As of writing this, I am comfortably seated in a rocking chair on our "beach" hut's veranda. On the table next to me there is an almost empty 200ml glass bottle of coke - icey cold as it spent the night in the minibar - and my Desire Z running Spotify. Not a cloud in sight, and I'd guestimate mid 30's as far as the temperature is concerned. There is a hint of wind, just enough to make it nicer to sit outside than inside under the roof-mounted fan running at max. Mentioning that, I should also note that this is the first of these we've dared running flat out, the others seem about to obliterate themselves at half speed already as they are neither fastened or balanced. Makes for an interesting thrill at least.
The day started quite differently though; the first alarm went off at 0600. At that time of day there is no sun nor heat; if anything it was rather cold getting out of bed. By 0730 our preordered autorikshaw was standing outside, ready to drive us down to the beach. It is but 300 meters away, but with Susanne's bad foot it was worth the Rs100 (seems to be the default price for any kind of tuktuk/taxi ride around here). Once at the beach we headed for the south end, met up with a friend we met at a party a couple of nights ago and soon after an outrigger boat came crawling onto the sand. Carrying Sue aboard so as not to get her support bandage wet, we were soon headed out of the shallows and searching for dolphins. Meeting up with a couple of similar boats a kilometre or so out, we soon spotted several of them. They were illusive though, and only allowed us short glimpses every now and then. I guess they were just tired of tourists and wanted to have their breakfast in peace. We then went north to "Butterfly Beach" which looks like a butterfly from above, then further north to Honeymoon Beach. They are both very small beaches, literally only a stone-throw wide. Making a lazy curve back towards our beach the short journey came to an end roughly 1 hour 10 minutes after we departed. A really nice way to start the morning, and as always, the fresh ocean air makes for a great appetite.
We found ourselves at the bottom of the rickety walkway leading up to the cliffside restaurant we visited on Saturday for a sunset drink, and our newfound friend joined us for breakfast. She went for a curd(yoghurt)/fruit/müsli-bowl while Susanne and I went for the special breakfast of the establishment; grilled mushrooms and tomatoes, baked beans, eggs to order, toast, butter, marmelade, fresh juice and tea or coffee. I opted out of the tomatoes and Sue skipped the butter and the eggs - mine were scrambled. Black tea for both of us (I really have to get around to write about the whole tea-thing) and orange juice all 'round. I'm starting to feel better after my run-in with some bad food on Saturday (probably the "lasagne" at the same place, or the wraps at the party) and food tasted great after a complete lack of interest in food for a day.
Our friend, on a break from her involvement with MSF, headed off to change place of residence to a beach further south - we are invited to have dinner with her there later - and we slowly made our way up the beach again, looking into some of the shops along the palmline.
[*soaks a cloth with cold water for Susanne, who is quite occupied with melting in the heat, and brings another Coke from the minibar before sitting down again. Leatherman Wave bottle-opener ftw!]
Not finding anything interesting in the shops - they really should branch out and specialize a little, they all sell exactly the same stuff - we ended at a beachfront bar for refreshments. Susanne got herself some water and a pastaplatter, while I got a "coke" (pepsi) and a pancake. I was getting a little restless as I had promised to bring the dishes from last night back across the street "in the morning" as well as paying for the food, and although everything here is running on Goa time, I'd still like having my ends covered and maintain a good standing with the local waterholes.
[* War - Lowrider on the phone's speaker, with a nice added sound effect of empty coke bottle adding to the experience. Next up: Moby - Flower. Just noticed that the power (and internet) is gone again. It will be back at some point. And gone again a little later.]
Once back "home" again, after delivering the dishes, picking up new supplies of Coke for the minibar and delivering a photocopy of my passport for the reception, I sank back into the nice rocking chair I mentioned earlier and the end of this little blog entry becomes the beginning.
[ Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy train played through coke bottle is clearly a step up]
Oh, right. Tea. I never liked tea until we were seated for a showing of various cloth items in Mandawa. I was served a home-brewed black tea with sugar. I've been hooked since, although none have come close so far as all the rest were disappointingly teabag-based. I will have to inspect my mothers collection of exotic teas when I get home - or perhaps rather our gourmet-store's offerings of the same.
The day started quite differently though; the first alarm went off at 0600. At that time of day there is no sun nor heat; if anything it was rather cold getting out of bed. By 0730 our preordered autorikshaw was standing outside, ready to drive us down to the beach. It is but 300 meters away, but with Susanne's bad foot it was worth the Rs100 (seems to be the default price for any kind of tuktuk/taxi ride around here). Once at the beach we headed for the south end, met up with a friend we met at a party a couple of nights ago and soon after an outrigger boat came crawling onto the sand. Carrying Sue aboard so as not to get her support bandage wet, we were soon headed out of the shallows and searching for dolphins. Meeting up with a couple of similar boats a kilometre or so out, we soon spotted several of them. They were illusive though, and only allowed us short glimpses every now and then. I guess they were just tired of tourists and wanted to have their breakfast in peace. We then went north to "Butterfly Beach" which looks like a butterfly from above, then further north to Honeymoon Beach. They are both very small beaches, literally only a stone-throw wide. Making a lazy curve back towards our beach the short journey came to an end roughly 1 hour 10 minutes after we departed. A really nice way to start the morning, and as always, the fresh ocean air makes for a great appetite.
We found ourselves at the bottom of the rickety walkway leading up to the cliffside restaurant we visited on Saturday for a sunset drink, and our newfound friend joined us for breakfast. She went for a curd(yoghurt)/fruit/müsli-bowl while Susanne and I went for the special breakfast of the establishment; grilled mushrooms and tomatoes, baked beans, eggs to order, toast, butter, marmelade, fresh juice and tea or coffee. I opted out of the tomatoes and Sue skipped the butter and the eggs - mine were scrambled. Black tea for both of us (I really have to get around to write about the whole tea-thing) and orange juice all 'round. I'm starting to feel better after my run-in with some bad food on Saturday (probably the "lasagne" at the same place, or the wraps at the party) and food tasted great after a complete lack of interest in food for a day.
Our friend, on a break from her involvement with MSF, headed off to change place of residence to a beach further south - we are invited to have dinner with her there later - and we slowly made our way up the beach again, looking into some of the shops along the palmline.
[*soaks a cloth with cold water for Susanne, who is quite occupied with melting in the heat, and brings another Coke from the minibar before sitting down again. Leatherman Wave bottle-opener ftw!]
Not finding anything interesting in the shops - they really should branch out and specialize a little, they all sell exactly the same stuff - we ended at a beachfront bar for refreshments. Susanne got herself some water and a pastaplatter, while I got a "coke" (pepsi) and a pancake. I was getting a little restless as I had promised to bring the dishes from last night back across the street "in the morning" as well as paying for the food, and although everything here is running on Goa time, I'd still like having my ends covered and maintain a good standing with the local waterholes.
[* War - Lowrider on the phone's speaker, with a nice added sound effect of empty coke bottle adding to the experience. Next up: Moby - Flower. Just noticed that the power (and internet) is gone again. It will be back at some point. And gone again a little later.]
Once back "home" again, after delivering the dishes, picking up new supplies of Coke for the minibar and delivering a photocopy of my passport for the reception, I sank back into the nice rocking chair I mentioned earlier and the end of this little blog entry becomes the beginning.
[ Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy train played through coke bottle is clearly a step up]
Oh, right. Tea. I never liked tea until we were seated for a showing of various cloth items in Mandawa. I was served a home-brewed black tea with sugar. I've been hooked since, although none have come close so far as all the rest were disappointingly teabag-based. I will have to inspect my mothers collection of exotic teas when I get home - or perhaps rather our gourmet-store's offerings of the same.
Herlig blogg. Daniel. Du skriver så jeg ser alt for meg. Klem og skriv mer. Me like :-))
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