Playing with the wide angle

Huzzah, new wee camera - ruggedized, waterproof, attachable to roofracks until the rack itself falls off! Here is us playing with the new camera, at least in photo mode. We (the royal we, as in I) screwed it up a couple times while trying to take videos, so still sorting through to find the least crappy clips to upload.

Behold, the mighty Twitchy heself, driving his visiting Desi friends around Goa. Behold his unbloodied right arm, days before it became markedly more bloody.

Witness the wondrous "roads" of Assam state, replete with dust, rocks, dust, dust, and rocks. Imagine trying to sprint across a field of turtles while pushing a shopping cart, with a weed wacker strapped to your butt. That would have been way easier and more comfortable than this - yet strangely, still very similar. This was the camera attached to the roof rack GTA-styley, a cool angle which unfortunately only lasted another few hours this photo was taken. Which was on the second day.

GQ-in' it in Goa with some loverly hills, ACTUAL FREAKIN ASPHALT ROADS, and good ol' Twitchmobile. Good ol' as in crappy.

Admire the mighty Jau, newly empowered by conquering the Rickshaw Run, now advancing to sucker-punching Poseidon hisself. The waves at Varca and Palolem were great for bodysurfing and almost stealing getting my drawstring-less swimming pants (i.e. the same pants I wore the whole trip).

Stay tuned for more stories from the road, photos, videos, and monkeys!

Goaing crazy trying to find a party

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days, but I've been relaxing hardcore and not making it to internet cafes lately. After the festivities in Colva Beach, the Rickshaw Runners have been fanning out across Goa in search of good sands and parties, and I followed some folks up north to Anjuna.

Overall, Goa can be divided into the north beaches, which are more touristy and known for parties (think origination of Goan trance and beach raves), and the south is a little quieter and known more for just chilling out and hippies. Hanging out with a bunch of Brit lads tends to send one more towards parties for maximum drinkage and pullage potential, and after 2 weeks on Indian roads, I was pretty much up for anything, so tagged along with crews shifting north in search of some weekly/monthly party on Tuesday nights in Anjuna.

Timing, however, was a bit of a problem. The excruciating heat right now corresponds to the low season when Western tourism tends to dry up in Goa. This pretty much meant that there were few to no people in most of the bars, and many of the establishments were already closed for the season. Luckily, the peeps I rolled up with were good folks, so still had a good time despite rolling from bar to restaurant to bar finding ourselves quadrupling the attendance at each venue.

On the other hand, also saw some of the most beautiful serene beaches I've ever been to, thanks to tips from fellow Runners, travelers, even some blog readers (thanks Deena!). Varca beach was amazing, and I've spent the last few days in/around Palolem, which is way to the south of Goa. Oddly enough, last night, my last night in India/Goa, the lot of us ended up at the most crowded place we've been to our entire time in Goa, in a beach I thought would be chilled out. It was interesting coming back here again after visiting Palolem two years ago; it's way more developed now, and the density of restaurants and beach shacks seems to have at least doubled. Still, a nice beach.

I think this post will work better with photos - will update more after returning to the States and downloading some pix of dead whales, empty beaches, and munchy munchy foods.