Wanderlust Heaven!

I’ve got about another month here in Goa, and with that in mind, I’m starting to make some resolutions. Note that these are not precisely new year-related; I’ve always thought that making a resolution that’s backward-looking in nature (i.e., focused on the magical yet ephemeral Jan. 1) and not really tethered to an upcoming red-letter date and associated need just won’t work, at least not for me. So my two resolutions are pretty well focused on the near future.

First res – I need to plow through a load of books here before I take off. Carting books around India would not be much fun. With that in mind, I’ve made a push lately, and just finished the wonderful and odd The Book of Dave by Will Self – yet another gem I’m fortunate to have read. The past 12 months has probably comprised the best stretch of reading in my life. Regular slog readers will recall the litany of great books I’ve been reading, but here’s a partial list in case you’re looking for something to read these days:

-The Japan Journals by Donald Richie
-The Bas-Lag Trilogy by China Mieville
-I Am Legend by Richard Mathiessen (now a movie)
-Cloud Atlast by David Mitchell
-Another Quiet American by Brett Dakin
-First They Killed My Father by Loung…
-The Gate by Francois Bizot
-The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
-Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
-America’s Boy by James Hamilton-Paterson
-A Fortune-Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani
-The Book of Dave by Will Self

There must have been more, but those spring to mind. I recommend any and all to you.

Second res – I need to get myself in better shape before hitting the road. I’ve shed a bit of weight over the past 2 or so months, but even eating vegetarian food most of the time at Bean Me Up hasn’t gotten me all the way there. Vegetarian food can make you fat – cheese, rice, bread, noodles, etc. are all potentially fattening and you need to watch these, particularly if you’re given to late-night food, as I am. And while India is home to 500 million vegetarians, lots of them (particularly in cities) aren’t in good shape. Indians put on weight just like Westerners do – in the gut. Indians don’t exercise much, and their food is actually quite bad for you. Breads are often made with ghee (clarified butter) and oil; vegetables are often presented in fried form (pakoras); the curries are full of butter and oil; I could go on and on. I’m staying away from these and will confine myself to the stricter side of BMU’s lengthy menu for the next month…and I’m also on a no-beer pledge. I’ve heard more and more over the past few years about how fattening beer is, and I’ve finally decided to see for myself what a week without beer can do. There are other adequate substitutes – mostly wine and gin & tonics – so I don’t need to become a Mormon just yet…

The other side of that equation is, of course, exercise. I’ve been reasonably regular about running at the gym, but I will ramp that up, no pun intended. As for yoga, well…I skipped every class this week and I might be fading there. I’ll try to get back on track next week.

So reading and exercise will be my lot over the next month. Let’s see how much willpower I really have. The betting table is now open, ladies & gentlemen…

Lisa told me about a tabla (Indian percussion) concert at the Kala Academy in Panjim last Friday night. The tabla player and his band were quite well-known, and I decided to go and see if I could find tix. The place was absolutely mobbed – I had to park a kilometer away. And there were no tix to be found…people whom I asked just laughed. I wasn’t that disappointed, though – while I do want to expand my musical horizons, I have a hard time getting excited about sitting in a chair for two hours. Or sitting through any sort of class or meeting, for that matter. And I think that’s why I’m sloughing off of yoga…I enjoy practicing yoga, I just don’t like going to class. Perhaps it’s an anti-authority reflex, perhaps I have the adult form of ADD (but I can sit or lie down and read for hours), I’m not sure what it is. It may be that I’m experiencing so much freedom in my life now that any imposition of timetable and organization scares me.

But even when you’re ‘free,’ you’re not. The concept of opportunity cost always looms its head. If I’m somewhere good…well, I could be somewhere else that’s better. And I’m careful about the books I read…I just won’t read any crap by Grisham or other formulaic writers, even if said book offers the chance to downshift my brain and cruise along. I used to like Stephen King, until he started cranking out 5 books per year. And I lapped up a couple of the Tom Clancy thrillers, but the same issue applies. I’d much rather devote my time to books that are cut from a different cloth…I don’t much care about the category – history, fiction, biography, etc. The book just has to have a compelling hook for me.

