February 29th, we arrived at the Karmali train station and took a moto-rickshaw into Panjim, or Panaji, the capital of Goa. The Portuguese colonial influence was immediately visible in the architecture we saw as we rode into town. Upon reaching our hotel, we had time for showers and to catch up on some laundry before taking a walk. Our walking tour took us through some residential areas in the old quarter, by government buildings, and past some impressive religious temples including the Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church. The church and the lack of "holy cows" roaming the streets were some noticeable signs of the predominant religion in the area, Christianity. After our tour, we headed to the bank and took out some cash to pay for our cooking class the following morning; the main reason for our visit to Panjim.
The following morning, after breakfast, we met up with the woman who would be our teacher. After some chatting, we found out the price of our class had increased and that the necessary ingredients for our desired dishes had not been procured. We were to meet again at 7pm. So we spent the day checking out the town, walking, tasting local food and catching up on BBC news. At the arranged time, we met up with the lady who walked us through backstreets to her house. In her kitchen, she proceeded to read off an internet-printout recipe to tell us how to chop up the vegetables. Though we had asked her to teach us to make proper chai tea, she just threw a pre-mixed herb blend into the hot water and it tasted nothing like the chai we had been drinking all over India. Several of the sauces were already prepared, so there was no chance for us to learn how to make them ourselves.
The woman made us pay a professional-cooking-class price and that's not the type of education we received. So after about ten minutes, when we realized this "chef" had no idea what she was doing and had never cooked the meals before, we asked her if it would be possible to end the class. She said we could have a refund, but the money was in the bank and it was 8pm. The following day was Sunday, so the bank would be closed, could we come in Monday? We told he we were going to the beach, we would come back on the 4th if that would be okay. It would. And what percentage of the money would be refunded? One hundred percent. Okay.
The next day, we got booted out of our hotel room at the 8 am checkout. The housekeeping man knocked on the door 3 times in ten minutes (starting at 7:57) asking for us to pay another night if we were going to stay late, even though we were clearly minutes away from leaving. Anyway, so then we grabbed some breakfast and successfully found the bus park and the bus to Margao. Then, we hopped another bus to Palolem and by 2pm, we had checked into our beach shack, and were floating in the Arabian Sea.
The state of Goa is renowned for its beaches, which come in forms ranging from secluded sandy strips to massive party areas with music every night. We picked a long, white-sand beach that was known for its beauty, called Palolem. It was fantastic. If we walked 15 minutes up to the street, there were shops, bars, internet cafes, and delicious restaurants, but down on our corner of the beach it was perfectly quiet. The "Cozy Nook" was right on the end of the beach, with a river, then a peninsula with a rocky island (i) on the other side. We spent the majority of the time reading, swimming, eating, and relaxing. The first full day also included a scooter rental and a sunny, breezy, fun ride out to Patnem, another beach nearby. The second full day included a lovely, solitary, barefoot, thoughtful walk up and down the river, over rocks and out to the island, checking every tidepool and talking to all the birds, dogs, crabs, and fish. That night, I picked up a Ganesh (the Remover of Obstacles) ring and called the cooking lady in Panjim to make sure everything was on schedule for the following day. It was.
On the fourth, we spent the morning on the beach before heading back by buses to Panjim to collect our money from the cooking teacher. We arrived at the office early and she wasn't there. She never came. Her boss accepted no responsibility and was repeatedly talking to someone in whispers over the phone while we waited over an hour in the office. Then I went to the police while Matt stayed at the office to make sure the boss wouldn't leave. The lady had never planned to give our money back. It was a fair bit of money, but that's not even what upsets me. It's the lying, and deliberate thievery from naive foreigners as well as that we lost several days of our trip to this cooking class. I only went to the police in hopes that the lady would get worried and pay us back. Anyway, it was a terrible few hours before we had to leave in a hurry and catch our overnight train to Bombay.
We arrived in town before the sun was up and hopped a taxi to a 24-hour internet cafe, which we intended to make our home for the day. When we found the door locked, we headed to the street for a half a dozen glasses of chai each (total cost $1.50) before checking again and having success. After plenty of skype conversations, I headed out for souvenirs and didn't return until we had to go for our flight to Johannesburg.
