Bangalore to Goa

I spent the weekend in Bangalore.  We started out with an a/c super deluxe luxury night bus--talk about your small miracles!  Saturday we went to a Catholic wedding that was still very Indian.  They read my all time favorite Bible passage, that one from the letter to the Ephesians about man being the head of woman.  Then they threw a completely awesome party and we danced like it was 1999 (actually, exactly like it was 1999--no alcohol allowed).  The dj asked where we were from and when we said "US" he yelled, "And if they can dance, you all can!"  Aw, snap!

My friend and I slept a wee 4 hours before heading to the Bangalore 10/5K!  Yessir, I strapped on my hiking boots and ran for the first time in 3 weeks.  The 5K had at least 26,888 participants, which if you will recall, was blowing my mind back in Philadelphia.  It's really hard to get your head around 1 billion people.

After that we headed to a fancy hotel to take advantage of their pool.  A lot of nice places have this day thing where you can buy a meal or pay a bit and hang out as long as you like.  I got a nice sun tan.  I also got to reflect on Bangalore, the IT capital of the world, and very Westernized.  Most everyone spoke English, and aside from the palm trees everywhere, it was pretty cosmopolitan.  We even got ice cream at the cool part of town, Brigade Street--it looked like mini-New York with all the lights and well-dressed YP's.  The hot fudge was supreme.

Another a/c bus later (Paulo Travels has all of my love) and we're in Goa.  Goa is to India what Ibiza is to Spain and San Francisco is to the US--former hippie mecca.  We even saw some lesbians!  The Arabian Ocean is quite warm.  The stray dogs abound.  An albino cat crawled onto our bench while we were eating--inside a restaurant, mind you--and I FREAKED OUT.  At one point the dogs started howling and I was about to bolt.

There were a couple flash thunderstorms in Bangalore and today.  The rainy season's getting started.