agonda

i am sorry it has been so long since i last posted. so much has hapenned, and i have not found a way to write about it all.
i am still in goa, in agonda, probably easily the best place in goa--it manages to defy the stereotypes of trance hippies, drug casualties, cheap merchandise, all-night parties, and over-developed, waste-strewn beaches. i attribute it to the germans. there are lots of germans here, and as my german friend jennifer put it, "germans like things to be tidy".
the travelers here also tend to be older than the backpacking palolem crowd, but younger than the aging hippie anjuna crowd. the beach is wide and clean, there are few stores selling crap, (see previous photo titled "backpacker alley"). it's an all around remarkably nice place to stay.
when i first arrived here, in early december, with my friend rachel from U.K. we landed lucky at jardim a mar, a beachside resort with restaurant, huts, and rooms. the space itself is stunning, the restaurant is shaded by palm-trees and parachutes with a large bed-like area that is strewn with huge pillows. the huts are prohibitively expensively gorgeous--at $30 per night they were out of our price-range, so we took rooms on the road. which were alse very nice for goa standards.
jardim a mar is german-owned, but nepali run. the guys who run it are a lovely group; binesh is the manager, with his cousin yadov sharing duties, and his other cousin nirmal doing book-keeping, bill-making, and bartending. then there are two waiters, manu, and rakesh. i was blown away by what a good waiter manu is. it's difficult to find a waiter in india who lives up to the american ideal, and nearly impossible in goa where everyone runs on beach time and it can easily take 45 minutes to get a cup of tea. manu is fast, good natured, and he remembers everything.
at first i only intended to stay for 2 weeks, but then i met nirmal, and we fell in love. it all hapenned very quickly, i will spare you the gushy details, suffice it to say it took a little while for my head to catch up with my heart. 2 weeks turned into 3 weeks after i met some really great friend from canada, bristol, whales, and australia, and then they left, and still i stayed. and then nirmal asked me to marry him, and after much deliberation i said yes.
so now i am here with the germans and the nepali--two cultures that couldn't be more different. i spend most of my days on the beach or in a cafe reading, i do afternoon yoga in my room, then at night i go to meet nirmal at jardim and play nepali poker with him and manu and rakesh and sunny, a punjabi guy who runs the tandoori oven, and kumar, the nepali head cook.
it's all very relaxing and idyllic--i am making up for years of neglected reading--flying through books. most recently i read "life of pi", a beautiful book about a boy stranded in the middle of the ocean on a life-boat with a bengal tiger. i recommend it to everyone. and then i read "a fine balance" a book about a cast of bombay characters who find their lives colliding during indira ghandi's "emergency", which i found entertaining and informative, but i thought the writing was a bit heavy-handed with the metaphor and foreshadowing, and lacking in style and grace.
i will be staying here for another 3 weeks, and then i will be going to nepal with nirmal and we will get married.
it's all terrifying and exciting and unlikely and amazing, and i am greatly anticipating the future. i will upload photos as soon as i find an internet connection that is up to the task.