells me "Jacqueline if you don't want to have to worry about getting out of the lions den then don't jump into it in the first place" wise words from one of the most amazing human beings I have ever had the pleasure to know and those words I keep in my heart and they have really prevented me from taking that first drink that would have inevitably led to drunkenness and no end of trouble and guilt and shame and God only knows what else.
I think instead I am going to take the advice of Dinesh the owner of my beach hut and take the train out of Goa to neighbouring Karnataka. I will leave my things here at parvatti and just take a small bag of things to last me a couple of days. There are some old ruins there and it is now a World heritage site. I have looked it up in The Rough Guide and I like the sound of the little town of Hampi with its majestic river and bustling bazaar and temples.
I have always dreamt of enjoying a train journey through the countryside in India so I will be fulfilling another dream.
So many dreams and so many becoming my reality.
I feel truly blessed
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