spike of supersnazz

how can i forget who we shared a rickshaw with on our arrival in goa with none other than the lead singer spike from the very famous japanese band SUPERSNAZZ!!!! i'm sure many of you don't know who that is, but for those who do, it was a super big deal for us. our favorite japanese band. she signed my book and i will cherish it forever. india is a magical place, that's for sure. i keep waiting to share a rickshaw with johnny depp, who is over here making a move in bombay based on the book daniel and judy neiman gave me called,"shantaram"-(thank you so much, judy and daniel for that lovely book. except i can't seem to pry it out of jeff's hands, who has wanted to read the book for some time).

what is good about our hotel? it has a huge pool you can swim in between 7am and 10pm. we have taken night swims every night since we've been here. and nobody else wants to use it! i floated around on a water polo ball all night yesterday, watching the beautiful clear skies and full moon.

in the am, we headed back to our favorite eating place, the sunset bar, because they play the best oldies from the 50s-70s, which is a huge relief cause everyone else plays that hideous pounding rave music.(coke?ecstacy?mdma?hashish?brown sugar?-which is heroin,marijuanna?)they like their drugs here, i'll stick to the cashew fenni with limca, thank you very much. our pal at our eating place is simon, he has become our pal. he likes to call himself "simple simon." lots of the locals like to do that because you can better remember their names. like a guy we met in kerala called cannon-or as he liked to be called "big gun". and that's exactly the kind of energy that he had.

i left my deposit at the travel agent in hopes of getting a train out of here before new years eve. it's very very very hard to get the good seats, so my suggestion is if you want to travel by train here, and there is NO better way-it's even better than flying and a fraction of the cost, plus you meet lots of people , get fed constantly, given bottles of water, chai, coffee, and best of all, frooty-my favorite mango juice. SO IF YOU COME TO INDIA NOVEMBER THROUGH FEBRUARY AND WANT TO TRAVEL BY TRAIN IN A/C SLEEPER 1ST OR 2ND CLASS, BUY YOUR TICKETS WAY WAY IN ADVANCE. that's all i have to say about that, and trust me because i've aged 40 years just trying to get from one place to the other.

next we walked a mile to find "purple valley yoga center," a famous astanga center with mysore at 7 am mon-saturday (strange saturday, not sunday), it's not too far from my hotel. today was full moon, so i assumed no class, but tomorrow when we have our scooter-we're renting it right after i finish this blog, i can cruise right to it, will take 20 minutes. on the way back instead of walking, we hitchhiked a cargo rickshaw truck transporting a microwave oven to some rich persons house. we jumped in the back, like a pick up truck, told him we would pay 20rps. ok. after he let us out, he charged us 50rps. two words once again. "it's india." i did not care, because i have never riden on the back of a truck before with a microwave as a pal, and it was fun fun fun fun. did not speak a lick of english. weeeeee!!!!!!!

by the way, goa has the most beautiful water i have ever seen in my life. nothing is half as deep blue. i can't believe it.

for dinner, back to simple simon for a feast of gigantic tandoor paneer, lots of raw-yes raw raw raw-tomatos-the tomatos here in goa are to dye for. i know they say to avoid raw food, but i've been eating tons of salad stuff and nothing but a mild cold so far. tandoor prawns next, and than the big one, white snapper. now this is quite different from red snapper and FAR tastier. half fried. they don't deep fry it, just pan fry the half of it. there's no way i could possibly explain how exquisite this fish was. when in goa, ya gotta eat fish cause it's the best in all of india-sorry veggie heads. your missing out on plenty. BUT they have fabulous strawberry juice, which are in season here and all the ice in goa is made with safe mineral water.

hey cara-the coconuts are 25rps a piece for coconuts here!!!!!! or 2 for 30!!!! needless to say, i will wait for my coconut water till i get to kerala where it costs 10rps. and there's coconut palms all over the place!!! vermon. plus their coconuts here are left in the sun getting nice and hot, which tastes like crap. coconut water needs to be cold. end of story.

we're off to rent our scooter and go visit the capital panaji, where we are sure to find more action than this gorgeous sleepy beach. here's also a hint to those thinking of goa-VISIT IN OCTOBER OR NOVEMBER WHEN YOU CAN HAVE THE ENTIRE BEACH TO YOURSELF. AVOID DECEMBER AND JANUARY WHEN ALL THE RAVERS AND DRUGGIES AND HIPPIES TAKE OVER.

bindifry
*who is patiently awaiting e-mail from her friends back home who have seem to have forgotten here. out of sight out of mind? thanks judy for your mails. *also a note to sweet traci-i found you a beautiful killer shawl i think you will love*