Day 39 - Arambol

It's my biiirthdaay! In Arambol now (it's raining - ick), staying in some apartment hugging the rocks to the north of the beach. It is very cool here - full of huppies, Isrielies and generally very chilled out, scruffy travellers.

I celebrated my birthday in style last night - wonderful, fresh fish biryiani, coffee and desert at shivas, beers at Starco (now that place was wierd - veery shady, but funny). We met a german girl and Belgian guy and all went to Paradiso, the club next to the beach. Now that was really funny! We walked straight in, and into a wide terrace area packed with small stalls selling chai, chocolate and cigarettes - strange. The floor was vibrating with the techno music from downstairs. Despite not being great fans of Techno (in Anjuna the only acceptable music is either Techno or Bob Marley - I know which I prefer) we trooped down the stairs to have a look.... and immediately burst out laughing. The place was rammed full of guys and they were dancing like nothing else I've ever seen - the Indian blokes were shaking their thing with full dedication and confidence, all the other blokes were trying unsuccessfully to copy them, or just jumping up and down completely off their faces. Anyway - it started raining, so we couldn't go back upstairs for chai - so stayed to watch the hilarious dancing. At one point we got found by one of the little guys working at the hostel, and he spent about an hour showing us his crazy moves (amusing picture to follow). We turned down offers of drinks, drugs and dances 'til the cows came home, and finally left at about 2 with our ears ringing.

This morning we dragged ourselves out of bed, packed and went for a last yummy brekkie at Shiva's before catching a bus to Arambol. It is nice here, despite current pants weather. Tommorrow we plan to walk to a small cove with apparently white sands and clear sea - there is also a lake surrounded in yellow mud, which aformentioned aged hippies smear themselves with and wonder round in the nuddy (much to amusement of Indian tourists and locals) - 'parrently it is good for the skin - anyway, should be an amusing sight!

Thanks to everyone who wished me happy birthday - hope it's not raining with you too!