having a doing nothing vacation, at a slow paced beach area, close to a rural and old town like Gokarna can be out of this world literally.
you wake up, go through a slow breakfast or whatever you want to eat with your eyes wandering over the seascape. there are plenty of weirdly nicely dressed people around you, doing similar things all the time, and mostly they are chilled out... i.e. peaceful and open backpackers... there is peace, happiness and relaxed atmosphere, because, everyone around (mostly) are on vacation. there are restaurant and beach shack /room rent management, but all this work is done at a relaxed vacation pace.
there is a beach, long stretch of white sand, and its generally sparsely populated. more foreigners are there, and they prefer to be calm and quiet. not much alcohol is consumed (except by Indian beach visitors, who are for a day or 2 max, and start drinking the minute they sit down at beach, and become the noisiest half shy, half macho kids, with staring and commenting on their own language to overcome their complexes... a friend told me).
of course, i too thought, why do so many Indians, youth to middle age, drink alcohol so fast and basically want to get 'DRUNK'?? a German backpacker discussed, lack of alcohol drinking evolution, as a probable cause... "we start with very low % beer, at an early age, and slowly go towards high level alcohol content drinks... and we also have an evolution of drinking beer/alcohol since last few hundreds of years.. but, in India, people found no alcohol to 40% alcohol drinks"...
of course, there was alcohol in different forms in India earlier, but a big portion of population had no access to it along with social restrictions. women still dont drink or smoke like men in India. but, is this the only reason? there could be another addition. Indians tend to live with a life script, written when they were children... and have to deal with so many family & social responsibilities... that, they dont want to think, reach a level of numbness, and that's why they allocate free time with drunk state. they want to be outta any responsibility, and that's how they behave after getting drunk..
and then, solo backpacker women travelers... usually with enthusiasm, aware of own strengths and willingness to take on new experiences, confident and wise beyond their years... liberal and at peace with themselves... a good example of 'genderless' society. of course, they see Indian women going to the beach, getting their feet wet, while struggling with their sarees, and so often remaining cautious in the background. and, yeah, they can stare you down too, if they want it ;)
so, played beach volleyball, 2 a side, with a german on my team, and with a german on other team, and a brazilian young girl.. needless to say, she was really good player and i hit sand diving trying to get her smashes. and swam for a hour, ran for similar time on white sands, barefeet, and i like it best, when i run at my fullest speed, and the wind hits me square back... when was the last time you ran at your fullest speed, as long as you could??
well, life is either 'profound in a silly way, or silly in a profound way'. chew on that.
Thursday, January 08, 2015
Saturday, January 03, 2015
gokarna, karnataka, India, 2 week stay
there is a railway station called 'gokarna road'... its south of goa. buy a ticket to this station, get down, and walk for about 1km outside (no need to take an autoriksha for 100's of rupees)... you will reach a road, and if you can wait for few minutes, you will get bus to gokarna main town and beach areas, for rs. 15/-
get off at gokarna main bus stop/stand... its not a big place, but not totally rural either. there are many cool and quiet beaches nearby. there is a gokarna main beach, which is not preferred, as its too commercial. (what makes a beach commercial or coveted one is difficult to define). from gokarna beach left corner, there is a small path leading up, which takes you to kundle beach (its not pronounced as 'table, but e sound is used). to the left of kundle beach, 20 minute trekking through small hill takes you to om beach.
om beach is even more quiet and have less shops and restaurants. from om beach, towards left, are half moon beach and paradise beach. there are boats going to these beaches, but walking through hill areas, and even some rock climbing is part of it, so its much more exciting. to enjoy riding in a boat, take it on the way back.
in paradise beach, there were about 20-30 people... there are no shacks or huts or anything... people were ultra social and friendly. thats what non-commercial beaches bring out in you. commercial one's make you want to bargain and be competitive ;)
in kundle beach, there are volleyball nets tied up on poles, at different parts of the beach. generally its ok to talk to a group playing it and join them.. beach volleyball is more tiring as loose sand makes your movements happen as if in slow motion. it took me some time to get used to it and understand timing.
