Weekend in Goa!

Calangute Beach, Goa

We've arrived fresh back from an awesome weekend in the state of Goa, India, a tourist destination for beaches and seafood! Our intent for this weekend was 2 things: 1. Beach and 2. Reeeeeelax, which was certainly accomplished by all.

Our journey to Goa almost didn't happen- our bus pick up site was at a stop 10-11km from St. John's, and we thought leaving an hour early (6:30pm) via tuk-tuk would easily get us there on time. One tuk-tuk made it with about 15 minutes to spare, but only Abby had her ticket. Fortunately, tuk-tuk #2 made it there literally 5 minutes before the bus left. Phew! We all enjoyed (sort of) our successful overnight bus ride to Goa, with 2 stops in 13 hours. Hold your bladders, friends!

We stayed at the Jewel Inn and Spa (3 whole stars of luxury!!!) complete with AC!!! TV!!!! and, super soft beds which we all appreciated after staying at the annex. Our routine was beach, eat and drink on the beach, eat dinner, repeat. I think its safe to say that despite sitting in the shade and multiple applications of sunscreen later, we're all still a little burnt. But relaxed, and ready for another week at St. John's! (after a less than pleasant overnight bus ride back to Bangalore....motion sickness is not fun)

Some interesting observations over the weekend:

1. Jockey underwear (boxers, briefs, or otherwise) all constitute appropriate bathing apparel for Indian men, while Indian women all wear full saris while at the beach.

2. White caucasian women in bikinis, despite TONS of advertising, media, etc, are still a sight to behold on the beach and we continued to have an absurd number of people attempt to take our photo/video on their cell phones. Definitely not enjoyable.

3. "Male is separate?" -quote from beach vendor at the cafe we frequented. Sagar, the sole male on our journey raised many eyebrows while travelling with 5 other girls. It proved for a number of hilarious comments from merchants and beachgoers alike.

Sagar, overjoyed to be one of a select few Indian men invited to the Euro-hippie parties at one of Goa's largest tourist attractions, the Saturday Night Market, just north of the beach we were at.

Sasha and I started dermatology today, Jill has started medical oncology, and Libby and Abby are on community medicine. Hard to believe we're on the 2nd half of this rotation and we'll all be home in 2-3 weeks!

Best diet coke ever.

Path from our hotel to the beach...though beautiful, the sand was EXTREMELY hot. Ouch!