India - Goa
"Chai, chai, pani, pani"
One of the many chants sung by the young men marching up and down the train selling tea (chai) and water (pani), along with samasos, packaged curries, biscuits and chips. My favourite one would have to be
"Chicken lawww li pawwp"
The first time I heard this, I looked up confused at the brothers I'd been chatting to from Goa. They both repeated it "Chicken lawllipawp" with a big drawl on the vowels, then burst out laughing. It turns out it pretty much is a chicken lollipop, chicken wrapped around a stick. Some of the food I tasted from these travelling sellers was incredible, particularly the samosas. I realised one day I ate nothing but samosas, and was completely satisfied, each one so different.
I met a nice couple, guy from Mexico, girl from Columbia on the train down. I ended up stealing their choice of destination within Goa - Palolem beach. I hadn't really decided which of the many beaches I wanted to visit, but this one was in the south, and on the way to Gokarna which sounded a little more relaxed than the tourist circus Goa has turned into. In the end I didn't make it to Gokarna, I read about a lovely train journey from Goa to Hospet, my next destination, which only ran on Sat, Sun and Wednesdays, so I decided to take it easy in Goa then catch the train. Pellolem was beautiful too. At first I was a little taken aback by the crazy dogs roaming the beach, along with the cows and random dead snakes.
After a day I was into the swing of it though and began to relax. I had some of the best food I tried in India here. There was a magnificent restaurant on the beach serving delicious meat and fish curries, washed down with really cheap beers and fenni, a spirit distilled from either cashew nuts or coconuts. I tried the cashew fenni one afternoon, it ranked up there as one of the most filthy drinks I've ever tried. The smell was rancid, it smelt like methylated spirits and had me worried enough that I checked my book to make sure this fenni stuff wasn't the spirit I'd been reading about that caused blindness and death to the uninitiated (this is actually arak). It is the only spirit I've ever resorted to buying a chaser to wash it down with. Once I'd finished, I examined the room for a bit of people watching and potential social opportunities. The most likely canditate was a guy sitting alone a few seats from me. Originally a couple of English girls were sitting on the table next to him, and I was thinking perhaps we could make a four, but I was too slow and the girls moved up to the front to sit right on the beach. (Interestingly they ended up chatting with these funny looking older Indian guys they ended up next to and I later found out they went for a walk to watch the sunset together, then took a motorbike ride, had dinner together and ended up in the same bar I found my way into at the end of the night). I continued to size up the lone male, he had kinda beedy eyes and didn't seem very smiley, but then he was sitting alone. Then suddenly this young Indian guy sitting on the couch beside me started chatting to me. His name was Sanjay and he totally reminded me of Curtis for some reason, I think it was the way he sat and talked, he looked really relaxed. So my decision was made for me, I ended up chatting with Sanjay for the rest of the afternoon before heading back to my hut to chill out by the river, this was the view from my hut, fortunately I had another toilet inside.
That night I had the most delicious fish I've ever eaten. I don't normally particularly like fish, but for some reason I splashed out and bought a whole fresh red snapper, cooked in the tandoor to perfection. When it came out I thought I was never going to be able to finish it, but I had no troubles, it was really sweet eating it with my hands too, it felt like a much easier way to eat fish.
There was a very relaxed atmosphere at Palolem, it was outside the high season (Winter) so there weren't any crazy parties, which I would quite like to have experienced, but it was still nice to be able to just chill out on the beach, swim and eat eat eat.
The waves were actually fairly decent for body surfing at times. For some reason I get really frustrated when there are perfect body surfing waves and people just bob up and down without catching them (particularly when they're right in the perfect spot). It was nice watching the fishing boats come in every day too, and they also pulled a massive net about 200 metres out to see, and across a 100 metre section, then dragged it back in. I actually really dislike the idea of net fishing, it seems so skilless. This is the booty, lots of little fish along with quite a few prawns.
