Well who would have thought a week by an idyllic beach could fly by so quickly?

This was our little piece of paradise:

 Ours was the hut with the white curtains

The beach is wonderful but one morning I counted forty-seven dogs and thirteen cows on it. I wondered how the cows found food on the beach then one evening we discovered that they don’t, they go to the local restaurants. This one visits this particular establishment three times a day – and they feed him three times a day!

As expected we have done very little apart from read and run. Some time towards the end of the week Leishia actually took to waking up early and running along the beach, she said she wanted to get her heart rate up, I said I knew other ways she might achieve that!

Apart from reading and running we spent the week supporting the local economy, we took a short boat trip, two crew and two of us, here’s the crew:

supposedly to see dolphins which I am assured these were:

somewhat distant but there were a lot of them, just very difficult to photograph with my Box Brownie. We also saw a couple of monkeys (not swimming though), this is going to be a bit like the “cat in the scrapyard” picture but trust me they really are there:

We frequented the local laundry, very different to the one we saw in Mumbai:

 Baldo and Area

and the local restaurants, Larry the lobster probably wishes we hadn’t:

 Larry looking worried

 Larry and lemon rice

We found a very kind tailor who turned the collar on my favourite shirt which means it should last me another twenty years. He also made Leishia a couple of dresses. For a moment I thought we were back in China.

 Nasir, dressmaker to the Gods

We also had a massage. I am used to deep tissue massages and I quite like them. For some reason we were talked into an Ayurvedic massage which, based on a sample size of one, I don’t like. I will definitely try it again just in case my first experience was an extreme outlier but being repeatedly smacked with a wet cloth drenched in old cooking oil didn’t do much for me!

On the subject of massages I frequented the local barber (which seems to be the only business in Palolem with an operational AC unit). The barber did a good job for the princely sum of 150 rupees (about £1.50) and then offered a head massage for another 150 rupees. Well I had the time and the money and some previous experience of such things so I accepted. It turned out to be a very odd head massage. He basically strapped a 240 volt motor to the back of his hand and with a big pad on the front of his hand proceeded to shake my teeth out. At one point he stopped shaking my teeth out and stuck his finger in my ear, deep in my ear! Then he did the same thing with the other ear. Then he shook my teeth a bit more. Then it was over. I think it was actually a jaw realignment process.

Not content with new collars, dresses, haircuts and massages Leishia booked us in for a pedicure (I swear we have kept the economy running here entirely with our own efforts this week). The pedicure was fine right up to the point when Leishia decided I should have my ears threaded. Wonderful. The girl who did the threading was the sweetest little thing but didn’t seem to have any problem at all inflicting what is basically a medieval torture technique. Anyway I survived and now I have babies ears.

We were lucky enough to be here during the Diwali celebrations, the primary celebration on the beach seemed to be blessing the boats. each family blesses their own boat in a small ceremony, they light candles and if you happen to be around at the right moment they give you a sweet 🙂

 The boat was named after the little boy

There were as ever a couple of hilarious incidents this week. The first was when one of the local beach dogs took a shine to Leishia. After a short courtship ritual the dog, clearly thinking he had made a sufficient impression, decided to mark his territory. Leishia avoided the waterfall with just inches to spare.

The second was also furnished by Leishia. We were walking along the beach and I said “They’re playing cricket over there”. She responded “Yes, there are two games”. “Where’s the second?” I asked. Proudly she pointed at the second set of stumps and said “There!”. Kept me amused for the rest of the day!

So that was this week. This evening we are taking the sleeper train to Bangalore, we are in class 2AC, the same class we were in on the sleeper down from Mumbai. There are six beds arranged as bunks with strategically placed curtains. Each little cabin has aircon and a fan the combination of which is ferocious. I concluded that 2AC stands for “Twice as cold”. The cold actually kept us awake which didn’t really matter because the chai sellers did a fair job of keeping us awake too! What joy 🙂