Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Goa: Heaven's paradise






GOA: Heaven’s paradise

The end of something is the beginning of another. Having said that, it means that the end of my amazing trip to Goa means the beginning of my daily routine. And as usual, the write about my experience at the end of amazing and unforgetful trip is always difficult because often, words are not as powerful as what your eyes saw and what your heart felt.

To keep my promise on updating my life chronicle in India to the end, I somehow think it is a must to record yet another chapter of my life onto this blog, as well as my black diary, about everything that happen in Goa and something that must only known to me. So, here I am, trying to consolidate every little point of events in Goa, from the piece of paper into another long-winded updates. At present, I just got back from Goa few hours back and had since decided to skip work, in exchange of nice breakfast and beautiful afternoon.

So, without further ado, lets rock n´roll to my little chronicle;

Day 0

It was Wednesday and I woke up as usual, at 7.30 am. The devil in my mind told me to sleep for another 20 minutes but he prolonged my sleep until 10.30 am. So, I woke up completely demotivated and a complete desire for a lazy day. It was then that I decided to skip my work by preparing a nice and wonderful breakfast, playing good music and read up the rest of Dan Brown’s “Angels & Demons”.

The book was such an intense and adrenaline pumping that I only managed to put in down when I reached the last page, which was around 1.15 p.m. Honestly, the book is going to be my all-time favourite, for a very long time to come, on par with Archer’s “Kane & Abel”.

I started to pack my bag around 3pm and Marielle, Omar, Bernard and I left our home to InOx to meet up with others. The people that in the same trip with me (to Goa) was Marielle (Netherlands), Omar (Egypt), Bernard (Germany), John (New Zealand), Michael CDD (Germany), Thomas C1 (Germany), Tom (UK), Mario (Slovakia), Dennis (Netherlands), Natalia (Colombia), Lars (Germany), Lucia (Portugal), Marielle (Luxembourg), Marjolijn (Netherlands), Nathan (USA), Meike (Germany), Thomas A20 (Germany), Arp (Turkey), Stephanie (Austria), Anita (Austria), Sharly (Iran) and I hope I don’t leave anybody else out.

When the sleeper bus came and when we check in the bus, I was quite surprise to see the sleeper bus. It is nothing like our bus at all. This bus is spacious and is fully furnish with about 15 compartments of double Decker bed, complete with mattress and pillow and bed light. It was my first time to see and travel with such a sleeper bus.

Think of that rock bands´tour bus or simply a celebrity’s buses. This bus is exactly the same. The first part of the 12 hours journey in the bus, I was with Meike and Veronica listening to songs from The Beatles and Eric Clapton.

I felt like a rockstar on the tour. You know…just booze, smoking, reading, music and girls. Throughout the long journey, we stop a couple of time, for dinner and loo.

I brought two books with me, to accompany me throughout the long journey which is Mitch Albom´s “Tuesday with Morrie” and Paulo Coelho´s “The Alchemist”. I started to read few chapters of “Tuesday…” that night and what can I say…It was a great start of what would to become a wonderful journey later.

Day 1

We reach Mapusa town (pronounce as Map-sa) at around 7 am and we were warmly welcomed by group of local cab drivers. It was such a crazy scene. They were chasing us even before the bus had a time to pull a completely stop. And when the bus’s door open, all hands were grabbing us, inviting us to their van and some even were screaming my name (I don’t know how they know my name) as in I was one of the fab four and there were the fans that desire so much of my signature.

We hire few taxi drivers to drive us to our dome, which is located at Sankara hospital. The dome is a Catholic Church’s dormitory. We didn´t manage to get any accommodation nearby any of the beaches simply because it was a peak season in Goa, where lots of tourist, day-trippers and travellers´s only destination.

It was written in the local newspaper that, for this year’s peak season, they estimated about 3 millions tourist in Goa. Although all the prices, from beer to cigarette to hotels to foods to everything were shot up five to ten times than a normal price during this crazy season, it was still consider the greatest trip ever. By the way, Goa is unlike the normal city you will see in India.

