ah, varkala. land of easy, convenient touristy things (parcel post, cheap cotton pants, diet coke, salads, bread products, tibetan items [e.g., "i love tibet more than ever" handbag], internet, etc) ... land of wild warm salty waves ... land of fixed-price beach umbrellas (150 Rs, but you can get them down to 100 with a lot of work) ... land of rusty, rose-red cliffs, bleeding romance and trash into the sunset ... land of men in diapers performing public beach yoga ... land of the all-devouring yellow ant invasion ... land of the forceful fruitseller ("pineapple or mango. ok, mango. yes? pineapple. MANGO.") ... land of the 2010 southeast asian land chicken championships.
land chicken is pretty simple. you draw a circle in the sand, in which two opponents face off. each must hold one of his feet, shin roughly parallel to the ground, his only available form of locomation a pitiful type of hop. the object: to knock down his opponent, to knock him out of the circle, or to force him to let go of his foot. no kamikaze allowed.
in this corner, tom represents denver and bands with the name "mouse" in them.
lindsey, his oddly distorted opponent, represents perth, the eagles (not the band -- please contact linds directly for a thorough explanation of aussie rules football) and the massively bearded.
competition was fierce -- multiple strategies, multiple piles of furry man-limbs soaking up sand, and one sneaky (and successful) knee to the gut. but ultimately thomas "curry" emerged victorious and will hang the banner for this title next to his 2005 zanzibar land chicken championship flag.
not to be outdone, the ladies match up next. at left (snarling): yours truly. at right (snickering/baring teeth, claw, fist): catie. catie is valiant, but ultimately falls prey to distraction, as crowds of curious men begin to slink around the edges of our circle, hooting and (no doubt) fantasizing.
as an added bonus, trav and tisha (not their real names) demonstrated a new type of ridiculous battle royale known, i believe, as butt-bumpers or maybe bumper butts. i still need permission to youtube this one, so stay tuned.
the next sport to be added to the olympics!
ReplyDeleteYou are too kind. In the end, it was my poor strategy that cost me the title. Look at me - I'm hop-hop-hopping around like a deranged, um, thing that hops. Pogo stick enthusiast?
ReplyDeleteWhile Kerry/Curry may have won the war - the Dodd 'knee to gut slam' will surely be remembered rightly as the highlight of that beautiful (if violent) day.
ReplyDeletelinds 'carn broncos' dodd