Merry christmas

As I mentioned earlier, I spent my gift budget already and won't be getting you any presents or "something nice" from India. Partially the decision grew because of the sheer misery and poverty there and the fact that people are really struggling for even the basic needs like clean water and everyday food. It might sound a bit pious but buying some useless crap that looks nice for people who already have everything they need to live a good and happy life just didn't feel right after everything I saw back there.

So I bought a camel.

Technically I didn't buy it but our host at the camel safari, Mega, did. He was born in the desert of Rajastan some 37 years ago and has been doing camel safaris for seven years. He is illiterate but has managed to learn english by speaking with the tourists and gradually building up his vocabulary. All this time he has been working as just a driver for other people and making really lousy money from it as they really don't have a concept of minimum wage in India. His greatest dream was to found his own company to be finally able to support his family and truly work for himself but for that he needed a camel first. He is very experienced in the safari business and the whole experience was really great by all the food he made and all the stories he told. In addition to that he came through as a very humble and true person so the idea grew up on me during the night in the desert. We had been talking about the cost of living and the amount he makes and what it costs to buy a camel and it turned out that for him, a camel is about half a years gross salary. Of course he has to use that salary to support his family and himself so he had calculated that after three more years of saving he might be able to get one. For me the amount was something I might have spent on christmas gifts for my friends or during a bit more expensive night out. So I gave him quite likely the largest tip he has ever received on one condition: he has to buy a camel. So now he is the proud owner of Tikku (not sure how to spell it but you pronounce it like the finnish word for splinter). He is a three-year-old male and needs about a year of training and growing up before being fully able to do safaris and carry people and goods. After that he should have at least 6 or 7 years of mileage left so hopefully your christmas present this year has changed one persons life completely for the better.

Mega with a camel.

Be grateful of everything that you have got. If you are able to read this text, let alone actually own the computer you are reading this with, you are amongst the wealthiest people in the world.

Safe and sound

Okay, it has been two days in Finland now and according to my expectations, the temperature was exactly the same on the day of return as it was on the day of departure. Now it is freezing and there is even a patch of snow in the ground. So a somewhat white christmas.

The Mumbai airport (the 5th worst place to sleep in the world according to Sleeping in airports) was indeed a heavily air-conditioned airport with no comfortable seats to be found anywhere. So two hours of on/off sleep during my 14 hours waiting time combined with the joys of economy class flying resulted in a rather sleepless 48 hours. Eventually I did reach my home town and been mostly recovering ever since. It is apparently christmas if I look at the gifts and christmas foods but still I'm not feeling the christmas magic. But I guess the main thing is that I'm back home safely.

City life

Panaji is actually a nice, quiet little city. Not too many tourists and a lot of restaurants packed by locals. And if you thought restaurants in the beach were cheap, try here... A veg thali can be bought for 25Rs. Crazy.

I've also tried to have a soft landing to the western civilization and went to see a Hollywood movie
to a local theater. Not that there's anything wrong with Hindi as a language, but when people are speaking in English it makes the storyline amongst many other things that much clearer. And an interesting fact was that they played the Indian national anthem in the beginning of the movie and everyone was standing up. Not wanting to be disrespectful I jumped up also and for the duration of the song, the theater was interestingly calm. Funny, can't really see the same thing happening in Finland for example.

The duration of my stay in India can now be counted in hours rather than days. Sad in a sense but actually I'm quite glad to go home for a while.

Damn Vasco

Frustration. That's the word.

I arrived to Vasco as intended but it turned out that hiring a scooter was nearly impossible in that god-forsaken part of land they so adorably call a city. Only ones available were around 500Rs but after driving around with a similar one for less than 200Rs/day the offer didn't seem that tempting. So I walked back to the bus station and took a bus to Panjim. Or Panaji as they like to call it nowadays. Could have taken the direct one from Margao if I only would have known. But now I'm living in a fairly nice two twin-bed room in a nice area for 400Rs/night. The second most expensive accommodation so far the most expensive one being in Colva for 500Rs. But since euro is now around 66Rs instead of the 58 it was on the worst days of my trip I can splurge the rest of my rupees in peace.

