home

we've just spend five gloriously chilled out days on agonda beach in goa. what a spot. even the stray dogs are more chilled out there. it's hot as a mofo, but worth every second. because it was the end of the season, we had the two kilometer beach pretty much to ourselves.

i realized that there's absolutely no escaping crows, at least in south india. i've come to regard the crow much as i regard the rat or the pigeon in new york city. ratas con alas, if you will. worse, actually. the crow's cawking, especially at 6 am, is perhaps the most unpleasant auditory experience in existence.

on a more positive note, i had a wonderful ayurvedic oil massage by surabhi's yoga teacher in agonda, mohan. given that he was a man (quite a mousy one at that) and that he closed the door to the hut, locked it rigorously, and then instructed me to take everything off except my underwear, i was absolutely convinced he was going to do something sketchy. it's not like we were in some spa in the states where you get a sheet and five towels so as not to expose your private bits. no, we were in a hut on the beach; a table covered with plastic was the only object inside the structure. he started with my back, of course. it was going GREAT. i was marveling at how much better it was than my previous ayurvedic oil massage. following that thought was oh my god, what's going to happen when i have to turn over? i turned over when instructed, and deliberately kept my eyes tightly closed as he was oiling me up. "you will like on your breasts?" "uh... no." but thanks for asking. in the end, it was the best 400 bucks ($9.33) i've spent yet.

sadly, mohan cancelled surabhi's appointment the next morning, so she missed out on the massage experience. but she did make an excellent purchase in the nearby tourist hot spot palolem: sunglasses. not any sunglasses. she's a spitting image of ivy queen when she wears them. i call her la queena. mel, you would really appreciate.

being back in bangalore is nice, most notably because the weather is near perfect. it's green and beautiful and our flat was particulary welcoming after five days in a dingy, unbearably hot little room. after only a couple of hours, however, our pollution-induced sore throats and burning eyes were back. home sweet home.