Category: Food (Page 4 of 8)

Paradise is Goa – to be continued…

29 March 2021 / Juliet Stratton

We left the madness of Mumbai behind and headed to the beach resort of Goa, an hour’s flight away, for what was supposed to be a 3-4 week rest, to catch our breath, catch up on sleep, cook ourselves some plain food, and plot the rest of our trip south……. We landed in South Goa, booked into a flat for 3 nights, looked about and finally found an apartment where we could stay for a month, a comfortable bed, cool air conditioning, our own cooking facilities, a pool, bar and restaurant on site and a 10 minute walk to the beach. But we hadn’t taken into account the dreaded Corona Virus…..

Paradise:

We felt we had found Paradise, beautiful yellow sandy beaches, beach side restaurants, tasty fresh food, cheap food, colourful properties, and friendly people. So friendly, helpful, attentive and chatty. Food was amazing, the spices and herbs could be tasted at different levels, everything was “spicy or non-spicy” but both were more than manageable for my delicate stomach! Fresh meat, vegetables, fruit and salads at every corner, and side to side sun and blue skies, warm seas and clean sand.

Lockdown:

In India, each “region or county” has it’s own “panchayat” the equivalent to a local government, which can basically be run by one person who can do more or less what the Government dictates but with very flexible blurred lines. So the Goan Minister decided to hold a one day trial lockdown, on Sunday 22nd March 2020, from 8am to 8pm, with EVERYTHING to close, borders with other areas to be closed, all travel banned, all shops, vegetable and meat stores, shopping centres, pharmacies, tobacco stalls, restaurants and bars to shut……but at 6pm the Minister went on Indian TV and announced that the lockdown will be continued for 3 weeks!!! Even fishermen were stopped from going to sea and those already at sea were told to stay there!

There was uproar after 5 days!!! How could the Minister expect his loyal subjects to fight off this unseen virus without their daily food? He was told he was killing off his flock, as the majority of people shopped and cooked daily. Plus, no-one in India so far actually had the virus, so the majority of locals didn’t believe it existed, however, they are suspicious or supersticious, so they adhered to the rules.

Luckily the resort we had booked into had it’s own small shop stocking basic essentials, beer, vodka, ice cream, tourist trinkets etc. We also made friends with neighbours, who knew several friendly locals and were able to obtain vegetables so we shared them out, cooking larger meals and sharing the vegetable casseroles or curries. For almost a fortnight we had no chicken and almost a month with no beef, we were struggling……we are not vegetarians!

However, we found a restaurant that was allowed to remain open “to feed foreigners”. Lots of people go to Goa, book into accommodation that is room only and eat out every day, its so cheap. A 3 course meal for 2 is less than £10. So Domnick’s bar was allowed to serve food (and discreetly serve beer) to Brits, Germans, Russians and Dutch that were stranded in Goa, Domnick became our saviour!!! Twice a week we would venture down to his place for our dose of tandoori chicken, butter chicken or fresh grilled fish to break the monotony of chicken casserole. We became addicted to curry and it’s spices.

Supplies were limited for a long time so we had to be clever, chicken was cooked 12 different ways in the end, minced, sliced, boiled, fried, battered and breaded, the highlight being a home made BBQ, with chicken skewers, cooked on our balcony when it was still 30c at night! We only had 2 electric rings, no oven or grill so very limited.

Monsoon and Glowing Frogs:

We were able to swap a hired scooter for a hired car and we ventured out on several days, to explore some of this beautiful Portuguese colony. As days turned into weeks and then into months, the Monsoon hit, and what an experience. We have never seen so much rain, not even in Wales! It was torrential, but bizzarely, it was still 30c outside, so if you ventured out you came back wet, caused by either sweat or rain. Some days it was dry, sometimes it rained for 5 days solidly but we still went out. The surroundings changed. Roads became narrow as the shrubs and trees sprouted and took over the pathways. Beaches became dumping grounds for debris washed down from the streets and washed up by the rough tides. Potholes appeared in roads, the size of small ponds. Fields disappeared underwater and became huge lakes. Buffalo and cows were seen rolling about in huge puddles in fields, covering themselves in glorious mud. Different birds could be heard in the jungle behind our apartment and one day we were visited by a troup of monkeys. BUT the highlight was the frogs, at night there was a true chorus of frogs from dusk to midnight, and if you went to find them in the grass or fields, you could see them glowing, but get too near, and they all stopped! The glow was under their chin, caused when they sung, attracting their mates.