Finally I had to leave, there was a real dragging feeling in Goa though, everything seemed to go in slow motion, I could very easily have burnt a week or two chilling out on the beach. I think it was accentuated by being there in the low season, apparently they work really hard from October to April or so, then chill out during the monsoon. Fortunately it only rained a little one morning (so I slept in!) while I was there, even though I'd had numerous warnings about how rainy it would be in Goa and even resorted to buying an umbrella. Actually, it was Ashok's umbrella, after he told me it was going to be incredibly wet in Goa and found out I didn't have an umbrella, he offered to me as a gift. I was very thankful, then at the end of the night as I left his house, I picked up the umbrella, smiled and said thankyou to him. He grumbled and said "Give me 200 for the umbrella". Some gift .. I ended up giving him 100 (a bit over $3).
The train ride to Hospet left from Margao, the main town centre of Goa at 7.30am the next morning, which was rather annoying as it meant I had to move somewhere closer for that night. I chose a beach called Benaulim (a Portugese butchering of the Sanskrit "Benali" which means "where the arrow landed" if I remember correctly, signifying the place where one of Vishnu's incarnations fired an arrow into the sea and ordered the waters to recede, hence creating Goa. It was actually incredibly hectic getting to this beach, I took a bus into Margao then transferred onto another to Benaulim. Unfortunately this bus was incredibly packed and I had chosen to sit towards the back of the bus, complete with my huge backpack and smaller pack. I had no idea when to get out of the bus and nobody around me seemed to understand when I said "Benaulim, Benaulim?" Eventually some old lady worked it out just after we took off from the Benaulim stop. So I had to shove my way through this can of sardines, dragging my bags along with anyone else that I hooked on my way past until about 2 minutes later I made it the 10 metres to the front of the bus. The old lady told me that the bus had gone too far now .. I'm not sure what I was supposed to do with this information, order the bus to turn around? Thankfully it didn't take long to catch another bus back in the opposite direction. The beach at Benaulim was nowhere near as nice as Palolem, although there were some nice rice fields and farms to walk through on the way, along with a nice sunset from my dinner table as I ate yet another delicious fish, this one tasted like steak.
One of the many chants sung by the young men marching up and down the train selling tea (chai) and water (pani), along with samasos, packaged curries, biscuits and chips. My favourite one would have to be
"Chicken lawww li pawwp"
The first time I heard this, I looked up confused at the brothers I'd been chatting to from Goa. They both repeated it "Chicken lawllipawp" with a big drawl on the vowels, then burst out laughing. It turns out it pretty much is a chicken lollipop, chicken wrapped around a stick. Some of the food I tasted from these travelling sellers was incredible, particularly the samosas. I realised one day I ate nothing but samosas, and was completely satisfied, each one so different.
I met a nice couple, guy from Mexico, girl from Columbia on the train down. I ended up stealing their choice of destination within Goa - Palolem beach. I hadn't really decided which of the many beaches I wanted to visit, but this one was in the south, and on the way to Gokarna which sounded a little more relaxed than the tourist circus Goa has turned into. In the end I didn't make it to Gokarna, I read about a lovely train journey from Goa to Hospet, my next destination, which only ran on Sat, Sun and Wednesdays, so I decided to take it easy in Goa then catch the train. Pellolem was beautiful too. At first I was a little taken aback by the crazy dogs roaming the beach, along with the cows and random dead snakes.
