Sunday, 16 February

6:30 AM – The alarm was set for 7:00 but I remembered that it was Sunday, and there is no yoga on Sundays, so I reset the alarm for 9 AM.

Yes, I always wake up way before the alarm. I really only set it to remind me that I need to start getting ready.

9:00 AM – 100 jumping jacks.

Before leaving for school, I decluttered and gathered everything that I didn’t want to take back to the Philippines (clothes, medicines, etc.) and put them in a bag for Urja to donate to the village where she is staying.

12:00 PM – Chai break: bananas and oranges. Yay! We’re back to fruit! While the food that we had the last two days were a treat, they were also quite heavy and made most of us drowsy and slow in class afterwards.

3:30 PM – I decided to try out the shack near the school with the crude sign for fish curry rice.

There were two dusty tables inside and naked children playing on the dirt floor. The man of the house, er, shack, sat across me at the other table, wiggling his head at me and at everything in general. His wife, in a hot pink saree, came out with a fish thali – a plate heaped with white rice, some veggies (raw and cooked), a small bowl of curry and a piece of fried fish. It was actually pretty tasty and the lady did offer me more fish when she saw that I hardly touched the rice, but I declined. I was looking forward to some cake at Cafe Delicieux.

4:00 PM – Small selection at Cafe Delicieux after Valentine’s weekend.

I ordered some chocolate thingie and an eclair, both of which were just okay.

6:00 PM – I’m clearly PMS-ing. I want to eat everything.

I can now safely return to the guesthouse’s restaurant because the music has been changed.

I ordered a ground mutton curry with bread. It tasted like the mutton bolognese sauce but with peas. I don’t like peas. I should have ordered the mutton bolognese.

9:00 PM – 100 jumping jacks.

Monday, 17 February

7:30 AM – 100 jumping jacks.

8:00 AM – Thai yoga.

It was a better class today because he spent more time correcting our postures and alignment.

9:00 AM – Baji breakfast with Julia at the shack next to the yoga place.

Breakfast: Deep fried potatoes and chilies, and a soupy (and bland) veg curry and a bread roll. (25 rs., although the owner of the shack indicated that he wasn’t charging for the potatoes and chilies. I think he really just appreciates Julia’s business.)

12:00 PM – Chai break: papaya and banana.

2:30 PM – A few of us decided to try the vegetable thali lunch at the massage school. It turned out to be a delicious mini feast with unlimited refills. A steal at 120 rupees! It was the first time I had eaten a mound of rice in a long time and I felt sick afterwards.

4:00 PM – I wanted to walk off what I had eaten so I decided to go exploring on the right side of the road from my guesthouse. (The massage school is to the left so I’ve only been walking that way.) I didn’t go very far. I only went as far as Cottage Supermarket, a bigger grocery store than the one I go to, because I wanted to check out the range of Himalayan products they had. They had quite a few Ayurvedic brands and, in the end, I bought a brownie (80 rs). I wandered in and out of shops then returned to my regular grocery to the left of the guesthouse for another 5-liter bottle of water. (It only costs 60 rupees and, if you return the bottle, you get a 20 rs. refund.) I also got an ice cream bar.

Damn you, PMS!

My water consumption over three days was only 5.7 liters. And about three quarters of a bottle of wine – does that count?

7:00 PM – I was on the internet at the guesthouse’s restaurant when Urja and Monica walked in. So much for skipping dinner. Urja ordered some wine so I made a quick trip to Esperanto Cafe for some of their cheeses, which I thought would go nicely with the wine and some naan.

The cheese with red chili turned out to be a bit too strong, but the mutschli wasn’t so bad. As usual, I ate too much of both.

Monica and I shared a butter paneer chicken, a prawn biriyani and some garlic naan.

Urja’s vegetable biriyani. (180 rs.)

11:00 PM – 100 jumping jacks.

