Back in February I met an Israeli woman, Naomi, through another Israeli friend, Zohar, who returned to Arambol after being south in the state of Tamil Nadu for a month. It was Naomi’s second time to India but first time in Goa. We hit it off well and have stayed in contact since via email and Skype. She works in Human Resources for the global software company SAP in Tel Aviv while simultaneously studying “body psychotherapy” in a five year course...busy lady! She decided to return to India for a month long holiday, starting in Goa and heading south to the state of Kerala for the middle couple of weeks.
After a red eye flight to Mumbai and an hour long hop to Goa, Naomi arrived mid afternoon to a sunny, hot day. It seemed that she’d brought the weather with her as the previous week was still on and off with the rain but now perhaps the monsoon season had finished. I’m sure that’s wishful thinking on my part but I did enjoy seeing bright blue skies with hardly a cloud in the sky. I’d actually just asked Derek the Chilli’s Guesthouse owner the day before when the cloudless days would start and I quickly got my answer. Naomi on the other hand wasn’t that happy with the weather as she was hoping for a brief reprieve from the Israeli summer heat. She hasn’t seen rain since February.
Naomi's taxi arrives:
As luck would have it, on the first night that she arrived, I began to feel a mild fever take hold during the night. The following day I wasn’t too ill and we did walk around the cliff on the north end of Arambol to the Sweet Water Lake but that was about it. The second night I woke up a few times, completely drenched in sweat as my body fought to break the fever. It worked and although my stomach still wasn’t 100% I knew that the worst was over. Now I could be a proper host (yes, I’ve been in India long enough that I think I can use that term...at least for the north part of Goa and most definitely for Arambol!). However, the plan was to check out some new places so soon we would head to the south end of Goa, to a beach renowned for its natural beauty called Palolem.
Oh, side funny note...on the first night we ate at a restaurant called “Blue Mangoes”. It’s common in India to find funny typos or mistranslated words in the menus that can end up being a bit funny to a native English speaker. Well at this place, we had sat at one of these “chill out” tables that sit about a foot off of the ground with pillows all around. Well at the back of the menu it said it was a “Multi Cushion Restaurant”! I think that they really meant a multi-cuisine but hey, they technically were correct...and it did provide a good giggle for us.
The "Multi-Cushioned" Restaurant:
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