Repatriation:

After a few weeks, the Goan Minister sent some of his team to every Hotel, accommodation resort or guest house to count the foreigners that were in the country. Other countries were immediately talking to holiday makers stranded in Goa and arranging repatriation flights, free of charge, and suddenly the Dutch, French and Russians disappeared and only the Brits were left. The British Government said there were approximately 3500 people in North and South Goa, so they sent planes with seats costing £450 each for 900!!! First priority was given to those over 80 and with medical needs. Next batch of flights a fortnight later, priority was given to those over 70 and the rest (about 1000) were left to their own devices or told to wait until “flights open up again”. Some people paid silly money to get flights with other carriers, one neighbour flew with Lufthansa to Germany, then France, then UK, another person we knew took several flights over several days to return to Canada.

But, we figured that as the borders were still closed to surrounding areas, we were safe. No cases were found in Goa for a long time, the state was given a “Green” status until the end of July, when a dozen cases were identified from people coming up from the neighbouring state of Kerala as borders had re-opened. It was “normal” to put a face mask on as soon as you walked out the door, have your temperature taken as you went into a shop or restaurant and hand gel was given to you, queueing became a normal sight in the village and people spaced out, no pushing and shoving any more. Local police enforced the “distance” rules, shouting at locals who bunched together, stopping and fining people with more than 2 riders on a scooter or in a car. Hygiene improved as tables and chairs were disinfected regularly! It was well known that the virus cannot survive in sugh high temperatures, but wherever cases were found and increased, whole neighbourhoods were sealed off, people were locked into their accommodation, fed by safety protected volunteers, and attended to by doctors daily. We felt safe.

As time went on, we became bored with the rain and thunderstorms, missed the sun (Monsoon is a cloudy season), our clothes (which we supposed to last 3 months) were disintigrating after 8 months, we had outstayed our 180 days visa and needed, and wanted to get back to the UK. British Airways finally contacted us to say they were being allowed to oeprate a limited number of flights from New Delhi, so we checked in, and checked out! We arrived back in the UK at the end of August.

Jaipur Jaunts

16 February 2020 / Juliet Stratton

Of course it’s an everyday event, out walking on an evening stroll, colourful event passes by, it can only be a groom on his white stallion, heading to his wedding. What else?? Surrounded by a dozen brightly dressed men carrying umbrellas lit with coloured flashing lights, a troupe of dancing women and an even more colourful loud band. Of course its normal…..We were both invited to dance with the ladies, but kindly declined, didn’t want to show off our flamenco skills ?.

Jaipur, was named the Pink City when it was painted pink (the colour of Indian hospitality) in 1876 in honour of a visit by the Prince of Wales and Queen Victoria.

More than 150 years on, its now only got what you would call a pinky orange hue amongst the dirt and debris in this busy city. It is a walled city, established in 1690, the walls were to protect it from enemies and wild animals. Now its 7 gates cause huge bottlenecks as people, bikes, motorbikes, taxis, tuktuks and busses try to get through the tight single vehicle archway, all honking at the same time! Traffic moves eventually but whilst stationary, vehicles and their passengers are bombarded with requests to buy teatowels, coconuts, trinkets or donate cash to beggars who won’t take “no” for an answer!

Our first stop was to a temple just outside the city called the Monkey temple. It involved a gentle climb up a ravine passing several smaller temples and natural pools created by mountain water. At the top, in the very small temple, is an image in the rock that looked like a monkey a few 100 yeats ago, especially now the monkey has been painted on! The idea is to be blessed in this temple (for good health), jump into the pool outside, go to the next (elephant) temple, be blessed for happiness and jump into the 2nd pool outside, then go to the last temple, for all the gods, be fully blessed and jump into the last pool. I participated in the final blessing only, the man inside was patient and explained everything but kindly declined a swim in the murky green pools!