Goa is a catholic province where majority of the population is Catholic. And the building, the villages, the road traffic and everything else didn’t look like India at all. In facts, there is this place; a Portuguese settlement really looks like a common sights you will find normally find in Portugal or Spain. Lots of big churches, port, harbour, heritage buildings, and café and bar, first class infrastructures, no traffic congestion, and the whore town were surrounded by sea.

Immediately after checking in, we hire a van to Bagan beach. It was gorgeous. The golden sand and the café alongside the beach were all beautiful and yet simple. We had our breakfast at “Zanzibar café”, a café with wooden and atap hut.

If Phuket beach is all about live bands of Jazz, blues and rocks, then there is only one for Goa; trance/ house music. After putting on sun cream and few chapters of “Tuesday with Morrie”, we went to bathe in the seawater and it was great. Imagine strong wind, big and yet calm wave.

After swimming, bathing and playing with the seawater, we just laid down completely on the long chair and on the sand, enjoying the sunshine and strong wind and trance music. Trance music is really good, hand in hand with a beach life. While Zanzibar café were playing, the café next to it was playing Tracy Chapman´s “fast car”, Eagles´s “Hotel California” and other similar tunes.

Actually, that’s beach life. Doing the same thing and yet nothing for the whole day. Sleeping, sun tanning, reading, music, writing diary, enjoying the wind, ordering good foods, enjoying the sight of sexy babes in bikinis, dancing to the trance anywhere and anytime you wish etc.

Around 3pm, we shifted to “Suhir” café for a nice lunch. While enjoying lunch, there is this fat guy, from Wales, came to us to alarm us that the beach official were busying evacuating the beach after receiving a signal that big wave in underway and most possibly will hit the ocean in half an hour time. The message was suppose to prompt us to move to other safe side, but suprisingly, not even one of us heed the advice.

Tsunami waves catastrophe was such a hot topic and yet, we treated is like nothing like that will happen to Goa and life goes on. Even worst, some of us just laugh at it. This kind of reminds me of the story of Noah, who went around the village reminding all of the possibility of catastrophe but being laughed instead. I felt bad, but at the end I didn’t care. After about an hour or so and the message turn up to be a false alarm, the fat guy ended up with us, talking and sharing our travelling stories.

I went to the bathroom behind the café and was answering nature’s call. There was two sexy Indian chick was waiting outside. What happens was my answer to the nature’s call was a very huge and long one, so big and long that I failed to flush down the hole even though after I tried about 3 times.

This 2 sexy girl were impatiently waiting for me to come out so they can use the toilet but I didn’t want to because the poo was quite big and long. They started to knock at my door, and softly ask “hello, if everything ok?”.

I finally decided to come out and confessed. I looked at the two sexy Indian chicks and told them like a man, with my selamba attitude, that the flush isn’t working, that I tried to flush down the smelly anaconda but I am sorry, it just didn’t work. When I walk back to the café, all I wish was I will not hear in a trance party of someone shout towards my direction saying “Looks, that’s the guy with the big shit”.

When the sun goes down at around 5.30 p.m., the trance party begin at “Zanzibar café”, with a long table, fully equipped with audio-visual materials and lots of turntables. There is about 4 DJs and two of them were a beautiful and gorgeous girl. Everybody was dancing including me. Trance was great and I couldn’t believe it that I can dance to the trance beat quite well…

And there it goes until night.


Day 2

Thomas A20, Sharly, Arp, Stephanie and Anita arrived on our second day while everyone was soundly asleep. After the usual stuff like brushing teeth and face cleansing, we went to “Lilipur restaurant” for a very good breakfast at “Anjoona Beach”. We thought “Bagaan Beach was good but we were wrong until we saw the complete serenity and beauty of Anjoona beach. The rocks, the soft sand, the palm trees, wind of change and the sound of the wave crashing onto the ocean was the sign that our day couldn’t be better.

Trance beat through the big speaker was on the air before the restaurant change the mood to the music of “café del mar” (coffee by the sea). I was ordering hot mint tea, spinach omelette and toast bread and while waiting for it to be served, I went for a swim.