Anyway…back on the topic of freedom vs. constraints, when I learned that I wouldn’t be getting tix to the show, I was perfectly happy. That meant I could explore Panjim at night, something I’ve done little of in past visits. I found a little Portuguese-flavored pub called Lourenco’s near the Ourem Canal. Had a beer (this was before my no-beer kick) and a plate of spicy Goan sausages (no excuses offered). Noticed that Lourenco’s had a menu item called ‘sweat corn soup.’ Reminded me of ‘scram bled eggs’ that I’d once seen on a Bombay canteen’s menu.

Rode around Panjim on my motorbike, stopping at places that looked good. Panjim is pretty dull by night – the local bars are mostly little darkened rooms full of hard-core feni and whiskey drinkers. I did find a decent place called Ernesto’s, which is on the second floor of what’s known as Clube Vasco da Gama. I don’t know what that club is…but I do find it interesting that my trail keeps crossing old da Gama’s every few years. I saw his monument in the Cape of Good Hope…I visited a church in Cochin (Kochi) where he was buried for about 15 years, and his house in Cochin too…and now, here in the capital of formerly Portuguese Goa, I was in a club named after him. Had a couple fenis at Ernesto’s, then moved on. Eventually I drove back to Bean Me Up and hung out with Lisa for a bit.

The next day I read in the paper that a British woman tourist was raped near Panjim. She had attended the concert at Kala, then got on a stranger’s motorbike – apparently he promised her a ride home. He drove her to a secluded spot and attacked her. Hard stuff, indeed. It’s hard to truly draw any lessons from something like this – it’s easy to say that the woman shouldn’t have trusted a stranger, but should we go through our lives closed off to others who might be worth knowing? And it’s easy to say that sexual education and respect for both genders should be inculcated early in life, while in school…but how do you really operationalize this, particularly in a prudish/conservative country like India?

I went out and bought the International Herald Tribune that day…spent hours just sitting and reading the papers. Am I part of the last generation who loves to do this? I’m happy to get some news online, but picking out discrete stories/links here and there is not the same as sitting down and reading a paper cover to cover. I’ll be deeply saddened if the current trend of gutting news staffs and dumbing down papers/magazines continues.

Called Boston, as it was my father’s birthday. Talked for a while – at least 10 minutes, long by the standards of white males. Then called my sister and her family. Mostly talked with brother-in-law Dave – he and I can actually talk for a while, 20 minutes or more. We’re the same age and have a lot in common…and he seems interested in the exoticism of my travels, whereas I’m keen to know what’s really going on over there – with my family, with the country, etc. That makes for good chats.

Dave sent me a few texts next morning, updating me on the Patriots-Jaguars football game. As you may know, the Patriots went undefeated this regular season, only the 2nd time that’s happened in NFL history. And the Pats won this, their first playoff game, against the Jags, and seem poised to roll on towards the Super Bowl in early Feb. Where will I watch that game here in Goa? There must be a place that’ll have it…should start scouting that out soon.

Went to the Goa Marriott in Panjim for its deluxe brunch with Lisa and Richard. I owed them a good meal, as they’d treated me to a couple lately. The Marriott does a nice job – no sushi, but pretty much everything else. Had a good talk with L&R – they’re heavy into wedding planning, and have set the date for Feb. 7th, the Chinese New Year (Year of the Rat). I’m to be a witness, which is fine by me – I’ll get some strawberries and champagne in the deal. They’ll have a party at BMU afterward – Lisa mentioned that she expects plenty of ‘former friends’ to show up expecting freebies. When she started BMU, some of their old friends apparently got jealous that they were getting out of the freak lifestyle and becoming ‘respectable,’ making money and staying sober. And sometimes these people say shocking things to her – while still expecting free drinks at the party. Talk about schadenfreunde – it seems Goa is no different than anywhere else, it’s full of spoiled brats who wish their ‘friends’ ill while waiting for their relatives to die and trust funds to be released. Absolutely fucking depressing – hearing Lisa talk about this almost put me off my food, but not quite…

