Goa - India..?

This morning i woke up in a beach hut.

It is a nice beach hut. It has a bed, a toilet and even a sink!

So I survived a 2 day journey combined with mystery sickness - first time I've actually been sick properly in India. On the overnight bus ride i had to run off at the dodgy and random, middle-of-nowhere kinda stops frequently made along the way to throw up in a corner. In great Indian style i had about half a dozen men standing around me not even 3 feet away watching the spectacle of me vomiting. Oh, so charming.

So I went through yesterday in a bit of a weak daze, wandering the streets and lying on the beach. I did wonder if I'd accidentaly slipped into a different country though... first time i made my way to Arambol beach I was confronted with countless carefree, thonged western women meandering down the beach, I even saw a couple topless. The most amazing thing was though, that the men only gave a few appreciative glances before getting back to what they were doing! I actually felt like a proper prude sitting around in my tankini set-up so I've actually purchased a bikini!!! My tan at the moment reminds me of those tubs of multi-flavoured ice cream though. You know, you have the chocolate flavour, then the vanilla in the middle, and then the pink strawberry bit... I guess I have a bit of a way to go before I'm one of the those bronzed, skinny beach goddesses. Whatever, the ice cream look is soooo this season.

Aanyway, it's different here. Gone are the many poverty stricken, traditional Indian streets full of shoe makers and chai stalls and here are the hippy like chilled out palm fringed sand tracks full of cafes and small shops full of knitted hats and sew-on badges of glow-in-the-dark mushrooms and om signs.

Anyway, ramble ramble ramble, I have an analogy:
India is like a cake. A weird cake. A bit like the mayonaise cake Calum baked for me on my 19th. (It was nice though!!!) The north of india and the big dirty cities are like this cake that's just been grabbed out of the oven, piping hot, and chucked at your face with spirit. Now Goa, is the same cake, same ingredients, but left on the windowsill for a day, then covered in sweet icing to disguise the strangness of it's authenticity and cut up into little bite-size pieces.

Whatever way it's served though, it's a nice cake, and I keep wanting more :)