We checked into our hotel in Jaipur, a 5star Heritage hotel, full of marble floors, wooden furniture and smart staff. This is our first “expensive “ hotel, others have been 3 star, but this was recommended to us. I must say that our version of 3 star and 5 star vary differently to the Indian versions ?. A wooden 4 poster bed, large shower, western toilet with toilet paper are great but the window was sellotaped shut, the view was almost blocked off with the external plaster decoration as you can see below, the nets were so heavy and the room was shaded and was definitely on the 5 star level that we are used to! We have requested a balcony at our next hotel, we need some sunlight on our skin and fresh air in our room, albeit dusty air!

We spent the morning at the 17th century Amber fort, high up on a hill. It was built as a palace surrounded by a fortified town. The walls of the fortification are still visible on the mountains, as are the older and original buildings used by the royal family before the Fort was built. Its large, impressive, ornate in places and was well used in its time. Elephants were used to ferry visitors up to its gates, still in operation today for lazy tourists. We walked up, fascinated by the interior decoration, which is often described as “romantic”…….”interestingly built and beautifully decorated” would be our description.

Next was the Maharaja’s burial place, a peacefully cool structure, made up of three different areas, we had no guide here so couldn’t work out whose mausoleum belonged to who, the link between information + tourism = more tourists + more income has yet to be made! However it was beautiful and cool on a sunny afternoon and the carvings on the marble were exquisite.

That evening we ate Italian!!!!! Staying in hotels has it’s downside, the hotel menus cater for tourists and offer the same things, so we were getting a little tired of chicken tikka, masalas and biryanis. David found a restaurant called Little Italy, totally vegetarian but we had the most divine meal – and huge portions!!! Bruschetta and garlic mushrooms to start, pesto pasta, pizza and the most unusual salad ever, it came with a bowl of mixed leaves, tomatoes and dressing, and then a plate of grilled asparagus (my favourite), roasted tomato, ravioli parcels, crostini and parmesan chips!!!! AND balsamic vinegar, no curry spices in sight or smelling range! Ohhh, did I mention they served WINE too? We were heavenly stuffed that night ??

Afterwards we took a tuktuk back to the hotel, in what the owner called “a poorly machine”, he had to get out and push start it and kept revving it as we came to a junction….he so wanted our custom that he kept telling us it was “fine now” and how he was a “careful driver” which he was. It was a colourful journey at night, the city’s Albert Hall museum was awash with colour as was the Wind Palace, and the market streets, even at 11pm.

Next day was a full day in the city. Firstly we visited the City Palace which is still in use by the current royal family. Its a complex of courtyards, buildings and gardens, enlarged over the past 100 years but still in keeping with the Mughal architecture. On close inspection, certain areas were lacking attention to the deterioration, i will inform Her Maj. The Throne Room was lavishly decorated, still used when dignitaries (such as The Strattons) visit or during festivals, sadly no photos allowed, Her Maj was having a bad hair day.

Next to it are gardens called Jantar Mantar (such lovely words, David kept saying it over and over), gardens created in 1728 that look like a collection of odd structures but they are in fact buildings to measure astronomical time, date, latitude and longitude and the position of stars and the solar system. Its name is Sanskrit for “instruments of calculations” which is exactly what we found. Could not figure out why so many, or who thought them up, I’m sure Mr Google would confirm.

Visit to a hand block printing shop, where I confess, I did purchase a tablecloth or two….well, they are stunning!

We fought our way through several streets of traders to enter the rear of the Wind Palace (Hawa Mahal), we actually thought we were lost so we followed a group of Indians who finally found the entrance! What’s wrong with doors off the main drag???
This was to be worth the subterfuge, this gem of a building was so beautiful, almost fairytale in its design. It was constructed in 1799 by the Maharaja to allow his Royal ladies to look out onto the world and watch the activities below. The honeycomb windows, made of pink sandstone are, in certain areas, filled with coloured glass, but the designs allowed wind to blow through, doing away with the need for water to cool interior rooms. It would have been an issue to pump it to the top of the 5 floors so the natural wind solved the problem. Both during the day and at night, its a pretty stunning building!

