Paradise is palm trees, sun and a scooter. On the evening of my 2nd day, Misha accompanies me on the scooter up to my high school friend Becca at Mandrem Beach Resort, 
an sand & shore inlet that could've been the set for a Leonardo DiCaprio film. B's come in from Mumbai, the big city, and she's been living in the convent on the cheap, and following 90% of the rules... Mischief beckons.
After dinner we dare to cross the rickety bamboo bridge over the tidal flats that night. Becca's managed to befriend every stray dog in sight and we gently coax them across the make-shift bridge, glowing lightbulbs dangling over a fast moving current... of 3 to 4" deep. The stars are out in force and the sand is cold underfoot, but ultra-soft. Becca's named each dog "Molly! Oscar!!" and they're responding! We come back to the tidal crossing and the tide's come in. Pants are rolled knee-high.
On the scooter ride down to Anjuna and less sublime room rates, we pass over the Siloquiem Bridge and can see a river cut through the verdant Goan inland. Also we pass through small villages with old white-washed Portuguese churches and Christmas & New Year's decorations. There's ubiquitous 5-point stars pointing down, hung upside down, as Bobby tells me later, originally as a colonial protest and then by convention. The Goan place names on the road signs - Anjuna, Arambol, Chapora - are soaked in sun and Latin flavor.
Back in Anjuna, Beck's and I watch the sunset at the beach shack Lillipot while sipping Cobras, Hindustan's best brew, on bamboo lounge chairs. Lillipot is pumping smooth French house via live DJ at all hours of the day and night and the sun goes down in a blaze of pink and yellow. I spot one of the Nepalese waiters - they come down for months-long high season and sleep in the restaurant. He's gently opening the plastic wrap on a new mixer from Radio Shack. "New Year's," he says.
Later that night we met with Bobby and her friend Alex P... there is another! Also this Israeli guy Shai who struck me as total sketch that night but after we became mates and he showed me around the Goa underground and had the most amazing streak of backgammon luck I've ever seen. (Shai - you know those dice were loaded!) That night Beck's and I went as low as you can go in Goa and splurged on a 100 rupee room (about 2 bucks) right on the beach. Misery is a 100 rupees of hospitality in Goa. At some point you just need to laugh and dream of Mr. Clean.
In the middle of the night, there was bang and loud scratch over the tin roof. Becca and I shot bolt upright. She maintains it was a monkey and squirrel fighting, but I'm sure it was a thousand rats. Ahhhh, paradise.
The next day was Christmas Eve Day we brought Bobby and Alex up to Mandrem for some rest and relaxation. Becca in her infinite holiday wisdom had brought a Nerf-like football and we put together a real American Christmas Eve day pick-up two-hand touch game on the beach in India.
We coaxed in a trio of vacationing Portuguese (one in his tightie-whities which drove B. crazy) and established some basic rules such as downs, kick-offs and off-sides. Also, I'll never forget Manoosh, or "Charlie" as we dubbed him and to which he responded with enthusiasm, our Indian Troy Brown, diving for the end zone passes with his super lanky brown body in speedo and oversized fake Oakleys. Totally uncatchable, his role in every play was to cause confusion, which he excelled at. (Becca- we totally would have won if all our players understood English.)
Christmas Day I had to say goodbye to Becca who had to be back in Mumbai for school the next day. She's studying a special Indian school of Occupation Therapy which she'll bring back to disadvantaged kids with disabilities in Ithaca. Bobby, Alex and I celebrated the day with a lobster dinner at Lillipot, which they caught for us on special order the night before. Cooked, it was a light orangey-red... pretty good, but couldn't hold a claw to a Cape Cod classic.
That night we danced the night away under the stars and fireworks at the world famous Nine Bar, which hangs over Vagator beach. Wow, what a sound system. And the moon shimmered on to the ocean horizon like a silver road.
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