Goa, You Will Be My New Home!

Goa

And here I thought the Taj Mahal was spectacular! Goa was a million times better. The weather was 34-38C compared to 46C. Even though the air was more humid due to the location being on the Arabian Sea, the breeze kept everything cool.

Goa is a tropical paradise. You have a wide variety of cultures (Several Indian cultures, Portuguese, Spanish, etc) and the day-to-day life of the average Goan reflects those differences. The houses are built with concrete terracotta instead of bricks. And they have a unique Spanish architecture to them that you cannot find anywhere else in India! Not only that, the houses are so colorful! When you add the multi-cultural ambiance to the fact that almost everyone (at least those that you would need to talk to) speak English and everything is fairly cheap, you could understand why people flock to Goa from all over the world!

We arrived to Goa directly from Delhi. It was about 3 hours via Go Air. The plane was newer, the staff was friendly, and I don't think I've looked forward to a mini-vacation within a vacation quite like this! We arrived at the airport where a taxi took us to the Alila Diwa Resort about 20km away. The car was old and beat up; judging my the driving, it made sense why the car felt like it would explode at any minute. The driver was driving at 120km through twists and turns, overtaking people on motorcycles left and right. Rahul said he felt like he was in an F1 (Formula One) race and it was exciting, and I felt like the driver wished that was his real profession. I was scared shitless! Once we finally arrived at the Alila Diwa, we were both breathless over it's beauty.

The Alila Diwa is a new resort in Goa which features modern architecture and aroma therapy/aryuvedic inspiration. The place was definitely five star all the way! We got into our room and I couldn't decide what I wanted to do first, fall asleep on the bed or take a bath.

Now, I've been deprived of a couple of things since my arrival to India. One would be a comfortable bed. Second would be the use of a shower and/or bath tub. My bed at home is modest at best and the same goes for the tub even though they're better than none. Really, it hadn't bothered me until we arrived to the resort. You lay on the beds at the Alila Diwa and you instantly sink into the lap of luxury. Same goes for the huge two person tub!

The night that we arrived, there was a cocktail party for the guests of the wedding. There was some singing/dancing from special relatives who put on the performances for the bride and groom. I wore a black and gold Indo-Western kurta that I picked up in Delhi the night before the flight. I didn't have time to have a tailor make a shirt for me that would be appropriate for the party. None of my clothing would have been appropriate either. I was told by several people that weddings are a reason to get fancy and dress up in the Indian culture so while I didn't want to go “all out”, I didn't want to be “dressed-down” either. I received several compliments from guests that night. They said the shirt was pretty and it looked good on me. Honestly, I wasn't sure if it was the booze talking or if they were just being nice because a white girl was wearing an Indian-ish outfit. Rahul got drunk. His boss (the groom) had called him early during the cocktail party to his room so Rahul could help with a tie. After they decided to skip the tie, they downed a couple shots of vodka. He came back about 20 minutes later and was already starting to get tipsy. Then a couple drinks later, he was drunk. It was fun actually. He really let loose and relaxed. Normally I see him some time before/after work and he's all tense and business-like. I tried to get him to dance but all he would do is sway in his chair.

That night I slept in and slept like a baby. Rahul woke me up around 1030 to ask me if I wanted to go downstairs for breakfast. I declined. I wanted to sleep more! I woke up a short while after and got ready for the day. We were going to go to the beach. Rahul came to get me after breakfast and some how started working. Three hours later, we finally left for the beach. The hotel brought a car to take us to the beach where we were the only people. We spent a good two or so hours playing in the water. There were millions of tiny little muscles at the edge of the water. Every time the water would splash up to the shore, it would wash away the sand on top of the muscle, which would then proceed to bury itself back under the sand. It was fun playing with the muscles, scooping up the sand around them and seeing if they would continue to bury down. While we were splashing around in the water, we noticed tiny little translucent craps scurrying everywhere on the beach. We tried to catch one but those suckers were too fast.

After two or so hours, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. We ended up being late due to the fact that the original hotel worker which was going to help me with my saree left and then we had to wait until another one could show up to help me. I know how to do a saree (thanks to YouTube) but Rahul wanted me to get help since this was supposed to be a formal function. The hotel staff was absolutely delighted that I was wearing a saree. All the girls beamed smiles from ear to ear.

Some guy that was attending the wedding said I looked much different in a saree. I asked him if that meant it looked good and he said “Yes, the saree looks good on you.” Again, I got stares. It took me a while but I noticed why. Most of the females at the wedding wore very fancy and elaborate sarees. Then there were ones that wore very western dresses. None looked as good as me. I had the right mixture of everything. At least, I think so. Maybe I'm being overly confident. The dress was simple, yet elegant. The jewelry I chose matched the saree perfectly and complimented it. You see the Bollywood actresses and they usually end up choosing similar attire. The jewelry would have been wasted on a saree which had too much detail and sparkles. Bigger earrings and a necklace (or smaller) would have made the saree look to plain. Even the groom commented on the jewelry and how elegant it was. Little did everyone know, I only paid $15.50 for the set hehehe The only problem to the outfit was the fact that the sand made it hard to walk and I'm sure I ended up incurring some damage as a result. I know that by the end of the night, I looked like a mess.

The wedding was interesting. It wasn't a typical Indian wedding. There weren't thousands of people there celebrating. Instead, there was about 100 people. The wedding was mostly watched by relatives and the reception was shared by all, which was right after the wedding. After the couple returned from the beach, there was a band which played some songs which included some Bhangra and Goan styled music. I didn't know that Goan music was so popular and so tropical. I loved it. After there was a guy from either Australia or New Zealand which performed some fire-dancing and breathing tricks. The dude was gay as gay could be but he put on quite the show. Then the band returned for some more tunes as people drank, ate, and danced. Then suddenly, the night was over. The band left and people started to leave.