Summersault, dive, and many stupid jumps against the wild wave were really fun and great. And just right before breakfast, I rolled my first joint of the day and the feeling against the beach atmosphere and ambience was simply amazing. Café de mar didn’t last long. Music beat changed to the trance again. We were dancing again. Everybody was smoking joint, pipe, cigarette and bhang everywhere. Perfect moment for the beach. Beers, wine and fruit lassi was also one of my favourite.

Later that day, we went to the beach market to shop for some handy stuff. I brought myself a very cool shirt, a red shirt with ancient tribal symbol of Maharastra tribe people. I also brought myself a necklace and wooden cross. Day 2 was a New Year eve. After a few round more of trance, reading, writing, drinking beers and lassi, empty contemplation and swimming, we went back to our dome and came out again to Anjoona beach. Of course, most of our time, we were not together as a big group. Most of the time, I was with Mario, Meike, John, Marielle and Veronica.

Evening time, we had our dinner near the place where we would later celebrate our New Year. Meike and I did sharing a very good meal of Mexican food and a dessert. The story of the night was before the dinner, I was actually drunk a little. I drank 2 bottle of port wine even before I had my dinner. It goes with practically everyone else, whose activities were merely drinking the whole day against the backdrop of the beach.

“Paradiso” is the name of the open beach- in house club, the most happening open space beach trance/rave/psychedelic party. Of course we had to pay high amount of entrance fees but then again, it was a new year celebration, I would not forgive myself if refrain from going in. The place was so cool. It was on the hilltop of the Anjoona beach. The beach sand carpeted the floor. We were so high up that we can see the tiny ocean hit the small rock and the ocean. It was full moon and clear sky. So many people were there. It was a crazy moment. Once the year of 2004 was officially over and New Year of 2005 were ushered in by many others, whether consciously, sub-consciously or completely unconsciously, and the light and big bang of fireworks, we all knew the night had just begun.

I was so drunk. I reached the last stage of drunkenness, the enlightenment stage, the nirvana of drunkenness; BLACKOUT.

I couldn’t remember how many girls I kisses, how many girls I woo and God knows what else, I couldn’t remember to whom I speak to, couldn’t remember how smooth and hard I dance to the trance party and basically, I couldn’t remember anything. Only in the morning, I felt magical that I was at dome, safe.

Day 3

As the time pass by, I managed to remember a few brief moment of yesterday. Let’s just say about 20% of it.

And throughout the day 3, as different friends told me different story, at different point of the night, I felt happy that I was still alive.

Thomas A20 told me he saved me from falling out of the cliff (because I was found seating on the fence, drunk).

Arp told me that while they were negotiating rate with the van driver, I was shouting “motherfucker” to all the van drivers.

Stephanie and Sharly told me how many times I felled from the stage, on the staircase, on the crush bottle (my palm was badly cut with bruises and all). With all this small fraction of stories, I managed to recall some of the event.

I remember how I pee down the cliff (behind the toilet). I remember how hard I dance. I remember some of the girls I kisses and uhh-uhh-ing and finally I remember how I get home.

The funny part was I didn’t remember drinking anything that night except for the first drink. The entrance fees were suppose to be drinking all you can but I did the other way round. I guess I reached the nirvana of drunkenness from the port wines and beers before I entered “Paradiso”. The trance just brought out the drunkenness in me.

The price to pay, I lost my “Bono” sunglasses, my track bottom, my cap and my new tribe shirt was mostly mudded and of course, the bruises on my palm and the dehydration and hangover morning after.

It was one of the few most memorable New Year celebrations I had. I guess to everyone who’s also drunk; it was truly a night to remember. Mario was also blackout and caught peeing at the corner of our room (church’s dome), Marielle was caught kissing a fellow Dutch trainee from Mumbai. And for everyone else, I am sure they have their own tales to be told.

But all in all, I had fun to the maximum.

Day 3, morning, Natalia woke us up. She was happy singing “Happy New Year” in Colombian despite her hangover. She gave everyone a morning kiss.

The third morning, we had our breakfast at “San Francisco” café. A café located at the edge of the sea. I ordered an eggs fried rice, mint tea and chocolate milk shake. Natalia, Stephanie, Arp, Mario and I were on the same table. I refrained completely from the beers and cigarette the first few hours, a classic case of hangover.