Two days left. And today was the first time I felt like starting my trip back home. I guess it is true that all good things come to an end.

The last in line

Just another day in Southern Goa apart from the fact that I returned Holy Diver today and tomorrow I'll be taking the bus to Vasco Da Gama and hopefully rent a new scooter from there because spending one night in the city doesn't really appeal to me. Then I'll be off to strange highways and look for some accommodation, hopefully before the nightfall because normally I speed at night and that wouldn't be wise around here with angry machines and holy cows on the road. Well, I am maybe too careful on the subject and get cold feet quite easily but driving on the wrong side of the road isn't better in the dark - no matter what they're telling you. The speed bumps for example are virtually invisible when the sky and all the surroundings are black.

Key to the mystery.

Things worth missing

Now with under a week to go you start to wonder about all the things you will be missing when you get back. Here are some things listed in non-particular order:

Barbershops
1e for a haircut and 30c for a manual shave. Even though the quality of the services might vary, at least the shavings are consistent and the quality is around the mach-3 area. But when you can get 7 shaves for the price of a single razor blade you can't really complain. Especially since the feeling of someone else doing it for you is just awesome.

Food
It might be the thing here. Insanely good food at insanely cheap price. Just the cost of the main ingredient is often more expensive in Finland than the finished dish here. And also to be noted is the awesomeness of the ubiquitous vegetarian meals. I would have no problems whatsoever being a vegetarian here.

Weather
Have to admit it, 30+ degrees centigrade during the day and 20+ degrees by night really feels nice. Could definitely get used to this. Also it might be worth mentioning that I have succeeded on making this trip without any sunscreen or sunburns for that matter. Guess you can substitute use of sun-protection with sensible tanning.

Prices
One can truly feel like a millionaire here. Everything is really cheap by western standards. Sometimes while haggling on the market you present the salesperson with a seemingly ridiculously low price and after a while finding yourself buying it for the same sum. And they are making profit with that! Incredible. But I guess it is a clue that most commonly used note in the euro area (20e) is worth more than the most valuable note here (1000Rs). And don't even think about paying anything except 4 digit numbers with those, people just don't have that much change on them. And some are even reluctant to take those as they are only good for really big purchases.

Advertising

Apart from being glued to my TV on the night after the Mumbai terror attacks I haven't really watched that much TV while being here. But the times that I have opened the devils box of laziness it has been quite entertaining to see how they are advertising here. Of course the influence of Bollywood movies is one theme around which some ads are built on but seeing some branded items being sold is a bit confusing. For example they have an ad for Zeiss glasses where there is a guy in office, showing off his brand-watch and brand-shoes but when a girl looks in a really interested manner over the wall of his cubicle it just strikes to her that his glasses don't have any brand markings. "What's that on your eyes?" she says and loses her interested. In comes the Zeiss optics "With brand mark". (laser engraved logo in the specs). And some slogan in Hindi about style and brand.

I guess just the fact that something has a "brand" is enough to sell the product to gullible buyers here. Oh well, to each his own. It just strikes as a blatantly pathetic attempt to make your product seem better for no reason at all. But when you come down to it, that's what branding is all about. Advertisers in the west just try to be more subtle on the subject whereas the Indians just try to convince people that it actually is a brand.

Beware of the dogs

Those of you more familiar with my history with dogs understand that I'm not too fond of them. A well-raised and a familiar dog doesn't pose any threat but whenever I'm faced with a new dog it gives me some degree of uncertainty even if it would be a smiling white Westie straight out of a dog food commercial. Mainly I'm over my cynophobia originating from bad childhood experiences but I have to tell that being walked home at night by 20 or so stray dogs barking and growling at me does give me an unpleasant adrenaline rush. Yeah, shouldn't be walking on their territory after dawn but unfortunately there aren't any signs posted besides public roads marking the territories of different packs.

And the original inventor of the quote "dogs can smell fear" didn't make it any easier and those 500m seemed like the longest ones I've ever had to walk. Mainly it is the feeling of unpredictability about canines that creeps me out and having seen some dogs in the beach bleeding as a result of some territorial disputes didn't feel too reassuring either.

