Be a'wary o' the Dysentery

I've still got a blog coming, but I need to take a moment to express the pain which I and my poor stomach have endured these past few days. Last time in Goa, it was definitely food poisoning because this... this is what i've been hearing about and was expecting but could never have truly been prepared for. Egypt cannot compare- 4 days of stomach cramps, unable to walk straight, puking, shitting on the hour, blood, fever, chills, can't eat, barely sleep, unable even to read but just lie there writhing. Finally, an Indian doctor came to my rescue with a cornucopia of pills. "Take this when you wake up, take this before eating breakfast, then have these 3 pills after, etc." I have lost quite a bit of weight. My board shorts don't fit me anymore :P

Johan has proven to have the Iron Stomach, thus far. I want to wish it on him, but he was such a good lad getting me water and dealing with my grumpiness. It's funny how thankful i am just to be able to get up and go to the computer and shoot off a blog. Although, I feel some trouble stirring down south which may mean my time is up...

More Goa

Having two blogs is a pain in the ass. Well, Johan and I used most of the good pictures for our asian-soup blog, but there are a few more I liked and figured I could throw in. Otherwise, I am out of time because we are off to Hampi. Sorry, I shan't be so lazy neglectful in the future.
But, if you want to see and read a bit more about the 2nd half of Goa, check it out on: asian-soup.blogspot.com

Ciao for now~

Road trippin'!
....

Goa: Haven of the Hippies

Well we arrived in Goa after nearly 48 hours of travel by way of plane, train and automobile. Mumbai seemed interesting, but it was 3 in the morning upon arrival so we caught a 10 hour train straight to Goa- god what a long trip, but we met some interesting people.

Goa is a beautiful paradise that reminds me of Disney’s ‘The Jungle Book.’ There are strange animal sounds all over the place, monkeys, coconuts, but where is Baloo? Goa is also a hippy-haven, where everyone comes to spend their days relaxing at the beach and their nights dancing to trance music. It’s amazing the group of people here: hardened travelers of all kinds, hippies, Israeli’s and many, many Russians on extended holiday. People stay for a long time, months on average.

Upon arrival, Johan and I immediately felt out of place. Everyone here has crazy tattoos, piercings, dreads, etc. There is a much older crowd here, many more experienced/hardened travelers. Well, we wanted to go to a hindu temple in the north and sacrifice our hair, but the whole process of getting there was too out of the way. So instead, I shaved Johan’s head and then he helped shape mine into a mohawk. Awww yeah.

The first 3 days all we did was party, but after that we mellowed out for a bit. Last night was our first encounter with the infamous ‘Delhi Belly,’ though I’d be more inclined to call it food poisoning. We ate at a Tibetan restaurant and that night I spent about 8 hours erupting from both ends (often at the same time). It didn’t hit Johan ‘til a few hours later and not as bad (he only had a bite of my food, so we think it was my dish). It was hell, but I am alive and now paranoid as hell.

We spent the majority of our days on the beach getting our tan on. I finished a fantastic book I want to recommend to anyone who likes the Chili Peppers: ‘Scar Tissue’ by Anthony Kiedis. Amazing story.

Anyhow, it’s cheap as hell here. Our room is only 400 Ghandi’s (actually rupees, but Gandhi is on all the bills so we just call them Gandhi’s), which is only about 5 euros each. A Red Bull is like 80 ruppees. So yeah, food is cheap, drink is cheap; the weather is hot and there’s plenty to do, so we don’t know how long we’ll hang about. More to come~

Our beach Vagator in Anjunna. This is from our first day.

Coconuts, man! Johan and I met some dude on the street crushing these things with some tool who let us try. The actual coconut part is inside, very cool.

I pity the fool.
It's kind of funny that I photographed our Tibetan meal before the doom struck. Look at my bowl, it is the face of evil. 10 hours later I was puking my guts out.

Cows are sacred here, man, and so they are everywhere. Rampant! People feed them out of restaurants for breakfast like Lady and the Tramp. Here they are just chilling on the beach.
Anna, my Russian princess.
Everyone cruises around on scooters and dirt bikes. We haven't gotten one yet, but I want to learn.
How?

Viking and I in Prague

Literally, hanging in Prague. Like my vain effort at growing a beard? This was literally months in the making. Probably coming off soon, though.

Prague

Prague is an awesome city. Love it. The architecture is beautiful, kind of scary. It’s full of fantastic pubs and clubs, all with a dungeon sort of feel. One pub was an old subway station. Johan, that freaking viking and I walked all over the city, mostly at night, intoxicated and partying our stress away (after all the crap we went through to put this shit together, we both needed it). But man it felt good to be reunited with my old roomy from Ios. It's so strange how life works out, eh? Back then, I never would've imagined that I'd be embarking on this trip of a lifetime with this stupid Swede, but here I am and it's only the beginning.

So, I spent my last night in Mirandola partying a bit too late with my friends. I opted not to sleep rather than risk missing my train. Eugenia picked me up at 7am and after that it was on. Somehow, I managed to change trains, catch my flight and find my way to the hostel to meet Johan. I stumbled in, still inebriated but quasi-operational. So, we got to work and hit the town. Even now, I still don’t know how I did it… but I’m a soulja, mate.

A word on Czech girls- there are indeed some beautiful girls here. I can see why the dumb Americans in hostel get whisked away to their doom so easily. Please, take me too! Oh, and a word on Americans. There are way too many Americans in this city; it’s the only downfall. And if I’ve learned anything in my travels, it’s stay away from Americans. They are so loud and annoying. Chris will vouch for me on that one! In fact, Americans are some of the dumbest travelers I’ve met.

And so, thus concludes the first chapter of our big adventure. From here, it’s on to India malaka. For those who are interested, the viking and I decided to make our own separate blog to chronicle our hooligan exploits. It is called Asian Soup, and here is the url: http://asian-soup.blogspot.com/

Enjoy~

The one on the right, that's my Czech Fiancée. I forget her name, but she was quite happy when I proposed to her. I promised to someday return for her.
This is from our first night.