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Published: January 30th 2006
Hello Everyone.
We are so pleased with all the messages and comments. We feel the love...thank you.
We are feeling very comfortable now after two weeks in Goa. Our health is excellent...so far no delhi-belly...and we are getting very brown.
Our hotel is very comfortable and the staff are just great. They come from all over India for 'the season' which is December to April. The waiter in the restaurant is Bijay, about 45 years old and he is from Darjeeling. There is a 17 year-old from Pokhara in Nepal namd Vidar who helps in the restaurant, cleans rooms, washes laundry and just about anything else. There is Anthony, the tandoori cook - a handsome lad, very dark with flashing eyes - from Chennai. There are two young boys about ten or twelve who lost there families in the tsunami last year. They are Anthony's nephews and are supposed to be 15 to work here but they look like they just finished Grade 5 or 6. These are a few others we haven't met. They all work from dawn until dusk 7 days a week seemingly with no breaks at all...and they manage to stay happy and pleasant to us at all times. It really is a pleasure to be here and feel so welcome.
The beach vendors are becoming friends, too. Fatima, who carries pineapples, bananas, coconuts and papaya in a basket on her head; and Chaunty (sp?) who is only 13 and dressed to kill in a beautiful sari brings various shawls and wraps for Darla to look at every day. We try to buy from the locals as the vendors are numerous - Tshirts, drums, wooden snakes, beads & bangles, jewelry, pirated cd's, and other stuff are brought to your beach chair. They don't like to take no for an answer so one has to be rude and it is often unpleasant.
We are learning the difference between a pakora (deep-fried vegetables in batter), a parota (stuffed chapati) and a puri ( spiced dough deep-fried). There is also naan (butter naan, garlic naan, tandoori naan) and masala papadoms rolled up and deep-fried (these are my favourite) crisp and spicy.
We have discovered the delicious soups served here. Our favourite is 'manchou noodle' a hot, spicy, sour soup that is thick with noodles. We usually have it for lunch after a swim and a bake in the sun. Breakfast is usually mandarin oranges, pineapple and cashew nuts in our room with morning tea. One of us goes down to the restaurant and brings back the tea.
We had some king prawns the other day fried in ginger and garlic - about 9 of the beasts for C$8.50 - on a bed of greens. We also had 'kingfish tikka' - tender chunks of kingfish skewered and spiced and cooked in the tandoori oven.
The tandoori ovens are quite simple and intriguing. Take a 45 gal drum and line it with either clay or a hard-setting refractory material - about a 4 inch thick cylinder inside the drum. This leaves about an 18 inch vertical column of space for the fire. There is a small door at the bottom to let you play with draft and rake out ashes. A charcoal or wood fire for a couple of hours heats up the mass and then the oven is ready. They hang meat or fish from skewers or slap naan on the walls where it will stick until it's cooked to a lovely crisp. When a large piece is cooked - either a whole fish or a chicken - it is wrapped in foil after the initial searing. We are wondering if the tandoori oven was the springboard of the idea for the 'Big Green Egg' - a unique barbeque we have seen in Canada.
The hippies of Anjuna beach are still here some 30 years later. The simple market they began back then has blossomed into a gigantic ope-air affair every wednesday during the season. While few of the hippies are still selling stuff, the Tibetans, Nepalis and Indians from other states have arrived in droves. There are hundreds of traders and booths selling cottons, silks, jewelry, etc. No food items. It was very hot and we took the hour-long bus from our beach with the other tourists. The colours were fabulous and the prices (according my favourite shopper) were very reasonable. Seems there are fewer buyers now so prices are dropping.
We have a nightly ritual where we go to one of the many restaurants or beach shacks to have a beer and a snack and watch the sun descend into the silky waters of the Arabian sea. It's always a bit different and always grand. A huge red ball that is saying 'good night' to us and 'good morning' to Africa. Many people clap after the final ray disappears.
We have our train tickets to leave on Wednesday night. We are off to Kerala and a small town named Thrissur or Trichur. It's supposed to be a cultural capital of the area. The hotel we have booked is about $10 a night. We are excited about getting back to the 'real India' although a bit melancholy to leave the comforts and seduction of Goa and its beautiful beaches.
We usually go to the ATM for ready cash. It never fails to impress me, as I walk out with the instant money, as to how incredibly lucky we are to be born in the west to a life of relative privilege, promise and safety; a place where people matter and we care enough to provide free medical care and schooling for all.
You can either add a quick comment to this page or send an email to john@redclay.ca or Darla@redclay.ca. We will try to do some photos when we get to Cochi or (Kochi) next weekend. Love to all.
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Rob
non-member comment
Freezing in Canton
Hi guys I am in upstate New York and there is snow everywhere so I am especially jealous today as I read your journal. Good point about how fortunate we are - by our birth alone we have a leg up at least materially. Safe travels south Rob(ert)