Made it safely back to the hotel room though but my hands were still shaking for a good half an hour after closing and latching the door behind me. And not five minutes after locking myself in I heard someone coming up the stairs and a dog right outside my door growling quite aggressively at him. Part of the staff probably and accustomed to dogs as he was he just said something and the dog calmed down but I would've probably been too afraid to pass the hound if it would have been there waiting for me.

Weirdest thing is that during the daytime they are really cuddly and cute and I wouldn't have any problems petting them.

(Cats on the other hand are at least honestly vicious and hostile most of the time so you know if it is okay to approach them or not. Personally I can't say the same thing about dogs).

But still I'd say that India is a safe place to be in. :)

Longing somewhere

I guess I have inherited the travel gene from my mother as I am already planning the next one even though the last one is still under way. Wilder dreams vary from tornado hunting in US to active volcanoes in remote parts of earth to more sensible culinary trips to Lebanon and middle east as well as the seemingly obvious travel route around southeast Asia touring around Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand combined with the trans-Siberian train ride and China.

But as nice it is on the move it is also nice to know that you will be getting home at some point. Not really homesick but indeed looking forward for a hot shower, sauna and clean bed linen. Probably 30% of the tan will be washed off after a proper bathing but during the past month or so I have rarely felt properly clean. But I guess it goes with the experience and staying in 5-star accommodations with luxuries like running hot water would just hinder the travel experience. It is a voluntary decision to leave most of the luxuries of modern life behind when you board the plane. And I can honestly say that it isn't the material things that you long for on the road and the only things you truly miss from your life back home are the people close to you. Hope you all are well.

Action stops at 10pm

Goa has definitely seen its glory days as a party central. The government has set a ban on amplified music after 10pm already in 2000 but it hasn't been enforced that strictly until recent years. Now the parties have faded and only a handful of places have music after late evening hours. In Palolem there is one bar that is open 24/7 and is playing music through the night but in a bearable background noise levels. For me this arrangement with the quite strict smoking ban added to that is somewhat pleasant though and it has sprung a fairly interesting for of parties: Headphone parties.

Idea is that you pay a relatively high 300Rs entrance fee plus give a 300Rs deposit to rent out wireless headphones that you can blast as loud as you like. Usually there are two or even three different DJs playing their own beats and you can choose by a flick of a switch whose melodies you want to dance to. Of course taking off your headphones and watching people dance in silence with their headphones on is somewhat amusing. But it seems that the local businesses are bound to find a way to bend the rules and the tourists seem happy to oblige.

The drug scene isn't as strong as it was almost two years ago because then it was almost impossible to sit at a beach restaurant without being offered hashish or something even more potent, usually by the serving staff. In Palolem it has been probably a week without anyone offering me anything but during the first days of my trip in the more touristic areas of Calangute it was about every 50m of walking that a cab driver, bystander or a shopkeeper was lowering his voice in an almost growling whisper about smoking something.

What is nice though is the fact that drug pushers take a polite no for an answer unlike the legit shopkeepers or jewelry sellers in the beaches. But usually ignoring them for half a minute drives them away, but when someone is pushing a card explaining his/her poverty in front of the book you are reading it is increasingly hard to just keep your cool. Acknowledging them in any way usually just means triple waiting time for them to buzz off.

Pictures

Achievement of the day:

getting a swimsuit!

After a few days of fever and sweating in my hotel room I managed to muster up enough energy to finally go and shop for some swimming gear as I - true to my habits - forgot my towel and bathing shorts on a balcony when I left to Mumbai at 4am. Anyway, the water is warm and the sun is much nicer at the beach than warming up the walls of your room.

I am thinking about dropping Kerala from my itinerary as the trains are quite booked and the main activities there would be either beach life (might as well stay here) or cruising around the backwaters on a houseboat (and be alone there? no thanks. Seems like an activity that has holding someone close written all over it). And frankly, already spending one full week riding trains is quite enough for a while even though the atmosphere generally is quite nice.

Might rent a scooter or a bike and explore the immediate surroundings instead. I think it will be at least half a year before seeing another glimpse of the sun like it is revealing itself every morning here.