I get up earlier than most here. If I want a chai before 8, I have to walk up the beach to find a place with someone ready to boil water. The Napalese place two shacks down has been open. It doesn’t put so much cardemom and cinnamon in, but it’s okay. I hung out there, and by about 8:45 there were signs of life at my place. I sat there talking with Ina, who gets up early to let her dog out, kinda reading, having another chai, and eventually having meusli with curd and fruit. Sam was wanting to go to Paradise today. She gets up around 10.
Sam and Melanie, the German woman we had lunch with in Gokarna, have hit it off. So Malanie, Sam and I headed over the jetties. It was a breeze, but obviously less travelled than between Om, Kudlee and Gokarna. Still, they got hot and decided to stay at the first Beach, Half Moon. It’s real little, maybe a hundred meters at the most. there’s one shack there with no electricity and a few huts. It looks okay and not many people were there. Â I went to the shack and hung out with an English couple until Sam and Melanie got tired of the sun and joined us. Around 2, I went to Paradise. That was a lot of crawling over rocks. I see why most people take the boat. Those go to Om for 150 rupies and take six usually. So, for 50 cents you can spare yourself that rock thing. It’s kind of sheer in places. I don’t like that.
Paradise Beach is a nice place. Several families are there, no real partying, just a few well-behaved, quiet-type dopers.
There’s not much of a beach there either, but it’s nice. I was hot by the time I went over the top and down this hillside,so I spent the afternoon going into the water and lounging on the sand. When I had had enough sun, I sat in that big round shack there till about 5-5:30, when most of the people gt a boat in groups and go back to wherever.
While there, I kind of hit it off with Kathryn, a single mother of 8 and 2 year olds, travelling alone with them. We talked on the way back and about half the evening. There were three Irish there, and I talked with them a lot. They cleaned my shack completely out of beer and went to wherever around 10:30. I made a last social visit over to where Sam, Melanie and Kathryn were yaking away in German. Actually, I just wanted to sit next to Kathryn for a while. Everybody has those fantasies where, but for a simple twist of fate, …. You know.
Ah, I’m going to Mangalore tomorrow.