The Festival of Colour

Hello everybody,


We decided to stay in Palolem for another week as such a chilled atmosphere. We are quite comfortable here and turning into bigger beach bums as the days pass away!

Last Saturday we went to a silent disco on the beach which was excellent. Everybody gets a pair of good quality headphones and can choose 3 channels of whatever type of music they fancy. We paid around 6 quid to get in, but it was well worth it. Double rum and coke was a great friend that night. Tried to initiate a chant of "Were going to bounce in a minute". Didn't really catch on and got a few dirty looks. (cool). The next Sunday- forget it. We spent most of the day just floating in the sea like Tom Hanks in Castaway.

A few days later we rented out some kayaks, Ben and I went in a double and James went in a single. We thought we would kayak out to the island and visit "Butterfly Beach".... did 20 minutes and got tired and bored. James however did go a bit further than us. (he must of had a better kayak then us).

Last Friday it was a festival called Holi. It's basically like the Hindu Christmas. We got invited to a meal prepared by the owner of our shacks. We were quite skeptical about attending as we didn't know what we had but ourselves down for (could of been force fed Vindaloos). Anyway its basically tradition for Indians to put on a meal for there friends as a sign of wealth and good health. So we had the meal with all the people living in our complex, it was lush... Goan king prawns and calamari were certain highlights. All free in the name of Holi. After our meal we followed the sound of drums and singing and found about 100 people singing, dancing and smashing drums. Also they were all covered in paint. Holi, is also called 'The Festival of Colour', they throw this powder paint at each other and it gets everywhere. It wasn't long till we were all absorbed into the spirit and colour of it. The people go from house to house and repeat the same ritual (throwing paint, singing songs and dancing) all night. The paint has only just come out of my clothes!

A few days after the festival however I felt quite ill, then it just became worse. Basically had really bad stomach pains and terrible problems in "le toliette". It limited me to doing quite a bit, the other boys took scooters out and went to this temple with monkeys which sounded really good. James however lost his rag with Ben as he thought he was trying to show off on the scooter by overtaking him, but it was pay back time when James almost sandwiched Ben into the side of a bus...!

India isn't really a great place to be ill, but everyone has been really caring. The locals gave me their own medicine, which consists of vodka,chilli,pepper,sugar,mint (Highly controversial).Didn't work. This illness has been present for about a week and I finally gave in, went to the hospital today and saw Dr Sanjit. He just took my blood pressure and temperature, felt my tummy and told me that I had a stomach infection. I think it was also made worse because I am thinking about home and stuff. Like bruv writing off the car (naughty bruvvy). At least he is ok though. Anyway Sanjit gave me some antibiotics so hopefully with a bit of luck I will be on the mend and feeling a bit better...

Looking forward to getting better and rejoining the boys hunting beer and girls (lol).


Love to all

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