combat baby

Obligatory beach jumping pic.

Ok, so, I happen to be an island girl. It's inevitable. The Philippines is 7,000-plus islands. Everywhere you go is an island. And don't even talk to me about settling down in a landlocked place. If I don't live near some water, I will probably go crazy.

Bombay is an island too and there are beaches. Not great beaches but okay ones and thank god we actually live near some. But last weekend, a big group of us decided to head to Goa, which is the smallest state in India, a former Portuguese colony and back in the heydey of the 70's and 80's was The Beach. These days it's a bit more touristy although there are still little hippie communes here and there. You can still get stoned here and there and more, if you know where to go.



How does it compare to my gorgeous Palawan, Cebu, La Union, Siargao, Boracay? It doesn't. But it'll do! :D

We all made our own way to Goa by sleeper train, an overnight one that left Bombay around 11PM and before that we had some food at McD's which meant a mad dash to the train to board in the nick of time. Most of the other had gotten a train an hour earlier (and this is a lesson I've learned for a future Goa trip) but for this round, it was myself, Gustavo and Gordan, Ervin, Feras and Iryna. Angelica was in Bangalore for a conference, Ana could not make up her mind to go, Essena.........IDK, and Vasiliy had arrived only two weeks ago and wasn't able to grab a ticket at the last minute, poor guy. He's really fun.


Gordan and Gustavo.

We got to Goa around noon but still had to take a bus 40 KM from Margao, where the station was to Palolem Beach, where we all agreed to meet. Pretty much everyone who had arrived earlier were in the swing of things already. And then over the next two days, things just got krunk.

Our friend Abhishek was the moral of this story, you guys. After the departure of the Legendary Bartosz (now in Laos, the bastard), we have been referring to Abhishek (and Angelica, who Bart dated during his last and her first three weeks in Mumbai) as Bart's Widows but Abhi was really, really in mourning. He didn't sleep at all on the train, was already drinking through lunch and was a hot mess throughout dinner and after. He managed to annoy a lot of people and roughly four half-hearted attempts to go back to his hotel, finally just evaporated into the night, only to appear at breakfast still wearing the same clothes and with cuts on his palms.

"Abhi, my man," I said. "What fun were you having that you come to me like this?"

Abhishek replied: "Bunbun, I don't remember." Which was exactly the reply I expected to get.



Day two was even more fun because we managed the three S's of important beach life: steak, shopping and the sea. Anelise, Vilgaile, Victoria and I got a boat out for cheap, saw some dolphins and virgin beaches along the way and finally got some sun (as it was kind of cloudy and rainy most of the weekend) and even met a very cute Canadian named John who is a lawyer and decided to just take three weeks off and go to India. For dinner, we started in, determined to find a much nicer place than the usual dives we poor trainees are used to and shared a nice bottle of wine. Later, we supplemented this with more beer, sangria and cheap shots of feni, a very potent local moonshine distilled from cashews and so much dancing.

I headed for bed around 3AM which is a bit lame, I know but I know my own body and I like to get up early no matter what, so I know that if I get a little rest I am rewarded by the fact that I never get hangovers. :P Still, Abhishek still managed to call me at 5 AM to tell me he found a snake and picked it up and then later, after lunch, we all started to make our way back to the train station in Madgaon to catch the train to Mumbai. However, Abhishek and Vilgaile had failed to get tickets on the train and had to get sleeper bus tickets. Vilgaile and I work together so I thought we would go to the company flat, nap, take a shower and grudgingly shuffle into the office in time but I ended up doing this on my own on Tuesday morning.

The sleeper train back to Mumbai was kinda nice! We met a guy named Andre, Germany-based Romanian psychiatric nurse who quit his job last year to travel all over India, Nepal and other parts of Asia. He was headed back to Mumbai to catch a flight back to Germany, I guess but we offered to let him hang at our flat (which is near the airport), take a nap, eat, shower...and in return, he, uh....got us some weed. LOL!

On the train, Gordan, Anelise and I wandered about to see where everyone was. I saw the pantry car, the different sleepers and some people along the way. But we went back to our to car and bugged Cesar (a weird but cool guy from Columbia--you know I like weird-- and a good dancer too) to do some magic for us, so he did his card tricks, attracting a small crowd on the train and it was very cool. At one point, we were stopped at one station and this butterfly came through the window and landed on him, proving that Cesar is indeed magical.



Arrived in Mumbai at 6AM, took a shower and a nap at the company flat, for which Vilgaile lent me the keys and then went to work. Vilgaile arrived from her hellish bus ride soon after and proceeded to tell me that it was just her and Abhishek on this trip, after a nice afternoon in Goa, they nearly missed the bus and had to take a rickshaw to the mid-station. The bus was freezing and sometime during the trip, Abhishek sliced his foot open on something sharp so there was blood everywhere and they bound up his foot and he had the shakes the whole night. Vilgaile brought him to a hospital in Bandra when they arrived in the city around 8-9 in the morning before she had to take another bus downtown to go to the office.

And then yesterday, we found out that Abhishek was too antsy to sit still at home and rest a little, so he went out to work and ripped open his stitches and broke his little toe.

Also last night, I went out with some work friends and then slept over at the company flat with Vilgaile, who managed to commandeer this place for two weeks while the boss was away on a business trip (why I didn't just stay with her and save myself my 2 hr commute back and forth each day, I have no idea).

Honestly, we are both thinking of moving closer to work and leaving our flats in Andheri which is just becoming a little bit hellish to do every day. I feel like I only go home to sleep and there's no time to do anything. I love my flatmates but honestly, I'm also a bit annoyed at the half-hearted cleaning and the constant chore-forgetfulness, the washing machine that keeps breaking down and the fact that no one leaves me room in the fridge. But on the other hand, I also like living in Andheri and the apartment itself is cool.