“These guys even make ME feel like dancing”

The Lady Lynsey will forever have a place in my heart. Maybe, it’s because she christened me, by being the first of many “sunset cruises.” Or, perhaps the reason I remember the Lady Lynsey so well, was because she signifies the vacation where my father lost his suitcase and had to buy his entire wardrobe at K-mart. Either way, The Lady Lynsey acts as my memento to the beginning of sunset cruises, but more importantly the many “types” of sunset cruises one can embark on.

Saying goodbye to Rahul obviously was a tearjerker (seriously). Not only did he treat us like family, but also we really enjoyed hanging out with him and seeing the city from his eyes. But like all the goodbyes on this trip, Rahul’s too, was bitter sweet. With one goodbye came the next adventure, and for Derek and me, this adventure led us to the Indian state of Goa, aka the BEACH!

Much like any beach area, Goa has a coastline littered with small fishing villages all know for different things. We planned on spending 10 all over Goa and Rahul recommend we spend the first half in Anjuna beach. Anjuna was at least as our Lonely planet described, a quiet place known for its hippy atmosphere, beautiful beaches, and its Wednesday flea market. The lonely Planet stated that if you looking for more excitement you may want to try some of the other beach towns. Being the “laid back” people that we are we though Anjuna sounded perfect, we had had plenty of excitement and thought it would be nice to relax. So, when we found out that our Hotel gave us TWO free Sunset cruises, we were psyched, just another ingredient to the ultimate relaxation.

Pulling up to the wharf, was not exactly how my last sail took place. Rather, it had the honor of bringing me back to my senior year of high school graduation trip, specifically the “booze cruise”. While the boat was similar in the sense that it was a large steel mini tanker blasting techno music, the cliental couldn’t have been more different. Unlike the Bahama Mama from senior year that packed with underage Americans pouring cheep rum down there throats, the “Princess De Goa” was twice the size had three times the amount of people, and by people I mean middle class Indian families. From infants in strollers to Granny’s in wheel chairs, it seemed like the entire family made it to this epic event.

Finding a seat on this “vessel” was an entirely different story, as the engines started Derek and I looked at each other, (talking was not an option, the music was way to loud) realized we were in for an experience, and better find a seat among the maze of Indian families. The seating situation was similar to that of a sweet sixteen at a Vietnam Veterans hall, row after row, of plastic chairs all focused on one magical stage. But what happened on this stage? Curious? So were we. That is when out of his dressing room came the boat’s MC, a short, over weight Indian man in a floral button down, and his microphone. We later learned that he was responsible for fulfilling ever Indians dream and taking this cruise from epic to legendary. In actuality all he did was call up different groups of people to dance on the stage, in America no big deal, and since no body was drunk they probably wouldn’t even get a very good turn out, but….well, Indians just love to dance.

The first group to be summoned was the kids, and what a turn out. It was so funny to see 50 Indian kids just getting after it, to overly loud techno music. Derek and I were hysterical. Next came the couples, then the ladies, and finally and by far most entertaining the men. I swear to god you have never seen anything like this. From tank tops and swishy pants, to loafer wearing, tucked in polo’s every type of man flocked to the stage. (May I also add that by this time it was pitch black out, which aided greatly to the light show, forcefully focusing all of our attention to the stage) but who wouldn’t want to watch this, it was hysterical, from men jumping in the air, to swing dancing with each other, to the hoots and hollers that made there way through the blaring music, these men were having the best time, and so were we. They were spinning flaring their arms, some even took their shirts off and held flexed poses for the crowd. They did what they wanted; it was there 10 minutes on stage. While we did not muster up the courage to join them on stage, I will never forget when Derek looked at me and said “theses guys even make me feel like dancing.” Getting off the boat we felt like changed men and agreed that Indians are truly happy people. We couldn’t have been happier to add the Princess De Goa experience to our sunset cruise repetoire. Oh yeah, and a mere four days later, we got to do the whole thing again.