Goa

Patrick digging into idli sambar rapped in a jackfruit leaf

Generally Speaking, India's roads are largely dangerous, undeveloped, and pot-holed, with the traffic appearing unbelievably insane to the uninitiated. So traveling by India's excellent railway system is usually advised, giving a much more comfortable and rewarding experience. But when we booked a sleeper compartment on a 16 hour overnight bus journey to take us from Udaipur in Rajasthan to Mumbai, the booking agent assured us that the highway was modern and smooth - "no bumps". Why we were gullible enough to swallow this bullshitting one can only wonder, I guess as this was our only option, the trains being all booked, we were only too eager to believe. This night on the bus gave us no sleep but on the contrary, aching bodies, grime from feet to face (the seats had scarcely seen any kind of cleaning probably ever) and red bleary eyes from scarcely an hours sleep. All night long there were bumps causing us to constantly be flung up in the air and come smashing back down. At times the driver would slow down indicating that a great massive monster of a bump was coming up ahead, it was we could do to prepare ourselves for those ones...

Sleep compartment. Never again!

Getting to the train station outside of Mumbai where our train to Goa would depart from was another story. Mumbai local trains are nothing less than hazardous as the concept of a full train does not exist. It was quite terrifying to see how people violently pushed, shoved, elbowed and used any technique to get themselves on the already overcrowded train. It was the closest thing I've seen to a riot or a murder. 3500 people die every year on Mumbai's train system, with people falling off, getting caught under trains, etc. The only way of getting off is to start making your way through the mass three stops before your own.

At Goa's biggest train station, Madgaon, we saw an excellent setup. A restaurant split in two with a 'veg' and a 'non-veg' (meat) section, both with separate kitchens!

Wild banana tree. Spot the bananas!

 

Bamboo beach hut in Goa

Bamboo beach hut in Goa

After an uneventful day in Mumbai we headed south for lazy beautiful Goa. With palm trees and sandy beaches, we didn't do much more than eat, sleep and bake in the sun.

Goa

We rented a scooter and whizzed around Goa's backroads

Tara next to a young pineapple. Spot the pineapple!

Patrick ready for Thali three

 

Working on our tans

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hell room

Tara and Ahmed cooking up some delightful dahl

 

Finishing off our lazy days on the beach in Goa we got our senses going with a bit of traditional Indian cooking. Our teacher was a lively young Indian chef called Ahmed, he rambled vast quantities of recipes from memory and claimed he had about 4,000 recipes stored in his head! We spent 7 hours in the kitchen and learnt to cook many mouth watering dishes such as dahl, channa masala, aloo palak and Indian breads like chapatis, naan and puris. Afterwards we were stuffed so full from everything we cooked. The food was excellent, using a vast variety of spices; usually up to 10 in every dish. On our homecoming some of you may end up victims to our attempts at the recipes we have learnt, beware or rejoice.