Countdown

So last weekend was good. Myrtle Beach was a nice excursion even though it rained most of the time Naufal and I were there. But in a way it was good that it rained. See even though Myrtle Beach is an ideal getaway from Raleigh over a regular weekend (just a three and a half hour drive), it is a place that has been commercialised to the extreme.

Somehow everything there is designed to attract the tourist, from the Broadway on the Beach (a very nice spot for the tourists to congregate) to the beach strip where the Summer Sun Festival activities are held. If you don't know, you'd never guess that this used to be a simple fisherman's town. I guess you can still get that feel at Merell's, but you don't feel it in the town in general.

The best part of the weekend for me was when I ended up at the beach at around 3 in the morning. It had stopped raining and I was with a couple of folks I had met just an hour ago. One good thing about tourist towns is that you can meet people just for the heck of it, do your thing, and then bid adieu. But being at the deserted beach was refreshing in so many ways.

One of the people in my temporary troupe was a Native American and I got a chance to do my first Indian war dance, barefoot on the beach. Personally I feel that I have a flair for the shrill war cries, I guess it's easier for people from my part of the world to roll their tongue! But splashing in the beach, doing the little jingle, with a stiff breeze blowing you into the circle, and singing the war cries is an activity to be undertaken at least once in the lifetime.

Also a nice sight for the eyes was this old couple walking around the beach, hand in hand, and talking in whispers all the time. It was testimony to the fact that love can last. Unless of course they were both married to different people and were having an affair far from their homes on the context of some business meetings...

To top it all off, I saw the sunrise. And there's this haunting quality of witnessing a sunrise on the beach, with the strong sound of waves (full moon) and water splashing on your feet. It was divinely providential that the clouds parted just at the right place at the right time for the dark husky sky to turn an emerald blue in front of my eyes. If I weren't so lazy, I'd probably go out for the sunrise every day, but then I guess it would lose its charm.

I finally got to my hotel room at 6 and soon it was time to head back after a quick stroll through the Broadway...

This weekend it's off to the city to meet up with an old friend and just walk around Manhattan, watch loads of movies in limited releases, and perhaps catch an off-Broadway production or two. Oh and yes, Naufal is driving over as well. It's amazing how we keep meeting up over here!

And then, finally I board the plane, Monday night and fly off again, back to the comfort and familiarity of home. Damn I've been missing my family a lot...

I'm leaving on a jet plane....