After a day I was into the swing of it though and began to relax. I had some of the best food I tried in India here. There was a magnificent restaurant on the beach serving delicious meat and fish curries, washed down with really cheap beers and fenni, a spirit distilled from either cashew nuts or coconuts. I tried the cashew fenni one afternoon, it ranked up there as one of the most filthy drinks I've ever tried. The smell was rancid, it smelt like methylated spirits and had me worried enough that I checked my book to make sure this fenni stuff wasn't the spirit I'd been reading about that caused blindness and death to the uninitiated (this is actually arak). It is the only spirit I've ever resorted to buying a chaser to wash it down with. Once I'd finished, I examined the room for a bit of people watching and potential social opportunities. The most likely canditate was a guy sitting alone a few seats from me. Originally a couple of English girls were sitting on the table next to him, and I was thinking perhaps we could make a four, but I was too slow and the girls moved up to the front to sit right on the beach. (Interestingly they ended up chatting with these funny looking older Indian guys they ended up next to and I later found out they went for a walk to watch the sunset together, then took a motorbike ride, had dinner together and ended up in the same bar I found my way into at the end of the night). I continued to size up the lone male, he had kinda beedy eyes and didn't seem very smiley, but then he was sitting alone. Then suddenly this young Indian guy sitting on the couch beside me started chatting to me. His name was Sanjay and he totally reminded me of Curtis for some reason, I think it was the way he sat and talked, he looked really relaxed. So my decision was made for me, I ended up chatting with Sanjay for the rest of the afternoon before heading back to my hut to chill out by the river, this was the view from my hut, fortunately I had another toilet inside.
That night I had the most delicious fish I've ever eaten. I don't normally particularly like fish, but for some reason I splashed out and bought a whole fresh red snapper, cooked in the tandoor to perfection. When it came out I thought I was never going to be able to finish it, but I had no troubles, it was really sweet eating it with my hands too, it felt like a much easier way to eat fish.
There was a very relaxed atmosphere at Palolem, it was outside the high season (Winter) so there weren't any crazy parties, which I would quite like to have experienced, but it was still nice to be able to just chill out on the beach, swim and eat eat eat.
The waves were actually fairly decent for body surfing at times. For some reason I get really frustrated when there are perfect body surfing waves and people just bob up and down without catching them (particularly when they're right in the perfect spot). It was nice watching the fishing boats come in every day too, and they also pulled a massive net about 200 metres out to see, and across a 100 metre section, then dragged it back in. I actually really dislike the idea of net fishing, it seems so skilless. This is the booty, lots of little fish along with quite a few prawns.
Finally I had to leave, there was a real dragging feeling in Goa though, everything seemed to go in slow motion, I could very easily have burnt a week or two chilling out on the beach. I think it was accentuated by being there in the low season, apparently they work really hard from October to April or so, then chill out during the monsoon. Fortunately it only rained a little one morning (so I slept in!) while I was there, even though I'd had numerous warnings about how rainy it would be in Goa and even resorted to buying an umbrella. Actually, it was Ashok's umbrella, after he told me it was going to be incredibly wet in Goa and found out I didn't have an umbrella, he offered to me as a gift. I was very thankful, then at the end of the night as I left his house, I picked up the umbrella, smiled and said thankyou to him. He grumbled and said "Give me 200 for the umbrella". Some gift .. I ended up giving him 100 (a bit over $3).
The train ride to Hospet left from Margao, the main town centre of Goa at 7.30am the next morning, which was rather annoying as it meant I had to move somewhere closer for that night. I chose a beach called Benaulim (a Portugese butchering of the Sanskrit "Benali" which means "where the arrow landed" if I remember correctly, signifying the place where one of Vishnu's incarnations fired an arrow into the sea and ordered the waters to recede, hence creating Goa. It was actually incredibly hectic getting to this beach, I took a bus into Margao then transferred onto another to Benaulim. Unfortunately this bus was incredibly packed and I had chosen to sit towards the back of the bus, complete with my huge backpack and smaller pack. I had no idea when to get out of the bus and nobody around me seemed to understand when I said "Benaulim, Benaulim?" Eventually some old lady worked it out just after we took off from the Benaulim stop. So I had to shove my way through this can of sardines, dragging my bags along with anyone else that I hooked on my way past until about 2 minutes later I made it the 10 metres to the front of the bus. The old lady told me that the bus had gone too far now .. I'm not sure what I was supposed to do with this information, order the bus to turn around? Thankfully it didn't take long to catch another bus back in the opposite direction. The beach at Benaulim was nowhere near as nice as Palolem, although there were some nice rice fields and farms to walk through on the way, along with a nice sunset from my dinner table as I ate yet another delicious fish, this one tasted like steak.
posted by Flex at 7:58 pm
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