Arambol, Goa

Like the waves, the days roll into one another. I look back & see a vast body of watery time:  almost one month in Arambol (a beach in Goa). Trying to remember individual days is like forcing the waves back into a shape after they’ve emptied themselves on the shore.

Imagine paradise.  Imagine a postcard of a palm~fringed, white~sandy beach.  Imagine fresh papaya juice for breakfast & an endless supply of coconuts.  Imagine listening to the waves as you sleep.  Imagine being so overwhelmed by the existence of so many incredible aspects of your daily life, that you don’t even know which ones to list on your blog!

The entrance into paradise wasn’t without its challenges. First, Antoine missed his plane from France to India.  Then 3 days before he was to take his new flight, he announced that he might stay in France for another 6 weeks.  So, this gave plenty turbulence to my settling in Arambol.  Running parallel to this story, was a joyful reunion with Ashika (one of my best friends for 12 years) & his 2 sea-monkey children.  His wife, Lhamo (also my dear friend) was having problems getting her India visa & was stuck in her homeland of China.

When planning our reunion, we had imagined all of us together & it seemed strange that both of our partners were stuck in their own countries. The days passed, the tides rose and fell & the stories unfolded themselves.  We constantly reminded ourselves to stay in our Centre especially when part of us felt we were drowning in the unknown.

As always, hindsight allows us to see that the Universe was working in our favour & plans things with more love and care than we could ever achieve with our chattering~monkey~minds.  Antoine arrived on the flight that he originally thought he wouldn’t be able to take.  Lhamo arrived yesterday having studied T’ai Chi with a great master in Kunming for 3 weeks.  Ashika got to integrate himself & the children in India before Lhamo arrived & had the precious experience of looking after the sea-monkeys alone. 

So those were some of the stories that spread themselves like foam on the rolling waters & are now disappearing, merging into the very being of the ocean.

***

Before Antoine arrived, i took an apartment downstairs from Ashika and the children. There’s a large kitchen with gas hobs and a fridge (which is a first for me in India!).  Our bedroom window opens into vivid greens of sunlight palm leaves.  The balcony is secluded & enclosed by the same bright, swinging palm leaves.  We are level with the middle of thicker trees, and can see tree-tops disappearing into true, blue skies. It’s like sitting in a jungle hide.

Kitchen

more kitchen

bedroom (boyfriend & pyschadelic wall hanging not included)

view from bed

wall painting included

balcony

more balcony

 We have better amenities here than in the Canadian Yurt. The most notable are: running water!!! (sometimes it’s even HOT running water!),  double bed & a grocery store at the bottom of our apartment (in Canada we had to drive 25 mins to find groceries).

Not only is there a shop, but there’s also a fruit & veg stall.  This is another quintessential part of paradise. Fruit & veg without barcodes!  When you have to check carefully through the pile of misshapen tomatoes, to be sure you choose good ones.  And the price is incredible.  Yesterday for 270rs (under £3/$5/E4), i bought:

2 large, ripe papayas

1 pineapple

1 large mango

1 pomegranate

2 avocados

700g oranges

1 sweet cantaloupe melon

1 large watermelon.

Antoine bought us a blender so we can now make juices at home.  Coming home from a morning swimming in the sunshine, to chunks of watermelon, straight from the fridge ~ bliss.

It’s under a 5 minute walk to the sea.  I don’t know exactly how many minutes it is, because to walk through the coconut grove is so joyful, it’s not really worth counting.

***

My favourite part of the day is the sunset.  The beach is on the West Coast of India, so we watch the blood red sun sink into the water each night.  The colours of the beach are divine.  This, in itself, is spectacular.  However, it’s more about the people who gather on the beach at this time. It would be easy to say “hippies” and wave the hand, but if you look a little closer, you’ll see that most people here are actually incredibly talented.  The flamenco guitarist & dancers, fire performers, acro~yoga partners, hula~hoopers, the drum circle of currently around 15 djembes, one~handed hand~standers, didgeridoo performers, t’ai chi practitioners, people dressed in funky & chic clothes they’ve designed themselves to be sold at the weekly market here. People sit and play music together, some sing.  Some dance.  Some walk by.  Some sit in smaller circles talking with friends. There are families & people of all ages.  The sense of community, that everyone is a friend, is beautiful & inspiring.  A magical current running between us, uniting us like the waves as we flow together on the golden sunset sands of Arambol.

ALSO....incase you missed it on facebook, here's a video Antoine made:
https://vimeo.com/lovethrualens/goawatch

Antoine wants me to tell you how big his muscles are after all the swimming & body surfing he's doing!

First Day in India

i had a feeling when i was walking onto the plane to take me to india.  it took me a long time to put into words.  It was the feeling that if i were about to die, say in a few months, i wouldn't be doing anything any differently.  i am so happy.  It's a wonderful feeling to walk towards your dreams.  Even if you don't know exactly how they're going to turn out, or exactly what they look like.  But you know you're headed in the right direction.  i am so grateful.

