Happy New Year!

The New Year’s Eve came pretty quickly as more tourists came to Palolem to celebrate the New Year. But I was told it never truly got crowded like it had been the previous years due to the combination of the recent Mumbai attacks and global recession.

Anyway, my Aussie hut neighbors had some friends (Kelly and Jack) who came to visit. From where you may ask? Well, Northcote, Melbourne of course, is there any other part of Australia? I only say this because every Australian I met was from this exact suburb in Melbourne. I did, however, managed to meet a girl named Allie from Seattle, Washington. YES! Her and her friends were on holidays from doing volunteer work with kids in Bangalore. Pretty cool. Well, as evening came upon us, the Aussie’s and I headed to an open restaurant bar on the beach to sing karaoke. Actually, I just watched. Big chicken I know. Every sing person sang a few songs, which shamed so much, but my chicken’ness was still stronger.

The night ended with lots of fireworks and dancing. Unfortunately, the military police were not very friendly that night and harassed the tourists to get off the beach. Well, there were over two hundred people trying to get off the beach and into the safe haven of Café Del Mar (the most popular bar/restaurant), but apparently it wasn’t fast enough for the police. So the police started to shove and hit some of the tourists with their batons to move them along, which ended with one couple being arrested and taken away. Crazy.