Short Stay Steve

July 12^th-14^th, 2013

I was lucky to have another friend from my hometown of Victoria come for a short visit.  Just like Tony before him (see the last blog entry) Steve works for my former employer Schneider Electric and he too was in Bangalore for business meetings.  He booked the same flights to and from Bangalore, arriving early on a Friday morning and returning on Sunday afternoon.  Unlike Tony however, poor Steve arrived at the peak of the monsoon season, on the rainiest day of the season yet!

We met in 21 Coconuts (one of the few restaurants open right now) and he immediately was introduced to the infamous Juan from Chile.  Juan’s been here for many years and I’ve mentioned him in previous posts and Steve even had a heads up about him from Tony but nothing is like the real thing.  Surprisingly Juan was in pretty good spirits (he had not imbibed too many spirits...yet) and even remembered Steve’s name as we left which impressed me as it took over a year for him to remember mine.

Nuevos amigos Steve & Juan:

There wasn’t much for us to do outside on such a rainy day so our activities involved me introducing Steve to Carrom, which was fun as we used to play the similar game of Crokinole back in Canada, and some pool on probably the worst table that both of us have ever played on.  Some of the felt was missing on the table with some very crude stitching (think Frankenstein) trying to hold it together.  Still, take what you can get.

Taking a shot while Sukhee (it means "happy" in Hindi) watches on:

The following day the weather lightened up a bit so we decided to take a chance and grab a scooter and tour around a bit.  Our first stop was the small nearby city of Mapsa to see if Steve could purchase some Kadai serving dishes, a request from his lovely wife and good friend of mine Sheryl.  I’ve been in the market enough times that I’m recognized by some of the sellers but Steve was fresh meat.  A common ploy that they use is to walk along side you, start asking you innocent questions like “What country?”, help you find the shop you’re looking for but then plead for you to come and visit their small shop, which turns out to just be a burlap sack tucked in a corner somewhere.  We started with one “guide” and soon had 3 others tagging along.  Steve was a good sport and did oblige a few of the sellers and I even bought a new, big rainbow coloured umbrella but then we had to get out of there.  We scootered off to Anjuna, a nearby beach that used to be famous for its big parties in the 90s and even though the police have cracked down on it, it still goes off at time to time.  We had lunch at a place called Hippies and then headed back to Arambol.

Nice matching jacket and bike:

My new umbrella...which sadly lasted about 5 days before it broke:

Lunch at Hippies:

The following day the weather was even better and we walked around to Sweet Lake.  I hadn’t been around there since Tony was here back in May and what a difference.  In May the lake was not flowing out to the sea, and hadn’t been for 3-4 months so the algae and garbage build up was pretty disgusting.  Now with the rains, the lake flowed freely and what a difference (although there was still plenty of garbage on the beach itself).  Accompanied by four dogs, we hiked back over the lusciously green hill where I paraglide and back to the main beach.

Walking with Old Boy:

Our posse near Sweet Lake:

Returning over the hill...which is super nice and green at this time of the year:

We had a final meal at 21 Coconuts and then Steve was off to catch his flight.  It was a short visit, but a sweet one...always nice to catch up with a good friend, especially in a foreign land.