My first day in india, in no particular order, i....bought silver sparkly bindis.  Got business cards made and whilst doing the layout had my first proper chai in 2 years ~ so sweet it made my gums inhale sharply.  Touched a cow in the street.  Tried on shoes in 3 shops and bought purple leather sandals with lotuses on them for under £2.50. Spoke hindi, nepali, french & english.  Rode in a rickshaw with stranger angels, a girl holding my hand and giggling and yabbering away to me in Hindi as we zipped and popped and whirred our way through the traffic.  i put a bindi on her forehead when i left - there was so much love flowing through her eyes (the family saved me at a busy subway station & lead me through a dark underpass which i would've been scared to cross alone).  Talked with 3 tourists in the street.  One, an american who's been living in Pahar Ganj for 3.5 years! Another a British guy living in Goa riding a motorcycle who helped me find a good money changer.  The last plonked himself down at my table as i was enjoying my first meal ~ momos!  He was from Siberia, so we chatted about that corner of the world.  Drunk a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice for >40p.    Organised being picked up from the airport in Goa the following day.  Took the uber-modern subway from the airport to the railway station down town & wondered if Delhi had changed, because the aiport is so chic & clean now, as is the metro.  "Wait for it" i told myself as i walked toward the exit.  "Wait for it" as i passed the gates...and WHOOMPH there it was the colours, the movement, the people, the colours, the smells, the heat, the noise exploded around me and rippled through every cell in my body.  Weaving my way through the passengers of the station, my backpack getting heaver with each step, eventually feeling unbearable after 30 minutes of walking, coupled with the brain drain of my neurological receptors adapting to the circus of india performing in the immediate space around my body, and spreading out through the furthest horizon.  Seeing the backpacker street, Pahar Ganj, and all the touts blabbering away with each footstep...it is all so familiar.  For under £10, i bought suncream, shampoo, conditioner, massage oil, 3 bars of soap (all are herbal, with essential oils & the creams are SLS and paraben free!)  Skyped Mum & Dad as men stood behind me in the hotel and stared at the screen.  Mum & Dad laughed as make shift ladders were past behind my head and motorbikes brrrrrrpapapapapd past the window.  Their old family friend joined them for her first ever skype & i spoke to this distant friend for the first time since i was a child.  i went to a costa coffee in a posh area to meet a Delhi photographer friend in the evening (who'd spent the last 2 nights with Antoine, who flew to France 5 hours before i landed in Delhi but is returning on Monday).  There was nothing to drink here without caffine or sugar.  And i didn't want either because i was running on zero sleep from the plane ride from Paris the night before.  A coffee or sugar hit could send me over an edge i'd be scared to cross in Delhi.  Bought the book, Cloud Atlas.  Saw a huge cockroach running in the street.  Tackled a ninja-quick mosquito who alluded me.  Showered (which means i threw small buckets of cold water over myself).  Realised the date i arrived 23 10 2013 is really cool, which i'll have to write when i register in every hotel.  Passed through customs, collected my bag which (as ever) i was slightly doubtful of it arriving, but it showed up in all its purple glory.  Listened to my friend's radio show, (yes, Lady Miss Emma your show has now been aired in India!) as i unpacked, repacked & organised a bag of warm clothes to be left in a luggage place.  i washed 2 pairs of knickers by hand.  whilst waiting for my friend in Costa i read the Hindustan Times cover to cover (sport & economics not included) but i couldn't complete the 4* suduko and could feel my brain protests at being used in such a way at 9pm after no sleep the night before).  Chatted with Vishal and met his friends who talked about the sexualisation of comic book heros and heronies and the differences in the potrayal of the two (at least i think that's what the topic was, it was pretty specialist and fast and hard to follow - kind of like new yorkers all jacked up on coffee & cigarettes debating uber-precise aspects of a niche topic).  They were super nice and very interesting people.   The THRILL of the day though (and family you may want to skip this bit) was the enfield ride to the subway.  Antoine and i met Vishal 2 years ago on his motorcycle in Leh - he's been riding all over the country & taking photos (some for National Geographic). i held onto the back as we left the coffee shop and he pushed the engine up up up...one of the most powerful engine ever built for an enfield and it's one of only 100 in the world, 5 of which exist in India.  Adreniline central.  So exhilerating and scary.  Let go and you die.  Something hits us.  You die.  Anything other than the plan and we die.  WOOOOHOOOO.  i can trust him driving like that.  It felt amazing & was over in about 3 minutes...like an indian rollercoaster.

(i'd like to add that i will consider using paragraphs & structure for future posts, but wanted to try to show some of the FULL ON-ness of india which never stops.  If i was being more authentic i wouldn't even have used punctuation because india barely allows you a moment to catch your breath.)