But strange though, the dose of hangover was quite marginal. I guess it must be the scenario of the beach, the wind and the mellow music in the air. At this point of time, I almost finish “Tuesday with Morrie”. It was such a great book. It is a true story about a old guy (Morrie) waiting for death, sharing with the world about his perspective, a thoughtful looks at life, talking about how important love is, how important human relation is, about appreciating people and things around you while still can, about having a simple life yet rich, the culture of our society that make us feel bad and how we should build our own sub culture and so on. His favourite quote was “Love each other or perish”. I can only recommend but it is all up to you.

We were talking about the assassination of Colombian’s murdered Andre Escobar, Carlos Varderama and the crazy goalkeeper. To share with you, Escobar was murdered in 1994 not because he scored his own goal against USA but because of his dirty involvement in drugs with local Mafia. So, what you hear from the media propaganda is not always the truth. At least that was what being speculated..., of course the truth is always out there.

There is quite lots of dogs running around. And being a beach dogs they are of course very friendly, running and playing with me. I named all of them. There is Jimmy, Johnny and Jack which I spent quite a lots of time with them especially Jimmy. There is also few cows walking by the beach, I believe you call them beach cow.

After breakfast, we went to another “Curlies” café at the end of the beach. The whole time was only eating, drinking beers and lassi, smoking cigarette and joint, getting high, reading, writing a diary, pause, reflect, read again, pause, ponder and contemplating at nothing.

Day 3, we met up with group of Mumbai trainees. Some of them I met before and some haven’t. One of them is Lona, from Denmark. She is quite a cun babe. She happens to know Roff Dickson, a Dane trainee in Malaysia, what a small world. Talking about small world, the current trainee in Malaysia is Michael CDD´s faculty mate and friend. There is so many people from all over the world, mostly young people, hippies, students on vacation. Just name it, Portuguese, Turkish, Israelis, Londonite, French, Germans, Slovaks, Swede, Europeans, Japanese, Rastafarian and many more.

Omar on the other hand was celebrating the high-water and big wave by surfboarding to the faraway of the ocean.

Again, after endless trance dancing, lots of reading and writing, drinking and smoking, chatting, playing with dogs, swimming and eating, we went home to clean ourselves.

At night, we went to Bagan beach for a great dinner. It was by the sea. The wave was quite calm, cool wind, cold weather, and clear sky with million clipping stars. Before the dinner could begin, Marielle (Luxembourg), Omar and I went to the edge of the beach, in the boat, surrounded by the palm trees, with complete silence from around, just the sound of wave and wind, we rolled and smoke. That was before dinner. Prawn fried rice and sweet lemon soda was my meal.

Day 4

Like I said earlier, all nice things will come to an end. Day 4 was the end of our amazing trip to Goa. We woke up early, around 8.30 am. Nathan, Natalia, John, Bernard, Meike and I went to Bagan beach for breakfast. Tomato omelette and mint tea was my meal. The breakfast conversation was all about the O.J Simpson case, being a vegetarian, Quentin Terantinno´s movies and so on.

We check out from the church around 12 noon. Mario and Michael CDD decided to stay in the beach longer. We went to “Panjim” the Catholic or Portuguese city. There is lots of big churches, ports, harbours, Casino boats and the best about this town was the building, the architecture of the town planning and the village is very Portuguese.

I bet there must be a lot of “De Souza” out there. At this time, I had finished “Tuesday with Morrie” and the book left me with a melancholy feeling. How do I put it, happy and being sad at the same time. We had our lunch at “Quaterdeck”, a very expensive restaurant by the harbour. I was having a heartburn and hence, no appetite for food. I was also quite tired and didn’t talk much. So, I started a new book, Paulo Coelho´s “The alchemist”. The restaurant was good, playing the evergreen classic such as Elton John´s “Saturday night”, CCR´s “have you ever seen the rain”, Billy Ray´s “Arcy breaky song”, Chris de burgh´s “Lady in red” and other similar hits. Who can ever thought that India could be so difference? How would I know Goa is a heaven’s paradise if I never come to India? Thanks God I came to India.