Tuesday, 18 February

8:30 AM – I walked out of the yoga class. Sainu gave us a manual, which he probably illustrated himself, and said that we should try to do the poses on our own. REALLY?! I had only been to his class three times and it was difficult following him because he’d do things so fast and expect us to follow while he was demonstrating, so how was I supposed to know what to do? It wasn’t as if his manual had detailed instructions. They just featured the final pose – not how to get into them. Since it was Julia’s last day in Goa, I decided to let him coach her through it and left. Except, now, I do not know if I want to return. I mean if I’m expected to follow a yoga manual on my own, then why bother going to a class?

11:00 AM – Uh-oh. Saw this new sign at Cafe Delicieux on my way to school:

MUST STAY AWAY.

It’s our last day and we invited “models” – people from outside the class – to massage. I should be nervous but I’m not.

2:30 PM – My massage went well, I think. I only forgot two things. I think. One stretch on the back, and the stretches on the foot, which I remembered when I was doing the second foot, so my model may be a little lopsided now. My model wasn’t very flexible but it’s good to work with different body types. I’m not so sure if she was relaxed though… Although she did get into that state of being half-asleep/half-awake at the end.

After everyone was done, we celebrated with samosas and mango pies! (I had two pieces each.)

7:30 PM – Dinner at Cheeky Monkey in Arambol. Met up with Valentina, the Chilean from our class, and her Spanish friends. They were already a big group to begin with, and then more people from the massage class showed up – with their own friends – and we must have occupied at least six or seven tables on the beach.

Aless, me, and Monica. (Valentina is on Aless’ right.)

It seems that Cheeky Monkey is known for its tuna salad. There were nine orders from our table alone. I ended up giving mine away when they ran out of tuna, and ordered homemade noodles with prawns instead. (I’m not too crazy about tuna.) I split a big bottle of beer with Monica. Then split a dessert with Aless (French): I had the chocolate mousse and she had the cinnamon-cashew ice cream.

Afterwards, we went dancing at Coco Loco.

Playing some reggae at Coco Loco.

Just kidding. No one can dance to reggae. We had epileptic seizures at Coco Loco brought about by nails-on-a-chalkboard tinny music.

I almost walked out as soon as we arrived. But the music did get better and become more tolerable as the night wore on. And, mind you, I was stone cold sober, so I was in a good deal of pain for a while. (Is it obvious that I’m not a reggae fan?)

On our way home, I shared a cab with Julia and Debbie (Brit) but, before getting in the taxi, we stopped at a convenience store and got ourselves some ice cream.

It seems to be getting hotter. I had my fan on a lot today.

Wednesday, 19 February

Rest day.

I decided that I didn’t want to go back to Thai yoga. I contemplated walking to Arambol to try out acro-yoga (acrobatic yoga) but, typically, I got online and forgot all about it.

I walked back to Cottage Supermarket to get some credit for my phone and, along the way, picked up a journal – which I plan to use as a “massage guestbook” – and a, um, chocolate cookie. Goddamit.

At 3 PM, I took a taxi to the Anjuna Market.

While there, I wondered to myself why I bother going to the markets. It feels like I’ve already seen everything – and bought everything – before. And most of the stuff can be found in Arambol anyway. Granted that there are always different foreign designers around, and the ones selling high-end clothing is what makes the Night Market more interesting (and more expensive) for me. The foreign designers at the Anjuna market are more the hippie type though, which I also like, except that they’re still doing the same slashed and tye-dyed clothing, aren’t they?

To be honest, I think I found better clothes and things to buy at the markets eight years ago.

I wandered about in circles, ate some muesli-yoghurt thing, then bought some stuff just so that the trip wouldn’t be a waste. (Two bed covers, two blankets, two dresses. Total damage: 2000 rs.)

On the way back to Morjim, I asked the driver to stop at the Pastry Palace because it intrigued me the few times we had driven by it.

Well, it seems that whoever named the place must be a member of the following club:

I walked out with a sad excuse of a chocolate chip muffin – and some candy in lieu of change.

The whole day was a waste of calories.

Thankfully, dinner was at La Plage again. It was Monica’s last night so that called for another bottle of red. I had the prawn ravioli in a bisque sauce to start and, for my main, the grilled squid with saffron rissotto. For dessert, the three of us shared a chocolate fondant and a banana creme brulee.

Desserts are not La Plage’s strongest suit.