Goa Goa Girls

This weekend was spent in the lap of luxury. Thanks to Chanda's weekly commutes to Atlanta and staying in a residential apartment owned by the Marriot we got to stay in the Marriot hotel, a far cry from the very basic backpackers I have been staying in up to now. Chocolates on my pillow, a bed so comfortable you wanted to stay in it the whole day, a sea view, water pressure that didn't erratically run cold and was strong enough to wash all the conditioner out of my hair; I was in heaven. We spent our days lazily sunning ourselves at the poolside on the sun loungers. The pool even had one of those cool bars where you sit at the bar in the water! Chanda was tickled pink by the flags on each of the loungers that when raised made the waiters come scurrying.

I rather naively assumed that the sun shone far more gently on India than harsh Africa (the effects of the hole in the ozone layer etc.) and was a little late in applying sunscreen. I was wrong as the peuce hue of the entire front side of my body attested. To make matters worse (and more comical for Chanda), it is a lopsided, afternoon burn significantly worse on the left side of my body. I should have taken the cue of the leathery brown, seasoned tanner on my left who we affectionately dubbed the lizard due to his habit of lying on his stomach on an upright lounger (I don't know if you can picture this but it looked incredibly uncomfortable". From the moment we woke up till long after sunset he religiously lay in the sun assiduously swivelling his chair every hour or so to ensure that he didn't make the school boy error of getting a lopsided tan as I did.

I've reached a temporary saturation point with my India reading and am currently reading 'Freakonomics'. The book inspired me to wonder what the total cost of a tan is for somone like him when you factor in the cost of his flight, his accomodation (clearly he had no cost for sunscreen, the potential cost of skin cancer and the opportunity cost of the hours spent tanning. Not cheap I would think.

The evenings were spent drinking Fenny Caju and revelling with fellow holiday makers.

Of all the places I have been so far, Goa is definitely the one that I could come back to for a month.