Back to the grind from Goa. Great little weekend getaway: beach, nice hotel, night life and temples. I left Bangalore at about 4 am (having only slept 2 hrs) and was on the beach by 9 am. Awesome beach, no one in sight and amazing tanning conditions. TT, I'm talking about high intensity, low UV!! I was pretty much the only person on the beach and the waves were good enough to try to surf. Having only tried once and no one around to laugh, I had a blast getting dominated by the Arabian sea. I walked around the beach for hours and then finally found the place to be: Aaron's Beach hut where i sat for lunch, drinks and some local card playing. Indians love playing gin. I had lunch there which was just ridiculous since they had just brought in a catch of shrimp, put it on the grill and served. Best shrimp of my life fo sho.

High intensity, low UV

Viet, this is your type of place.

Cards with the boys. i have no idea what any of their names were.

Shrimp right off the boat:

I stated at the hotel that Skydonk recommended and much to my surprise it was an anti-buzzkill suggestion. The place was amazing and they upgraded me for no reason so I had a suite the size of a house, but only spent about 4 hours in there including sleep.

The place was empty including at the pool.

MUDIS, What? Indian Tea?

After some playing cards with the locals, I went sightseeing to some Hindu temples (no pictures since my camera died). I was very touched by the passion the people had when entering their temple. Everyone brings flower of fruit offerings and say prayers to their respective God(s) . I sat down and just observed what was going on, on which i knew nothing but could definitely appreciate. I was also taken back by the sheer poverty in which the people near the temples live. It would be hard to explain, but I was definitely taken back. This is true everywhere I have been in India but I held back in writing about it, but I think it is worth a note that a majority of the 1 billion people in India live in what we would call poverty.

After a long day d temple hopping, I had some dinner and went out in North Goa. Since i was solo, I pretty much kept to myself, but some cool people from Delhi started talking to me and then we had a good time. I'll be meeting up with them when i swing by Delhi. Anyway, we did nothing more than just smoke a hookah and drink Hoegarden. Actually come to thin about it, it was an amazing night. Mango Passion was definitely a crowd favorite.

Saturday night: A hoe and a hookah

I could not resist some late night Indian Snacks. Probably the dumbest thing I have done since you have to watch what you eat, but dang it was good!

Went home around 5 am, slept for 3 hours and woke up to go into the jungle. It was an awesome drive up the mountains, again holding on to sweet life while you weave in and out of on-coming traffic. And finally, we come to find the highlight of my Goa trip: his name was babo ( i think). Elephants are enormous when you are 2 ft away from them. I hopped on and tool a stroll a road around a spice plantation. Pretty unique experience . At some point the elephant actually stopped listening to the master and did some growling and started backing up, but a few pats on the head with a bamboo stick and the 3 ton animal conceeded to his 120 lb owner.

Back in Bangalore now, still putting in some long hours but I have Friday to look forward to: the beginning of my tour of India, from Mysore to Delhi in 7 days.

One more note: I lost my bank card, so now i have to figure out how to get money. Is anyone surprised? Things like this are expected when I leave the house.