Goa 2K9

When the weather report said "100% chance of precipitation" for the next 5 days, I should have grabbed a poncho, an umbrella, a long sleeve shirt and possibly changed my ticket for another weekend instead of assuming that the weatherman was full of it, that I didn't really need any rain gear (hey, I'd be in my bathing suit the whole time!), that the temperature would still be 100 degrees, and that the "100%" merely meant that we would get some light mist every now and then. So, there we were in Goa at Bhakti Kutir (please see www.bhaktikutir.com so that you can see all of the stuff that we couldn't see.). And, why couldn't we see? Because the place is in the "jungle". And when the sky is dumping buckets and entirely gray and overcast, the many trees with their super large leaves shade us from any amount of white light that the sky emits. Plus, rain in India means that the power goes out. So, while we were in this super cute and lovely place, the option of sitting on our porches reading and listening to the rain and thunder was not even available. Oh, and did I mention that between the five of us, only one of us had a headlamp?

Luckily, our huts were not leaking, BUT the amount of water in the atmosphere provided for damp sheets, damp clothes, wet porch chairs and a temperature in the 70's or 80's - not warm enough to dry anything.

I was there with Becky, Julie, Kendra and Kate (some of my girls of India). We arrived at the airport at 8 pm. Bhakti was an hour and a half drive from the airport. On the way to Bhakti, we had the taxi driver stop at a liquor shop so that we could grab some wine and beer for the next day (Gandhi's Birthday - a dry day in India). Well, we arrived at Bhakti at 9:30pm, checked in to 3 huts, grabbed some more beer from the hotel and proceeded to gab and drink our way through most of the bottles that we bought and even some that we brought from Delhi until 3 am. It was a hoot, a blast, a super fun time. We then crashed with high hopes of many more evenings and days of fun times and fun in the sun in Goa.

We awoke to more buckets of water. And more. And more. So, we slept. And dosed some more. Finally, at 11am, Becky and I made our way to Kendra's and Julie's and Kate's huts to find that Julie and Kate were still asleep and that their bathroom had no roof and was therefore filled with 2 feet of water. It's dark, everything is wet, we practically have to row a boat from hut to hut and now from bed to toilet, and food is another boat ride away from our huts....oh my, can this get any funnier? Over breakfast, we looked at each other and thought about our options. Really? Is the Intercontinental the only option? Pretty much. It was either stay here and just sit and be soaked or leave for the only non-beach hut accommodation option in the area - the 5 star hotel. Nah. We talked ourselves out of it. Becky tried to pump us up. Julie and Kate asked for a new hut with a roof over the bathroom. To which the receptionist replied "roof?". Yes, please, we have 2 feet of water in our bathroom. You do?! YES! Well, we'll just build you a roof, she said. Seriously? Ok, fair enough. Julie and Kate are getting a roof. Becky found toilet paper for all. And I made a plan to take a taxi into town to find a poncho and a flashlight. This is going to be good. Here we go. We're psyched. Making the most of it.

Well, it didn't take long for the hotel peeps to figure out that they were not going to be able to build a roof during this torrential downpour. And we all quickly realized that even walking to a taxi would result in absolutely soaked clothing, which will never dry and which we were quickly running out of. Intercontinental? Done.

So, we packed up all of our stuff. The hotel called for a taxi. It's here! It's tiny, but who cares, get us the heck out of here! The driver stares at us dripping wet and says "You don't have an umbrella?". "Of course we don't! We're on our BEACH vacation....now, open up and let us in!" Bags piled on top of us, girls sitting on top of each other. Turn off the music! Turn off the A/C! We're drenched. Please just GO. Driver advances about 15 feet before he informs us that the car is too overloaded to make it all the way to the Intercontinental. Are you serious? yes, flooding. car won't make it. Um...Ok, Julie and Kate how about you get out and stand here? The driver will give you his umbrella. How about we don't give you any money or a phone and how about you just stand on the side of the road and wait for him to return? Um, seriously? Yes. That is how it went down.

But, alas, all turned out OK. All 5 of us did make it to the Intercontinental, where we enjoyed warm beds, warm showers, hot tea and cuddling :)

That afternoon, a whole other crew of AES peeps also packed up from their beach cottages (15 minutes from Bhakti) and moved to the 5 star. So, we celebrated our friend Scott's birthday. Good times. And, then, per typical Laura move, I slipped and fell on a puddle of water that remained when maintenance stopped by to clean up someone's spilled beer. I had a mojito in my hand which also came down with me, spilling and shattering the glass into many pieces. There went another outfit. At this point, I was down to maybe 1 dry piece of clothing. sweet.

We didn't last much longer...the next morning was full of more rain, and so we changed our plans and headed back to Delhi early. Bummer rain, but still a fantastically funny, good time.