#50 Cows on the beach, new friends with great stories, excuse me you want to do what?

I was more than happy to arrive in warm weather again and be able to pack the jeans that I have wore straight for over a month. I arrived in Goa and split a cab with some other travelers to Ajuna beach which is in N. Goa. First night I went to bed early since I didn't sleep the night before due to the wedding. Second day I walked around town checking out the little shops, streets and just getting a feel for the city. I headed down to the beach for the afternoon and after getting a massage on the beach I met a guy, John Hanks.
JOhn left England 15 months ago with his car and has driven it through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and into India. He has a 5 year visa for India and will spend a couple of years here before driving his car eventually to Japan, shipping it to the U.S and driving for some time around the U.S.
He told me about 1 guy who hitchhiked around the world, one who bought a rickshaw (a motorized mini car with 3 wheels) in Thailand and drove it back to England and it just made us realize that their are some great stories out there to be heard.
After sitting and talking with him for some hours he invited me to crash in his home in the living room where there is a spare mattress. He's renting a house for a couple of months. We headed back to the house and I met his two housemates, Luciana from Brazil and Lucia from Italy. Lucia is famous in the north of India because she was swimming in the Ganges river while it was raining hard and lighting hit the water, she got an amazing shock from it and couldn't sleep for 3 days but somehow didn't die, so many Indians in the north thinks she has special powers.

The following day I moved my stuff into their house and then walked around town, made cd's of pictures and packaged up things I have bought and collected along the way to mail home. Here in India also it is necessary to wrap the things with white cloth and stitch it; not just in Kuwait. I spent most of the day at the beach reading, listening to music and watching people. I bought a half of watermelon from a woman on the beach and a cow came by when I was half way through and tried to steal it from me, there was no way he was getting it. In the house they have some speakers and I have an ipod. We were all so excited to be able to listen to some music so we got some drinks and then after a while John and I headed out to a restaurant for dinner where we ate like kings, had a couple of drinks and at the end each paid 130 rupees which is about $4.
Today I mailed all of my stuff, I really don't expect it ever to arrive. You would understand if you saw the post office and delt with them for the hour that I did. I spent another day at the beach and when I arrived there I had different men come up to me and show me a card, here is what it said:

This is to certify that "John Doe" , aged 25 is a good ear cleaner. He will do very good work.

This is on a piece of paper with no authority signing it whatsoever. Anyone can go to a computer and type this and print it.
One guy after showing me this showed me a picture of a guy cleaning someones ear. I asked him who this picture is of because it wasn't the guy standing in front of me wanting to clean my ear. "It is my brother." Of course it is. Anyways, his brother is not there so why would he show this picture? Then I saw the tool that they use. They want to put these metal things in my ear to clean it out. First, there is no way in hell that they clean these things and if they do it is on their shirt. Second, if he paid me to clean my ear I wouldn't do it. The amazing thing is that there are many people who say "Ok, sounds good, I need a good ear cleaning, go for it, I'm not worried because your card says your good at it".

The south is MUCH different than the north. Everyone speaks English, at least enough to sell you something. In the north I maybe saw 1 white person for every 1,000 Indians, in the south at the beach town it's about 50/50. No monkeys, still cows.

Many people will help you or be kind to you and you often want to do something for them. A guy who helped John in Iran told him when John wanted to give him something for all of his help and kindness, "Don't return a kindness, pass it on."