but, best of all, these places are best to be on barefoot... sand and sea makes footwears useless, unless you want to keep them prisoners. but, even in such places, you see people who just want to get drunk and shout, as they think, its the only way to have fun.
someone i met, some from outside india, commented as part of the conversation, 'i have seen most immature people in india... it wasn't surprising to hear such a comment. it could be even rephrased into more politically incorrect phrase, that is, 'indians are the most immature people of the world'.. though, what is immature is not easy to define. there are so many of them around, either walking with slouched shoulders, with a constant scowl on their face, either giving sneak looks at other people or openly staring at them, demanding service in a rude way to other people, such as hotel, restaurant, and any other staff, as if they are beneath them, and bargaining in crude ways. most of them hell bent on faking it as much as possible. imitating what others are doing, because, they never had time to relax and think what they exactly want to do.
in the evenings, during sunset, many hippie like people, wearing all sorts of clothes, hair styles, sitting on beach and playing different instruments, in groups or alone. the groups informally form some form of orchestra and a sense of rhythm and peace forms around. there are people doing yoga alone, or group yoga and create human pyramids. at night, people light a candle in the sand, for symbolic fire and sit around it and discuss. the 5 elements come together... fire, water (sea), earth, skies and air. and make people realize their tribal spirit, connect to our ancestors who lived like this long ago. shanti, shanti shanti hi...
get off at gokarna main bus stop/stand... its not a big place, but not totally rural either. there are many cool and quiet beaches nearby. there is a gokarna main beach, which is not preferred, as its too commercial. (what makes a beach commercial or coveted one is difficult to define). from gokarna beach left corner, there is a small path leading up, which takes you to kundle beach (its not pronounced as 'table, but e sound is used). to the left of kundle beach, 20 minute trekking through small hill takes you to om beach.
om beach is even more quiet and have less shops and restaurants. from om beach, towards left, are half moon beach and paradise beach. there are boats going to these beaches, but walking through hill areas, and even some rock climbing is part of it, so its much more exciting. to enjoy riding in a boat, take it on the way back.
in paradise beach, there were about 20-30 people... there are no shacks or huts or anything... people were ultra social and friendly. thats what non-commercial beaches bring out in you. commercial one's make you want to bargain and be competitive ;)
in kundle beach, there are volleyball nets tied up on poles, at different parts of the beach. generally its ok to talk to a group playing it and join them.. beach volleyball is more tiring as loose sand makes your movements happen as if in slow motion. it took me some time to get used to it and understand timing.
but, best of all, these places are best to be on barefoot... sand and sea makes footwears useless, unless you want to keep them prisoners. but, even in such places, you see people who just want to get drunk and shout, as they think, its the only way to have fun.
someone i met, some from outside india, commented as part of the conversation, 'i have seen most immature people in india... it wasn't surprising to hear such a comment. it could be even rephrased into more politically incorrect phrase, that is, 'indians are the most immature people of the world'.. though, what is immature is not easy to define. there are so many of them around, either walking with slouched shoulders, with a constant scowl on their face, either giving sneak looks at other people or openly staring at them, demanding service in a rude way to other people, such as hotel, restaurant, and any other staff, as if they are beneath them, and bargaining in crude ways. most of them hell bent on faking it as much as possible. imitating what others are doing, because, they never had time to relax and think what they exactly want to do.
in the evenings, during sunset, many hippie like people, wearing all sorts of clothes, hair styles, sitting on beach and playing different instruments, in groups or alone. the groups informally form some form of orchestra and a sense of rhythm and peace forms around. there are people doing yoga alone, or group yoga and create human pyramids. at night, people light a candle in the sand, for symbolic fire and sit around it and discuss. the 5 elements come together... fire, water (sea), earth, skies and air. and make people realize their tribal spirit, connect to our ancestors who lived like this long ago. shanti, shanti shanti hi...
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