Must we Goa so soon?

Hi!

If you’re still reading its time for our latest update!

Rather than bore you with more details of long tiresome train journeys we decided to take the quick route to Goa and fly. Mumbai airport was lovely, organised and had a Subway which went down a treat. What didn’t go down a treat was our rather unexpected bar tab. Beer here usually costs 70 Rupees (about 80 pence) for a bottle, as it was Paddy’s day we thought we would treat ourselves to a cold larger and some free wifi and were flabbergasted to receive a bill for 1160 rupees (£13)! 2 beers! You would pay less in London! After getting over the shock and realisation that we spent more on beer than we have on our accommodation per night we hopped on the plane for a quick 50 minutes saunter to Goa.

What were we expecting of Goa? A relaxing chilled out week, a new style of food and a beer on the beach. Did we get that? Yes. We first stayed in a small town called Benaulim, we had a great host in James who extensively reeled off how great the place was and if we wanted to stay longer we could. After our hour debrief we sat down on the bed, if that’s what you can call it. The room was great, the bed was absolute shite. They don’t have mattresses here, that one was plywood with a very thin sponge material on the top, possibly the worst bed ever. However our 4 days were great so we’re willing to let that one go.

A short trek from the guesthouse via a paddy field and 12 water buffalo was Benaulim beach. Probably the cleanest place we have been to in India, sand for miles, beach shacks aplenty and a lovely warm sea to dip your feet. Total bliss after 2 weeks of the intense north of India. We had 3 days of lying on the beech, eating our hearts out and writing blogs!

We then moved on to Palolem, in the south of Goa. Again, a similar scene of beautiful beaches a small bustling town and a slight undercurrent of veganism. This time we stayed at The Funky Monkey, recommended by people we had met in Mumbai. It is famed for it’s family of monkeys that travel around the hotel everyday unfortunately the monkeys had other ideas and we didn’t see one.

We were sandwiched inbetween Patnem and Palolem beach, we spent the first day at the quieter one, Patnem.  After another day of chilling by the beach we headed out for our first noteworthy meal in Goa after being slightly underwhelmed by the last few days. We went to a restaurant called Mad Hatters, and had a delicious Goan prawn curry and our fast becoming favourite palak paneer (spinach and cheese). The prawns were our first bit of seafood on the trip and were in a sauce made with fresh coconut and curry leaves a real treat and probably one of the dishes of the trip so far.

We booked ourselves on a boat trip leaving at 8am from Palolem the next morning. We hiked over there very early only to find out that unfortunately a local fisherman had passed away over night so no boats go out that day out of respect. A bit hungry and with nothing else to do we went on the hunt for brekkie. We found a café that had a breakfast option that  included hashbrowns and eggs, to which we lapped up the idea! Out came said breakfast where we found chopped up potato and peppers cooked in 12 kilos of garlic. Not ideal for 8.20am. Lily no likey, Luke kept his light on. That night after getting itchy feet after too many days of chilling on the beach we wanted to get something booked up, so we found Rahul’s cooking school and headed there for the evening.

We arrived a bit early and donned our aprons had a read of the menu which had chicken xacuti on, a dish we had never come across before so were excited to see the process and gain a recipe for home. We were cooking with 5 others and it turned out to be a great evening. The chicken xacuti dish is a rich curry made with freshly grated coconut, an array of whole spices toasted up & blended into a paste with a few tomatoes and rahuls garam masala. 30 mins later it was done  and was really tasty, only wish the other students were braver with the salt. Everyone clocked that Luke was a chef as soon the onions were firmly parked on the chopping board. We also made a north Indian style mushroom dish, classic yellow dhal and a really nice light and zingy mustard seed cabbage fry. We all sat down with a few beers and tucked into our evenings work chatting about our trips and our experience in India which was great night with great food, great company and full bellies.

Our last day in Goa was upon us and we still had unfinished business with the boat trip, we headed of early doors down to the beach where the boat was all ready to go. We jumped into the little fishing vessel and sailed off in search of dolphins and butterfly island, predictably with our animal spotting luck we didn’t see much. They gave us a guarantee that if we didn’t see dolphins we would get our money back (not our idea but we were keen to go along with it). We were due to be out on the sea for an hour and a half, three hours later the boat was still chugging around looking for the dolphins. Just as all hope and petrol was running out, the captain got lucky and a solitary dolphin popped his head up for a few minutes. A nice few hours on the sea, and a great way to end our time in Goa.

We had a great week in Goa with some time to recharge the batteries and prepare for our busy trip around Kerala. Quite touristy in parts, a little bit like Spain with a curry but we had a fab time.

Next stop, Kerala!

Luke and Lily