One of Rahul's coworkers (creepy bugger) wanted his picture taken with me so Rahul, the creepy coworker, another coworker, and I headed down to the sea to take some pictures. I could tell by the way the guy kept looking at me and commenting about my outfits, that he had a thing for me. I told Rahul I didn't feel comfortable alone with him so he stayed near by. While we were taking pictures, I had walked behind him to get to the other side and he leaned back to rub against me. That really ticked me off. I told Rahul about it and I think it ticked him off even more.

Again I slept like a baby. The next morning we woke up to check out from the Alila Diwa and head to the Ramada. I saw the resort on Travelocity and convinced Rahul to check in there. We loved the place so much, we ended up staying an extra night! The resort is spread out and covered in palm trees, unlike the Alila Diwa. Instead of a square modern pool, there was a huge beautiful pool surrounded by more palm trees. The pool was the center of the resort. They also had a variety of activities like badmitton, tennis, golf, para-sailing, jetskiing, etc. We wanted to go jet-skiing so we set off to the ocean which was a short walk away from the room. The beach had a restaurant and a bar. The jet-ski would have cost 800 rupees for 10 minutes. Really, it wasn't 10 minutes, it was a quick ride out and back in, five minutes at most. Not only that, we wouldn't have been able to ride together since the operator required that he be on the ski even though I knew how to drive it. Instead, we went out to catch some big waves and ride them in. Rahul was scared at first since he doesn't know how to swim but I quickly got him to open up the idea of letting the wave push you to the shore. The problem is, the poor guy didn't know how to float. After about 2 hours out in the water, I got frustrated so I took him to the pool to teach him how to float. We stayed until the pool closed and I got him about 90% floating. Then we went back to the room to clean up for dinner and headed down to have a buffet pool side. There was a pregnant stray cat that came up to our table and started meowing at us. I wasn't going to feed it until I saw that it was pregnant, then it had my sympathy. The poor cat was probably 1-2 years old (still a baby!) and too skinny to be pregnant. I fed it some rice then Rahul started feeding it chicken. Then the cat wouldn't eat the rice, it got too picky.

Fell asleep in the comfortable (more comfortable than the Alila Diwa) bed and woke up late. We wanted to wake up to watch the sun rise but I think we were both too tired from playing in the ocean and learning to swim. The next morning we went out to the pool and spent about 2 hours trying to get that other 10% of Rahul to float. It wasn't working so I headed over to the island bar (bar in the middle of the pool) to have a pina colada and take a break from swimming. Then we tried some more but I think we both gave up. Good thing we did too! I got sunburnt again, this time just my shoulders =( We took a nap, explored the resort, had a drink at the bar on the beach, played in the Arabian Sea again, slept some more, watched the sun set, and had dinner again pool side.

I could definitely imagine having my wedding there. Not a beach side wedding, but having it at a tropical place where the beach is near by. It's perfect!

The next morning when we checked out, I inquired about the rates for having a wedding and it's surprisingly cheap! The resort is a 5 star resort for a fraction of the cost of the Alila Diwa plus it included more incentives. The only problem in having a wedding at the Ramada Caravela Resort in Goa is getting all of my family to India.

I swear to all of you, family who is reading this: You better get your passports in order because sooner or later (hopefully the former) I will be getting married and I WILL be having my wedding there. You don't want to miss out because you didn't get your passport in time!

Anyway, after checking out, we took at taxi to a beach near the airport to drop of my GeoCaching gnome. The taxi driver was very nice and found the beach but unfortunately the bar where the cache was kept was closed down for the season =( Instead, we grabbed a quick snack, a drink, and invited our driver to join us. He talked about the fact that he hasn't always been a taxi driver. He used to work on a ship which transported lime stone from Mexico. After 20 years of working there, he had to quit because the salt water was giving him heart problems. You always hear about people taking taxi rides and the drivers end up being pretty cool. I have been here for almost 2 months and this was the first time, and it wasn't in Delhi. It's neat listening to people's life stories. You don't look at others the same way after.

We bought some Goan cashews at the airport and took a flight back to Delhi with a stop in Mumbai. Mumbai (from the air) is INTERESTING! There are slums surrounding the airport and all over Mumbai. Apparently, the slums aren't really full of poor people, just people that can't afford the high cost of living in apartments in Mumbai. Rahul was commenting that even if he had his current job down there, there would be no way he could afford an apartment. That is why the government won't get rid of the slums and that's why you find the slums in pretty decent condition. I was expecting to see something like Slumdog Millionaire but it was actually pretty decent which scared me a bit.

We arrived back in Delhi around 730. It was 41C (106) after the sun set which made me want to get back on a plane for Goa. The prepaid taxi which took me back to my home in Defence Colony wasn't air conditioned. Luckily, the driver drove like a bat out of hell and was taking weird turns instead of staying on the high way so he was constantly driving. The guy didn't speak English, I don't speak Hindi, but we some how managed to understand each other and I got home at a decent time.

Now, I'm tired but it's too hot in my room. The AC is turned on high and down to 18C yet it still feels like an oven. It's now almost 1AM and it's still 37 (99F) which means I probably won't get a good night's sleep since it's too hot. My room might be 90-95 even with the fan and AC going. I want a swamp cooler so bad! If this were my actual apartment, I would put one in. This AC doesn't cool very well. Well...nothing in this room works quite right, but that's India!