Here’s a shot of the 3 of us, post-gorge:

Slept much of that afternoon – when I got up, I went to Nine Bar to dance a bit and help the food get through my system. Danced with a couple Korean girls for a while, then gave them a ride to their hotel in Anjuna. They invited me in…I accepted. We polished off a bottle of shoju (Korean potato liquor) they had brought from Seoul. One girl disappeared for a while…the other one and I got friendly. She was not the more attractive of the two, but shoju is powerful stuff and I didn’t seem to care. Eventually her friend returned – not sure if there was any hidden hand in this scene or not. Made plans to see them again at Nine Bar later in the week. Random…

On Sunday I had errands in Candolim and Calangute, and while in the latter stopped in for lunch at Souza Lobo. This place has godlike tandoori kingfish, yet I’d only visited once this season. Polished off an entire kingfish myself – although the flies probably made off with a gram or two. Waddled out of there and motored back to the Bean.

One thing I love about India is the wildlife – cows wander freely, unafraid of being slaughtered (except in Muslim districts). Lots of dogs, cats, water buffalo, monkeys, snakes, and so on. In China and Vietnam, you only see beasts of burden, mostly water buffalos. Nearly everything else winds up in a pot. In those countries, you need to visit a national park to see any animals of note; here in India, they’re all around you. It makes it challenging to ride a motorbike at night when the moon is low…but it’s also heartening to see that we haven’t cleared out the entire planet of other species just yet.

One thing I dislike about India is the number of people – thankfully, not all 1.1 billion Indians are in Goa. The effects of having so many people are stark – the pollution is what gets to me. I’m convinced that climate change is a huge issue and is already effecting us…but pollution is right in front of us. India is a polluted land and I just don’t see how that’s going to change – it doesn’t seem to be a national priority here. Perhaps the solution is to keep on moving till I find a less populated land where there’s still some respect for the environment. Laos might be the place that best fits that bill thus far…

Went to see Umang’s band play at Mandrem. This was a random band, more a loose emsemble of musicians who came together for this gig…and admitted to only practicing together a couple times. It started off slow…the music sounded like muzak from a health spa. But it picked up – there was a brilliant belly-dancer on stage with them and she was captivating – prancing around with all manner of scarves and a peacock tailfeather. The music got more and more interesting, and some of the percussion instruments were weird and cool. After the show I walked back to the road and saw a girl in the shadows juggling large sticks. She didn’t seem to be performing for anymore…I stood there and watched her for a few minutes. What goes on in the shadows of our lives…

I finally gave in and joined Facebook. At least 5 friends have invited me, but I always held out…I didn’t want to join then get besieged with 100 emails a day with dumb ‘friend updates.’ Anyway, I joined just to see what it was all about…and within 24 hours I had 75 emails. That is slowly dying down, but I’m still on the fence about the concept. It has scared up a couple old friends from university, but aside from that it all seems to be an exercise in self-indulgence and escapism (from the real social world). If you read this, please don’t bother writing on my ‘wall’ in Facebook…it’s getting old already.

Went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets at the INOX Cinema in Panjim. The first National Treasure was a good yarn, and I enjoyed this one too. It’s certainly not a great movie, but I like Nicholas Cage and I love history, and these movies are an entertaining mix of the two. The history, of course, is dumbed-down sufficiently for
Boobus Americanus, but there’s a sliver of good stuff here and there.

Last night a troupe of African acrobats performed at BMU. These guys could do just about anything with their bods…I couldn’t contort myself like that if I practiced yoga for a thousand years. While watching them I silently concluded that if I’m to make anything (more) of myself, it’ll have to be with my brain. That organ has its own issues, but given the state of my aging frame, the smart money is on my noggin. Which means I’d better get back to my books…and to Facebook. Over and out.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 1:13 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.