Mandrem

"Do you want to ride the scooter back?" I asked Allison, "yes ok, I may as well". How was I to know that she was lacking in confidence and her previous scooter riding days had abandoned her memory , perhaps she could have told me? I gave her the basic starting up of the vehicle instructions and thought that would be enough. "Keep your hand on the brake, give a little bit of acceleration and press the ignition in", "how do I stop, how do I stop" she says as the bike jolts forward, "use the brakes!" I shout. The bike falls from underneath her and lands on the floor but she remains miraculously on her feet.

I'm more worried about the bike than her which obviously doesn't go down too well, but I can see she is okay and not in any pain. Its not like Agonda here, I had to leave £100 deposit, a copy of my passport and pay for ten days rental in advance. Any damage and I'd have to pay, that is why the scooter took the majority of my attention. "Are you okay" I belatedly ask, no response was forthcoming.
People ride like lunatics here, they speed passed on their scooters and Royal Enfield motorbikes without a care in the world. Shorts, flip flops and without helmets is the bike riding fashion. If you crash you'll feel it.

I wear no protective clothing like I would back home, I take partial solace in the fact that I ride slowly and more safely than the others on these roads. As for the other westerners they try to ride like the Indians but inevitably more often than not come a cropper to their inexperienced sometimes drunken riding skills.

I miss Agonda, it was more chilled and the people seemed nicer down south. Here in Mandrem and especially Arambol people don't seem as honest, I feel like I'm trying to second guess them all the time, do they have an ulterior motive? what is his play? But perhaps its just me and I need to chill out.

I've come to the conclusion that westerners are weak when it comes to our immune systems. I've had a cough more or less since being here, my cold had finally gone after about a month and a sore throat that we both had until we decided on using bottled water to brush our teeth with instead of using tap water. Not only that but the other night whilst in bed I suddenly became nauseous, I dragged myself out of bed and stood over the toilet, hands strategically placed on the cistern, then toilet seat, then slightly above my knees. Nothing came, so I sat down in a chair in the lounge awaiting the inevitable. Back in bed I went, back to the toilet, back in the chair, this continued and it wasn't till the fourth cycle that I found out that the best position to put my hands in was on the toilet seat. I made a sound like a lion as I heaved up the contents of my stomach, "raarrrggghhhh". It felt like my stomach lining and throat were being ripped apart. I then managed to breathe with the heave, so as the contents came up, I exhaled, again I used this method, heave, exhale. It made the throwing up a more bearable experience.

My Delhi belly lasted a night and day, it cleaned out my insides from both ends and then luckily departed as quickly as it came. I finally felt cleansed and able to kickstart my Yoga training in Arambol.
Basically the Indians have stomachs made of steel and must have very strong immune systems. Their insides must have bacteria fighting warriors that crush all comers. Although I'd like to see how they'd get by on a western diet.

I ate a snickers the other day and it was like I had died and gone to heaven. My first chocolate bar since leaving home and it was well worth the wait. Absolutely scrumptious.

We both seem to be settling in more to the way of life here. I was a bit sceptical about spending a whole month here when we first arrived but I think that was just based on our first impressions and accommodation finding experiences. We landed on our feet with this apartment. One thousand rupees a night for a two bedroom apartment with hot water and a washing machine, Get in there!

We were paying exactly the same for the shit shack. I have now paid the whole months money to the owner Sudhir in advance and am still waiting for him to kick us out and replace us with higher paying Russky's but it hasn't happened yet so I think he'll have to put up with us.

                                            Will he or won't he kick us out?
The rest of the apartments in the block are frequented by Russians. There are so many of them here in north Goa, about 80% of the tourists are Russians. I've given me and Allison a task to befriend some before we leave as they all seem so stony faced and unapproachable. Neither of us has had any luck yet, I'll keep you posted.

                                              Everything written in Russian
Apparently the Russians started coming here in the 1990's a bit further down the coast in Morjim. The Russian Mafia bought up a lot of the properties in Morjim and their fellow compatriots started to go on holiday there. They have slowly been moving further up and down the coast and are now the dominant nation in Goa.

At the course Allison is assisting on, there is a meditation course running simultaneously. The only thing is, this isn't a normal kind of meditation. It is an extremely loud and scary kind of meditation, like something I've never heard of, and apparently like good Russians that they are, all this loud meditation takes place at 05:30 in the morning. Fuck everyone else who's sleeping we are gonna scream and shout and make noise like we are murdering someone or being murdered by someone. I haven't witnessed this early morning ritual myself as luckily we decided not to stay there but I did experience a recording of said ritual as another female assistant on the course decided to record it on her phone. If only I could download it to the blog, because if you heard it, you would assume some heavy shit was going down.

Allison is in constant war with the mosquitoes here. Come six o clock in the evening they come out in force for an hour and a half. They buzz around her like a cloud of dirt following pigpen (the peanuts character in Snoopy).

 

We've tried four different types of repellent (two sprays, one cream and one oil) but she must just taste too sweet for them annoying insects. You can almost see them putting on napkins whenever she's about. At least rose water seems to lessen the itch a little bit.