Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset

This beach in south Goa India is full of spectacles that don’t exist on American shores: dred-locked French hippies that look oh-so-punchable; fishing boats whose hulls are sewn together with thick black thread; cockroaches the size of mice in the bathroom; men bathing their water buffalos in the surf; palm trees as far as the eye can see; big sea snakes washed up on the sand, and; thousands of stray dogs that pack together to chase Mr. Douchebag Tourist riding his bike across the sand.

I got bored lying in the sun flipping through songs on the ipod so I rented a bike for a dollar to cruise south down the beach. I first came across cute kids crawling on an old fishing boat. Their mothers soon began trying to sell me beads and shawls as I was taking photos. I ended up buying all the kids ice cream cones instead.

After biking across the packed sand only feet from the water -- without warning -- four dogs were on me, barking with teeth bared and jaws snapping at the air inches from my skin. My initial reaction was to coast along with my feet on the handlebars to avoid teeth from hitting legs, but I would start to lose momentum. I tried peddling in hard spurts, then quickly lifting my legs, but the dogs kept their pace with the same level of aggression and the barking and snarling continued. On we went. I even tried to bark back for a moment, to no success. After a while, they got tired and all peeled off at once, simultaneously –- dogs, after all, are good sprinters, but not long-distance runners. Luckily, none of them landed a bite.

Ok, there was a small chance I could’ve gotten bit and landed my ass in some backwoods Indian clinic with 25 rabies shots in the gut, but that didn’t happen –- making this a pretty mediocre story, I admit.

My wife is so tough that she actually picked this thing up:


Beach kids enjoying the ice cream I bought them:


These kids are hustlers -- hawking beads and shawls for the parents and craving ice cream. And damn cute:


I love the hull construction on these fishing boats -- just rope and black tar, like 200 years ago: