This is Rupee. In Palolem Rupee became one of our good friends, everywhere we went Rupeee would follow. To town, to swim, at dinner he would lie under the table, at night he would sleep at my door. We began discussing how sad Rupee would be once we all left since he is so attached to us all and most people just tell the dogs to get away. I think a good lesson can be learned from Rupee. He can't speak with us but there was a general bond between us and a comfort knowing each other was around. In our time spent together Rupee flourishes, he doesn't spend each day worrying about when we will leave and begin loving us less so that the blow isn't so hard when the day comes. While we are there he loves us as complete as he possibly can so that nothing is regretted and no opportunity is passed while the chance was there. Maybe Rupee thought it was us that needed him by us which could possibly be the case. I may completely forget about Rupee in a year or at sometime in my life even after all the quality time we spent together but nothing can rid me of the great time that we spent together in the few days in Palolem.
I've given up with many of the rules of traveling.
Rule one: don't eat vegetables or fruit because they wash them with "the bad water"
This may work if you are traveling for a couple weeks but I have been on the road for more than 6 months and dammit I love fruits and vegetables so now when I want a salad I order a salad. Sometimes my stomach will feel it and for a day everything will be flushed out. Why is this a bad thing? This just makes room to eat some more delicious food.
My last dinner in Palolem I wanted to try a new restaurant. I headed by myself down the beach until I came to two guys playing a guitar and mandolin on the beach to people sitting at candlelit tables on the water. Here I went out and picked out my fresh caught tuna that I wanted to eat for dinner. As I enjoyed my $5 meal and listened to the live music with the sound of crashing waves in the background I saw fireworks begin to go off in the distant sky. This is the kind of last meal that I would want to have anywhere, the only thing missing was Rupee, who stayed with the bigger group.
When discussing vegetarians and meat eaters, Anthony who always tells everyone that it is "gin o'clock" came up with an argument that made me speechless. He said "If God didn't want us to eat cows, then why did he make them out of mean?"
I am traveling for around 9 months. Before I left it seemed like a lot of time, but when you are at these places it is soooo short. I know that I have been able to see many things but even what I see just barely scratches the surface of these countries. I could spend years trying to see everything which many people I meet try to do. I was talking with an English man, Stanley who I met yesterday who must have been in his 40's. He has been traveling for the last 10 years of his life, working here and there. When I asked him if he ever wanted to marry, he told me that he was married once to a Japanese girl but then in the end it just didn't work out. He said "she wanted kids and I bought her a cat; it was a great cat, but she hated it". (I think she may have hated the fact that she wanted kids and you bought her a cat)
I hear people explaining places they have been and they often say, "through my experience, this is the best way to do it." Of course this is the only experience they had so they have nothing to compare it to really. If they had a good time then in their mind they want to think that they didn't miss out on something else so what they did was the best choice. Alternatively, maybe they say they wouldn't do something that they have already done. However, you never know what brought this dislike up, it could have been bad weather, they may have been sick, it could have been anything that your visit to the same place could be completely opposite of their feeling. It is good to listen to other travelers to get an idea but don't believe everything they say.
Most people traveling on the beaches in India are from the Western culture. Basically the sellers are Indians, the buyers are white with a few exceptions thrown in of course. I can't tell you how much it bothers me to hear people from England or the U.S complain about their country. How it is all materialistic and they would be happier living on a beach in India where things are simple. What they don't take into account is that they worked in the Western culture saving up enough money in short time so that they can come and live on a beach in India with nothing to worry about. One girl I heard telling a guy who lived in one of these small beach villages is, "you're so lucky to have been born here and live here your whole life". He replies, "thank you, yes it's beautiful". He should have told her however, "Oh, you're right, I'm so lucky, because I was born here I can't get a passport to your country because even if I could buy a ticket to come over, my money wouldn't last me more then 3 days as opposed to you being born with a passport that advances you to go, collect $200, allows you to work for 2 weeks in order to come and live on the beaches of India like a queen for two months before leaving just in time to miss the Monsoon season which is when we pack up and move inland to do manual labor for half the year."
I met one girl who was from L.A. with a mexican look. Someone in the hostel said we have two americans here and pointed to her and myself. She quickly said "I'm Mexican." I asked her, "You were born in Mexico?" "NO." Do you live in Mexico? No, but my parents were born there. Ok, so you have mexican heritage. No, I am mexican. Do you travel with a mexican or american passport? American.
Did you go to schools in the US and speak english? Yes, but most of my friends there are mexican. They were born in Mexico? NO.
All I'm saying is if you take advantage of everything your country offers you then don't be hypicritical and talk bad about it. Every country has good and bad things, that's the beauty of traveling, trying to figure out which part of each culture you want to adapt in your life.
Enough of this thinking talk.
I'm in a little, quiet beach called OM beach. It's hot, more cows on the beach, good food, finished a book, "The Zahir". I wouldn't give it such a good rating.
I leave tonight on an overnight bus away from the beaches to a little village called Hampi.
"It's time to move on, time to get going, what lies ahead I have no way of knowing, but under my feet baby, grass is growing, yeah, time to move on, time to get going."
-Tom Petty
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