The amble of arambol

As the suns turns white bright to cigarette ember orange, the town turns to the beach. My usual dose of average TV has been replaced with the reliable entertainment of an evening walk down Arambol's waves.

Hippies appear of all shapes of weirdness. Dreadlocks swing and smoke around happy faces, loose cotton pants and skirts ripple in the wind from bronze, yoga sculpted waists. People sit at the high tide mark in deep meditation staring at the sun as it dips, some balancing a glass ball impossibly still on their heads. Fire sticks are spun around wrists and backs in rings of fire and musicians assemble in a drum circle and thud at bongos. A crowd gathers in the centre and dances possessed to the rhythm as night smothers the sea but for the white moon shimmer on peaking waves.

One evenings walk down the sand in Arambol and you think you've seen it all. But tomorrow, again, something will surprise me.

I don't think twice about walking the streets in my little swimming shorts anymore, beaming blindingly white. People don't judge. They dont care how you dress or how you dance. They couldn't care what you think of them raving in a chewing little man thong. There's always someone wierder in Arambol.

I've roamed from cafe to bar for weeks, chatting to whatever face sits across. People talk honestly, to everyone, sharing jokes and joint's on shady streets. Many arrive keen with plans, plans that turn quickly to rough possibilities after a plunge in Arambols freedom - "maybe we'll visit that temple tomorrow".

The soft grip of Arambols orange dust lanes floating with the bop of bongos has slowed me to an ambling shuffle. Shanty shanty - 'slowly slowly' - is a fraze I often hear. The rolling moments here have shaped me to another type who lives in Manchester, not so much looking for the next distraction, the next plan. I wonder how long it would take for 9 to 5 living to snap me back into the rush.

My plans to travel so far by land and push myself so much seem so ridiculous when I'm here, with happy, content, amazingly interesting people, enjoying life and living well. Its a town with a world of nationality's and being alone here feels anything but lonely.