The Hottest Run of my Life!

Its about 10:30am on Sunday here. I just got back from a run. I thought it would be a good idea as life here in Goa is pretty laid back. It seems that lolling on the beach or at the shore hut might not burn as much energy as I thought. I needed a burst. I got up early to go and sweat more than i ever have in my life. And people looked at me like I was crazy. The best part is having to dodge cows in the streets while running. Actually dodging cows in the streets if funny here no matter how you cut it - car, walking, running, motorbike...

Goa has been good to Darius and I. We are staying in Anjuna, which is the north part of the beaches. We are at a cheap and cheerful little guest house and most days we go for breakfast (usually Dal Fry and tea), then a trip to the beach for swimming, market exploring, etc. We have made some really good friends here too at a little hang out beach hut resto-bar called shore bar. Sidd, Moodrika, and Daniel are all living here in Goa, and know so much about where to go. They've introduced us to their friends from Goa as well. Sidd and Moodrika had us for dinner, drove us around and have been generally so welcoming.

Shore bar, where we have been chilling out is kind of like a hippie dream. There are day beds, lawn chairs, tapestries hand from everywhere. There is beautiful art on the walls, pillows on the floors. You can play cards, chess, the other night we learned a game called Carmel (sort of a backgammon/pool fusion game). Daniel runs the bar but is really good at taking time out to come and sit with us, talk and go swimming. The other day we went for a ride into Mapusa and I bought some colored pencils for sketching. We went to a sweets shop and I ate something, I wish I could remember the name, but it looks like a pretzel made of orange candy and it tastes like the sauce that comes in sweet & sour chicken balls, plus like a bucket of syrup and sugar. Its kind of spectacular. After than I stopped for a sugar cane juice... maybe thats why i needed a run today...

The beach is an interesting place. On the walk there, there are plenty of stalls to but dresses, sarongs, shoes, clothing and jewelery. Most of the women say 'hello', 'how are you', 'whats your name?' and so on until they have you buy the hand saying 'just come look, looking is free, come to my shop. You don't have to buy but if you like, you buy'. If you are not feeling up to a speedy and steady string of 'no, no, no, no, no - I don't want to buy anything' you get suckered into this: 'Ok, don't look today, but come by (buy?) on your way back. Promise, you come tomorrow. Promise?' The promise is a precarious thing here. They literally find you the next day, while you are swimming, or reading, whatever and will say ' You promised yesterday you come to my shop. You promise'. Then you are F***ed. So you have to go, then you say you don't want anything, that you promised to come by, not to come buy. Then if you do want to buy something, you gotta haggle. I have realized, I am not very good that this. I have already made some foolish purchases, however I have also made some sweet buys. Either way, things are pretty cheap here, so if you make a mistake, it may only be at a cost of $4 for a dress that doesn't quite fit how you thought it might... not that it happened to me.

Indian internet is painfully slow and I am unable to be patient enough to wait for my photos to upload. It takes so long.
Anyways, I am off to call Moodrika to make a trip to Old Goa.