Friday 5 December 2008
Palolem Beach, Goa
So we move place today, as some people that Evan was talking to that he met while playing cricket on the beach were in a place nearby that was much cheaper than ours. It was slightly less kitted out than ours but much bigger, and with the reduced price we could have a hut each and still save money.
I've started reading Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth, which is like a much more practical version of his first book, The Power of Now. It's all good and no less that two German guys stop and talk to me about it as they've read it too. It's a good read, and although some of the things that Tolle says are a little out there, and some of the explanations that he gives are clearly not true, the general meaning of what he's saying still holds. Though it's easier said than done to be aware of this on a day to day basis.
So we spend more time on the beach, as this is what this place is for after all. The beach here is a big crescent with rocky outcrops on either side. There are beach huts along most of it's length with wooden fishing boats pulled on shore in front of them. The tide makes the water retract a fair distance as the beach slopes very gently into the water. And there's a whole lot of dogs and a handful of cows that wander around.
In fact the dogs here, as well as being plentiful and thus breaking out into a howling chorus every few hours or so, have taught themselves to cool down in the sea. You'll often see a hound pootle around in the shallow water a few inches deep, and then lie down on its front legs sitting with its face to the shore, as the waves run over its back. And then they will stay there for as long as they like, without moving. Ingenious!
Evan has been talking to some Canadian girls that are friends of the other people he met while playing cricket, and found out through them of an ashram in Kerala. I had almost resigned myself to spending the rest of my time in Goa as it's so nice here and I like hanging out on beaches. But I had wanted to go to Kerala just for variety's sake, and I had wanted to do some “proper” yoga. This looks like the ultimate chance to combine the two. Evan will sort out the details.
Well it turns out there is another open mike night tonight. Again there are a lot of old timers present (the League of Gentlemen's Crème Brulée comes to mind) most of whom have no sense of rhythm or pitch playing old blues and country songs. Then there are a couple of new oldtimers who are actually pretty good, especially on guitar, though they still play old songs.
So I was promised the chance to play a bunch of songs, but as they allow these fogies to play five songs at ten minutes long each, I only have the chance to play two songs. Plus the police have brought tonight's curfew forward to 10 pm, presumably as they didn't extort enough money from them last week.
So I take to the stage and do a monologue:
“Well, given the events tonight I had wanted to play a song originally by Easy E and Dr. Dre from a band called Niggaz with Attitude called Fuck Tha Police, but I don't know the chords and I don't know the words, so I can't. Instead there was a song originally written by Willie Nelson called Stupid, but he rewrote it and it became a bit hit for Patsy Cline, then Gnarls Barkley came along and made it into something completely different...” and I break into Crazy.
There's a guy sitting next to me that improvises a drum beat on an Indian drum and he does a good job of it. The song goes down well and I start my intro to the next one:
“I was walking on the beach today and the warm water was lapping at my toes, the sun was just starting to set turning the sky a deep shade of orange, and above me I notices a crow circling high in the air. Then I noticed a silver jet plane working its way across the sky far above it. And then I saw the moon almost at half strength, much higher above that. And I remember thinking to myself, 'Isn't life ... shit?'” And I go straight into Karma Police by Radiohead.
That does down a storm and they tell me that's it, which is a shame as I was going to introduce There is a Light... which the German girl requested as Es Gibt Ein Licht, Der Nimmer Vernichten Kann. But it wasn't to be. After the curfew hits, we all gather on the beach with unamplified guitars and take it in turns to play acoustically. I get to play There is a Light, as well as plenty of others including Man on the Moon, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine), Baby One More Time, Space Oddity, my Land Down Under / No Woman No Cry mashup, and so on. Everyone has fun and then I head off home...
On my way back I hear a strange noise and I follow it to one of the wooden fishing boats on the shore. I look inside and there I see the cutest puppy dog ever mewling it's little head off. Well it breaks my heart and I can't leave it there, so I rub its neck so it relaxes and trusts me, and then pick it up by the scruff and place it on the sand outside the boat.
Well of course it's very happy and as I start to walk to my hut, it begins to follow. I was kind of hoping that it would realise that I wasn't its mother and walk away, but no, it followed me all the way home and sat outside my front steps wanting to be taken in.
I tried leaving it there for a bit but it started mewling again and then the local dogs in this area started growling and barking at it. I had images of the puppy being torn apart by these dogs, so I had to do something. I lead it back to the beach, and then I tried to introduce it to some of the other dogs on the beach, who in a 101 Dalmations kind of way would somehow lead it back to its rightful place.
But no, they just barked and growled at it too. And started chasing it around. It was becoming very scared and the slaver was dripping off the other dogs' razor sharp glistening white teeth, so I picked it up, placed it on my shoulder and walked with it for a bit.
It started licking my ear with an enthusiastic frenzy, which was cute yet slimy. After a while the other dogs went away, so I put it down again. It excitedly ran around, sniffing everything and exploring the area, when it suddenly found two other people walking down the beach, and decided to follow them instead of me. I took that as my cue and made a swift exit back home.
Shortly after returning a mega-long period of dog howling and barking erupted on the beach. I couldn't help thinking that the puppy had caused it, and somewhere it was even now being ripped to shreds. I had to listen to my iPod to block out the noise and fall asleep.
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