Psyfamily | June 2016
Vasiliy Karavaev
and “Goa Freaks: My Hippie
He is a famous Russian writYears in India” into Russian.
er who has been living in Goa
In the exclusive interview for
since 2004. He spent 1.5
Psyfamily Magazine, Vasiliy
years in a Goa prison for drug
possession where he started
writing his first book
“Confessions Of The Psychedelic Oyster” about his life in
Goa before being sentenced
and inside the prison cell.
The book bares insights of
Goa life, the backstage of famous Goa trance parties and
the dark side of “life in paradise”. In 2012 he was nominated as best writer in the
Russian National Literary
Awards.
His significant contribution
to the world of “alternative”
literature also includes translating two famous books by
Cleo Odzer “Patpong Sisters:
An American Woman's View
of the Bangkok Sex World”
and altered states of consciousness. Then I was in
prison where I started writing
and when I was released I
published my first book with
financial support of crowdfunding.
Q: Can you name any famous writers whose books
are about drugs, raves,
junkies and psychedelia?
Vasiliy: Hunter S. Thompson and Irvine Welsh – about
rave and drug culture. There
are lots of good writers in the
field, but those have cult status. All those came before
them were old-farts beatniks,
all those who came after
Karavaev speaks about rethem – were either Gonzo
birth, drugs, stupidity and his journalists or junkieidea of the perfect human
romantics…
Interview by Samaya Gorgona. Q: Tell more about your
Photos by Yuri Lvov
case, why did you go to
Q: What did you do in Rus- prison and what is the situation now?
sia, before you came to
Goa?
Vasiliy : They suspected that
Vasiliy: I’m a professional
I had 20 grams of MDMA
cook and businessman, I have
and one mushroom (the first
two higher educations. I had
and only one that had sproutmy own tattoo studio in the
ed by the time I got busted).
90s, had a chain of shops, I
And two marijuana bushes in
was a biker, and I loved travpots. They still haven’t figelling. Since 2004 I’ve lived
ured out how pure that
in Goa, and I opened the first
MDMA was so it’s not even
Russian restaurant in
certain how much there was.
Arambol – Hemp Café. I was
But I have served the minipsychedelic missionary (now
mum sentence for this article
I’m just an explorer), I studalready. The mushroom was
ied yoga, tai-chi, meditation
not enough for an article and