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[togoaornottogoa]

Day 6

Aaron head down to infamous Baga beach. Gets a massage and them decides to return north to Mandrim beach to check out reggae party. 

[togoaornottogoa]

Day 5

aaron starts his indiaan medical adventure and heads to local medi-clinic. its also decided that we will split for a few days as brian heads to hampi (12 hour inland us journey) and aaron explores further south.

Aaron spends evening in Anjuna where he solo checks out a few mini trance parties (kindle in hand). Eventually retires to mice-infested empty hostel.

[togoaornottogoa]

Day 4

Breakfast at double dutch 

Took scoot to querim beach for some beers and deep chats. Witnessed crazy, acid-damaged Israeli trying to steal tables for his imminent trance party.

Back to lazy dog to pay for forgotten beers from night before

back at hostel played drinking games; aaron, still recovering, took it chilled again. Brian went for a lacklsure jol in anjuna with the hostel crew

[togoaornottogoa]

Day 3

delirious trip to the airport to catch flight to goa

landed and taxi’d to hostel, the happy panda where we were to early to check in and so went to the garden of dreams for breakfast where we slept for about 4 hours.

Walked to Ashvem along the beach to meet rachel for lunch. Morale failry low at this stage, but love;y rachel kind enough to lend us her Vepsa for our stay in Arombol- we never even got her anything for, feel terrible (and thats really just our own fault, lack of planning and all that) A racy little black number; which would mean aaron would be straddling brian from behind regularly for at least the next few days.

Anyway, hung out with rachel for the afternoon, had lunch in Ashvem at the trendy and dosile Prana Cafe- Aaron and I shared a fish curry and a beef poke bowl (only beef we had ended up eating the entire trip). 

Met `Rachels mates at the beach after checking her spot out and had dinner without eating later that evening at the path that led to the Lazy Dog. 

got destroyed by mosquitoes- met a couple of interesting people; tom & eve, Dragona (a eastern european bird that recently left Barcelona)

Tom (a free spirited hippie) that lives in Arombol with his wife Eve and 2 kids, Seren Belle and `farady (the cutest little thing you’ve laid eyes on). they sustain their goan lifestyle by catering for glastonbuty once a year.

After tom had fed us a few marajuana cookies (’alcoballs’) we headed back to hostel. Paranoia got the better of aaron but brian carried on socialising until later into the night.

vibe and crew at the hostel was great

[togoaornottogoa]

Day 2

wrong coffee shop (is cafe coffee day) 3 times to meet Zeeshun for tour of Mumbai’s Devhani slum.

Overview of the everyday organised chaos that was life in the slums.

Introduced to some of the internal industries; full plastic recycling ecosystem from sorting rubbish to manufacturing the machinery that shreds in. Plus other monotonous jobs (clay bowls)

Chilled on a rooftop overlooking slum

Late lunch at Food Inn

Walked along marine drive towards hanging gardens and pearl necklace vista.

Checked out gateway to india monument and taj hotel

went to socials for a drink and bumped into casey and indians at leopolds 

couldnt really go to sleep as need to leave for airport at 2.30am next morning 

[togoaornottogoa]

DAY 1

Landed after 21-hour journey (incl 9 hours in Nairobi for my sins)

Meet Casey (American) in a dorm room at panda hostel

Go for first dinner at food plaza, deli belly trepidation and nerves meaning we stick to a vegetarian

‘Befriend me babu, Ali and Giri. Tried not to allow our scepticism get the better of us. Took them for beers (and a whisky) in exchange for some genuine local gems. Inevitably ended up with us covering the (likely commission inflated) bill and making a donation to Babu’s much needed R1000 shoe box (after his got ‘stolen’). Then Ali ‘who didn’t want money’ tried his luck which sent Brian over the edge. Classic trap walked into on our first night. Hustlers gotta hustle.

We then went to check out the infamous Leopold’s; not at all what we expected.

Spent, we slumped to bar stools at a make-shift karaoke bar next to the hostel. About to call it a night before Casey picker us up and chucked us on the back of two scooters of some local students he’d met. 3 of us to a bike; scooting around Mumbai.

Hang out with them at The Take (their street corner hangout).

Finally shower and go to bed.

Noticed the men are very affectionate (ear lobe rubbing) and have no issues burping at the Table.

[togoaornottogoa]

We live and we journey onward to new cities, new adventures and new dreams in the search for meaning, and purpose, and love