70 Nights in Goa on NewsGeek

A few days ago a piece I write about my time in Palolem has been published on NewsGeek. You're welcome to read and comment there.



Here's a picture of Kashmiri Pulao that I have eaten a few times. It consists of rice with pineapple, papaya and other things making it really yummy. They were as lovely as making it heart shaped for me. Now go read the NewsGeek post (in Hebrew).

No Osho For You

Perhaps not a big Osho fan, I have visited the Desert Ashram in Israel quite a few times, mostly for festivals. Some of the meditations (and meditation is quite a free term for those of you who still think it means only sitting in lotus position and making odd sounds) that are common there are quite interesting and I found them to be good experiences. Naturally, as I found myself in Pune, very much known for the most (in)famous Osho Ashram (some say "Cashram") in the world, I wanted to pay a visit. By paying a visit I meant the 10 rupee tour that was published on some travel guides. Unfortunately they've stopped the tour and now only allow entrance with photo ID, HIV test and 1000 rupees fee. Yes, friends, spirituality doesn't come cheap and if you wish to attain enlightenment there you should open your heart, soul and wallet. The HIV test is IMHO a marketing stunt making people think that there are still many orgies going on there. The place was famous for celebrities and orgies back in the days. It's not like that anymore, at least according to all the people I've met that stayed there for a while. AIDS is anyway just one of a myriad of STDs the world has to offer and making an HIV test can only attest to you not having HIV 3 months ago. So yes, you can still have HIV and other STDs and you'd be permitted in. But don't forget the 1000 rupees for your daily pass!



I did want to have a picture commemorating me standing next to the gates of spiritual advancement and not taking the step inside. The photographer, Michel, insisted that I take a picture next to one of the red-robe people. Oh yes, the Ashram has a strict uniform dress code and the red robes identify the Oshovites there and all around. No red -> No moksha!

Free the Frog Within YOU

With the tendency to visit my room and find themselves in the most unlikely places, cute little frogs have managed to trap themselves in places where they'd starve to death. Here's one frog I released back into the Goan wild, if u can call it that :)



All these recent posts were made at the same time and planned to be published with a few days difference so that you'd actually put a bit of your time to read them. A few minutes of your day to remember those who sacrifice themselves for their startup by leaving their home, family and best friends to concentrate on working towards a new world order, at least for collectors :)

Fried Noodles

A lovely smile makes a world of a difference. This guy has his street stall on Palolem where he sells simple foods for local (read: cheap) prices. Most of the menu is non-vegan unfortunately and I was left only with fried noodles and fried rice. One day, to my dismay, I realized the noodles he's using are egg noodles. There goes the neighborhood... :(



By now we know each other well. I don't know his name and he doesn't know mine. He speaks only a few words of English (prices and names of dishes) and my Hindi isn't better. Often when I don't come for a few days he asks me where I went and why. How to explain that 15 minutes walk is A LONG walk here? How to explain the only option left in his menu for me is fried rice dripping with oil?

Once I played guitar there for half an hour or so. It was when I realized about 20 minutes after leaving the stall that the guitar isn't with me. Hoping that my karma is still proper, I went back and found it leaning on the stall, as I've left it. I was very happy and did a short concert that all my four listeners have greatly enjoyed :)

Pigs on the Wing

Okay, they're not on any wing here but they do deserve their own blog post as they're quite cute. In the wildlife non-reserve that Palolem is, life is teeming and screaming from everywhere here. Be that frogs, dogs, cats, butterflies, crows, myriad of insects species or pigs.




So the pigs roam around looking for food. A banana peel is tasty, as well as the seed left over from the date I've just eaten. Notable is that they are really easily scared by anything that might resemble a sudden movement. I don't blame them as humans sometimes capture them and slaughter them. It has twice happened here that we heard a pigs squeal or scream its throat out. After being captured and have all your legs tied, knowing you're going to be slaughtered, how would you respond? Would you chill and await your imminent death or scream your heart out hoping somebody will actually care that you're going to die so that someone may enjoy your flesh?



On a personal note, in a few days I'll be making my way out of here and up north. Wish me luck :)

Thali Cronicles

For your joy here are some (not all at all :) ) of the Thali pictures I've taken. Most of them were at the same corner local semi-restaurant consisting of some stand with a stove and 3 plastic tables with chairs. The fun in Thali is that it's always different and although some of the pictures may look similar, the tastes are often quite different. It does happen that one of the side dishes is the same as yesterday's, but in general it's all fresh and yummy and VEGAN! :)

Go VEGAN - it won't kill, just make you better.

The Good Samaritan Day

It's been a while since my last blog post and that's because I don't see you commenting here. I figured nobody reads what I write and gave it a rest. Then a few of my friends were asking why I'm not putting anything new... OK, here goes...



So yesterday seems to have been full of good deeds for me. Don't know why, I'm a horrible person on a regular basis. It started with a simple thing of letting a Czech neighbour recharge his Kindle using my laptop and continued with me playing happy birthday to a South African girl who just turned 30. I then managed to sadden her by asking a question that likely reminded her of some bad times in her life. I did apologize though.

My next good deed was already at night time on my way back to my coconut hut. I've decided to move from the splendid room I had in Palolem to a shabby coconut hut as the former was approximately 3 minutes walk to the beach and the current is about 20 seconds walk. While some of you may not appreciate the difference that makes, it does. Here it's easier to be social. There was easier to be secluded.

So anyway, on my way back to the room these two Israeli girls I probably saw before heard me speaking Hebrew and turned around to ask me if I can help them. Their pictures, transferred from their camera's SD card to their USB Disk-On-Key, were scrambled. Don't know why really but they weren't copied properly but were deleted from the SD. Damn, not fun to lose pictures. They were quite upset about it.

Following some trials I managed to undelete most of the pictures from their SD card and as such was granted with praises as me being their prince and I should marry them as well as promises that they'll do anything I wanted. As my back hurts often, sitting all day working in front of the computer, I was shooting (perhaps too high) for a massage. No, not a full body one, just a plain one. Was likely too much for them. They offered me breakfast at some place I wouldn't wanna eat breakfast in but I chose to accept their gratitude. Altogether was a nice late breakfast.



On the bright side, following a Skype video conversation with my brother and my close friend, I went out with them to explore the beach. Palolem doesn't have much night life nowadays. Really not the same Palolem I stayed in over a month about 5 years ago. We saw a bonfire. I saw balloons. There were only an English couple there and the woman asked me to join in and play guitar. As bonfires are often a good thing, we sat down and saw I managed to do another good deed by playing nice nightly music to her boyfriend, celebrating his 47th birthday, and us.



Sitting by the bonfire was nice and more people tagged along as often is the case. My Czech neighbour, two German guys and about seven English teenagers doing what English teenagers seem to do so well in Palolem: drink loads of alcohol and talk loudly. Altogether a nice group formed and the night was pleasant.

So as a bit of a summary, although I am focus on my work on Colnect here, it's good that I can go for an occasional swim and play guitar by the moonlight and waves.