Life has been good to me thus far. I wasn’t expecting anything before setting my foot in this land and yet, despite many negative things about India thought and told by friends and family, I still have a great time here, a time where I will forever remember until the end of days. Lots of things about India that being told or being thought, was completely untrue.

The travellers and the foreigners especially the Europeans like India as much as they like Thailand. You will never know until you get there. The best thing in life is to come out of your comfort zone, and see the world for your self. I used to say that the best time to do this is at the prime of your youth but “Tuesday with Morrie” had taught me one thing that, there is never too late to do the thing you like, only death will means you are late. When you make a decision, that’s the very beginning of what you going to experience and along the way, you will meet a lots of different people, that share with you different thought, you will experience so many new things in life that you would never think of. And that’s my friend, is life. Life is short and there is no time for us to think about “what if”. If you want to see the world, start now, there is no “what if”. No matter how detail you plan, things will never go your way.

All in all, I had a good life here especially when travelling and dealing with the community despites some minor complaints and low budget but that’s all small matter, which I rather view it positively. Of course I can always ask money from my parents but I rather not, because I want to experience the whole process of being independent, just like how I always were.

I spent all of my saving and my time and there is no way I am not going enjoy myself. Even now, I have no regret whatsoever on the decision I made.

To quote my friend, Alan Toh, a friend who was with me and playing a big role while making the decision to come to India and one of the few I know who reads my daily crap, “when you decide to go traineeship (or living abroad), people will tell you got lion la.., got tiger la…, got elephant la.., got zebra la…” but who are these people to tell you what to do and where to go, it is all up to you to decide. If you have a dream strong enough, nothing will ever stand in your way. You will learn and know when you reach where you are suppose to go and along the way. (Read up Cinderella’s “The roads still long”) which I posted up few weeks ago in this blog which partly inspired my decision.

About an hour before leaving Goa, we chilled out at “CoffeeDay” café, a coffee house that serve a very good coffees and ice latte. I ordered Arabian height ice latte, a thick creamy with flavour of cardomon. CoffeDay play quite a good music such as Byran Adams´”Straight from the heart”, “Back to you”, “Do I have to say a word”, “I wanna be your underwear” and lots more.

After the self-tour in and around the Portuguese town, we departed Goa the heaven’s paradise (I quote from my own experience) at 6pm with the celebrity bus. At the first part of the stop, I had managed to reach 100 pages of Paulo Coelho´s “The Alchemist”. It wasn’t as good as many claims to be or maybe I need to reach to the end to comment. But still, I think it was somewhat overrated la…

At the half stop, we met up with two American (which happen to sleep in next room, same bus) and we bum a piece of joint paper from them. The name is Braddy (looks like Jason Priestly), with REO Speedwagon´s “birds flying away” tattoo on his right arm (REO Speedwagon, the best ballads) and his friend, Thomas, an American-Japanese. (Dad from Mississippi and mum from Japan)

Braddy and Thomas are from South Carolina. Together with them, Marielle, Omar and I, we smoke out before the bus departed from the halfway stop, for what to become a very long and sometime bumpy journey.

Of course I slept all the way and from time to time lighting up a cigarette by the window.

We reached Pune around 9.30 am in the morning.

We were so tired and so demotivated like the day before we went to Goa and so Thomas A20 and I decided to skip work waited until 2pm, we called our boss´secretary to informed her our most lame excuses, that our bus was broken down and that we were stranded for about 3 hours. And of course, she was always fine with us. Omar on the other hand had to go because of his “Kaizen” training workshop. (We all work at the same company)

I type part of this crap and later, a nap, and woke up around 5.30 p.m. Omar was already home and started to roll a very long joint. Marielle (Luxembourg) and Lucia just left us, back to Buldana, another 12 hours bus ride for them.

That’s all. The greatest trip of my life, better than that my Phuket trip. The next trip will be Jaipur, Rajakstan. Another place with a complete feel and surrounding. Just wait for my Goa photo invitation, photos of the beautiful God given beaches, of the girls and the wild parties etc.

With that, Namaste!!

Love & regards,

Peter


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