The pictures in this post are: Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church, Goan architecture and a puppy in the window, peppers drying in the sun, the view from Cozy Nook in Palolem, and Patnem beach.
The following morning, after breakfast, we met up with the woman who would be our teacher. After some chatting, we found out the price of our class had increased and that the necessary ingredients for our desired dishes had not been procured. We were to meet again at 7pm. So we spent the day checking out the town, walking, tasting local food and catching up on BBC news. At the arranged time, we met up with the lady who walked us through backstreets to her house. In her kitchen, she proceeded to read off an internet-printout recipe to tell us how to chop up the vegetables. Though we had asked her to teach us to make proper chai tea, she just threw a pre-mixed herb blend into the hot water and it tasted nothing like the chai we had been drinking all over India. Several of the sauces were already prepared, so there was no chance for us to learn how to make them ourselves.
The woman made us pay a professional-cooking-class price and that's not the type of education we received. So after about ten minutes, when we realized this "chef" had no idea what she was doing and had never cooked the meals before, we asked her if it would be possible to end the class. She said we could have a refund, but the money was in the bank and it was 8pm. The following day was Sunday, so the bank would be closed, could we come in Monday? We told he we were going to the beach, we would come back on the 4th if that would be okay. It would. And what percentage of the money would be refunded? One hundred percent. Okay.
The next day, we got booted out of our hotel room at the 8 am checkout. The housekeeping man knocked on the door 3 times in ten minutes (starting at 7:57) asking for us to pay another night if we were going to stay late, even though we were clearly minutes away from leaving. Anyway, so then we grabbed some breakfast and successfully found the bus park and the bus to Margao. Then, we hopped another bus to Palolem and by 2pm, we had checked into our beach shack, and were floating in the Arabian Sea.
The state of Goa is renowned for its beaches, which come in forms ranging from secluded sandy strips to massive party areas with music every night. We picked a long, white-sand beach that was known for its beauty, called Palolem. It was fantastic. If we walked 15 minutes up to the street, there were shops, bars, internet cafes, and delicious restaurants, but down on our corner of the beach it was perfectly quiet. The "Cozy Nook" was right on the end of the beach, with a river, then a peninsula with a rocky island (i) on the other side. We spent the majority of the time reading, swimming, eating, and relaxing. The first full day also included a scooter rental and a sunny, breezy, fun ride out to Patnem, another beach nearby. The second full day included a lovely, solitary, barefoot, thoughtful walk up and down the river, over rocks and out to the island, checking every tidepool and talking to all the birds, dogs, crabs, and fish. That night, I picked up a Ganesh (the Remover of Obstacles) ring and called the cooking lady in Panjim to make sure everything was on schedule for the following day. It was.
On the fourth, we spent the morning on the beach before heading back by buses to Panjim to collect our money from the cooking teacher. We arrived at the office early and she wasn't there. She never came. Her boss accepted no responsibility and was repeatedly talking to someone in whispers over the phone while we waited over an hour in the office. Then I went to the police while Matt stayed at the office to make sure the boss wouldn't leave. The lady had never planned to give our money back. It was a fair bit of money, but that's not even what upsets me. It's the lying, and deliberate thievery from naive foreigners as well as that we lost several days of our trip to this cooking class. I only went to the police in hopes that the lady would get worried and pay us back. Anyway, it was a terrible few hours before we had to leave in a hurry and catch our overnight train to Bombay.
We arrived in town before the sun was up and hopped a taxi to a 24-hour internet cafe, which we intended to make our home for the day. When we found the door locked, we headed to the street for a half a dozen glasses of chai each (total cost $1.50) before checking again and having success. After plenty of skype conversations, I headed out for souvenirs and didn't return until we had to go for our flight to Johannesburg.
The pictures in this post are: Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church, Goan architecture and a puppy in the window, peppers drying in the sun, the view from Cozy Nook in Palolem, and Patnem beach.
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