Alix says:
Finally we dragged our sorry asses here. And it’s like the oasis in a desert, we’ve landed on a perfect beach at first impression. And, although my first impression is severely dulled by my bus-numb senses, it is all I’ve got to go on after all these buses, and so far it’s a thumbs up. It’s clean, golden sand, palm trees, no honking horns, thatched roof beach huts and two handfulls of people lounging about in the sun. In proper swim suits no less! I was wondering how the beach situ would be, being in prude India and all where no woman shows more than a forearms length of soft brown skin, but on the flipside is covered in fluttering color and dazzling sequins. Anyway, bikinis. Good.

We got set up here by the gracious Howard whom we met on couchsurfing.org and has a full place while we are in town so he arranged a basic hut with shared bathroom rite on the beach for 300rps ($6 USD) a nite. We had no idea what to expect. The beach, the hut which we hope to stay at for a good 10 days, what a reservation even means without money down and who is Howard and his standards anyway. Not that we are touting so many standards in the accommodation sector. Well, our hut was still in the process of being built when we arrived, but the overall scene is just what we wanted and Howard is pretty cool. He runs a character parallel with Scott Sindorf and my stepdad Steve Shadid.

Climb up the rickety stairs to the top ‘chill out’ of Shiva’s Beach Huts, mellow out in the ocean breeze and afternoon sun, have a beer – for 40rps no less and a Budweiser, king of beers – fade in and out of consciousness while our thatched hut is being hammered and strung together. Good look so far. Chillax. This beach is good.

Colin says:
Arrived in Goa. My brain is on hold. Been opting out of the logging of information. Alix goes into these long winded narratives that I can’t get into recollecting about other than looking at the photos of what is also being described in writing with a caption no less!

Very glad to be on a beach. Christmas is now over and it was very lovely to have spent it beach side. The route from Mumbai to Goa nearly killed me. Traveling could be a mild, if not medium, form of torture. Almost like dentistry. It’s amazing that today we pay for this shit and inflict it willingly upon ourselves.

My current situation consists of a beach hut, a restaurant and the ocean….and the sun. Merry Christmas.

Alix says:
Below is a small sampling of some of the wonderful people we will end up spending a lot of time with in Patnem. A good family runs Shiva’s Place and there’s a good cast of characters mulling around the place. So far we are happy to call it home.