Finally we visited another temple on a hill, sat amongst the more modern part of town, glass office buildings surrounded by hoardings advertising health care or private schools. The temple was once again a chilled marble building, peace amongst the chaos, beautifully carved marble pillars and cornices.
Jaipur is another chaotic city that has lost it’s colour but hasn’t lost its vibrancy.

Next stops – Pushkar & Jodhpur

Samson’s Final Journey

3 February 2020 / Juliet Stratton

We left Southern Spain and spent 2 days in Zaragoza, a beautiful old Moorish city with a huge cathedral in the city centre. We spent several hours wandering around the town, soaking up the Spanish Sunday atmosphere, a laid back, casual and chilled ambience. The beautiful buildings had a cool look to them in the late afternoon sun despite it being cold and windy.

We drove cross country to the north, passing fields full of snow from the previous week’s heavy storm and snow fall. Outside the temperature dipped to 6c, we didn’t hang around long at the services!

We got up to Bilbao ferry car park the night before our ferry was due to leave, to park “safely” overnight, or so we thought. We were disturbed about 11.30pm by the Guardia (police), checking our truck. A visual inspection seemed fine. David happened to open one of our lockers only to find we had a lodger, who the Guardia very quickly removed by the scruff of the neck and escorted to a “secure location” far away from our lockers ?. We had another inspection at 6am with the Guardia present after we heard our lockers opening again at 4am, luckily no additional lodgers! We then had the trailer scanned before loading onto the ferry for a horrendously rough crossing to Southampton, delayed by 4 hours due to gale force 8 winds!! I have never before been so sick – and no alcohol was involved!!

Eventually we arrived at a camp site in Bicester, hunkered down and waited for a local repair company to take a look at an electrical issue we had developed. Back in the UK for a few days, it’s cold and windy, raining that horribly miserable light drizzle, and daylight ends at 4.30pm!!! This is not what we are used to….so roll on the warmer climes of India!!!

Whilst in Bicester, David struck a deal with the company that serviced and repaired Samson in the past so suddenly, he has a new home and we are homeless! We frantically packed our contents into the truck and a hire van and put everything into storage. Our son Robin, kindly dropped everything, sprung into action and drove down to Bicester in a hired van, helping us all day to put everything into storage, for which we are very grateful.

Samson has been a fabulous home, he got people talking and looking, looked stunning beside the lakes in Lake Garda and the sea in Croatia and Venice, and would have earned us a fortune if we had charged for every photo that was taken of him ?

However, storage and being unused for months in the UK winter would not have been good for him, and we want a smaller mode of travel for Europe, one that doesn’t require a football pitch sized area to park in to relieve David of the stresses of parking such a beast, so a good move all round.

Sad to see him go, have loved living in him for 5 years, but time for a change ??????

October 2013, trading in our old truck and caravan for Samson!

Samson through the years and locations, in all his glory!!! ❤❤❤❤

Planes, Trains & Automobiles – Pt 4 Louisville, Indianapolis & Chicago Pt 2

6 January 2020 / Juliet Stratton

Louisville

We left Bardstown and headed up to Louisville, where we stopped off at the home of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs. We didn’t stop here as a race track was starting to buzz with visitors arriving for the afternoon’s racing, we just nosed about and admired the stands and horse enclosures.

We did stop at the Mohammed Ali centre, a museum showcasing his life as a young boxer, as an adult boxer, his fight against enlistment in the Vietnam war and as a public figure afterwards, his involvement in religion and charity. It was enlightening, interesting and very informative. We had just arrived and got into the lift to start the tour, when a fresh suited man entered with us, along with another couple. It transpires that this was the Mayor of Louisville and he welcomed us to his lovely city!

Indy

Our next stop was at the Indianapolis Motor racing track, home to the Indy 500, NASCAR, Moto GP and the USA Grand Prix! The museum was amazing, full of original working race cars, lots of driver memorabilia and information on historic speeds, dates, winners and record breakers. We took a ride around the track, in a minibus being driven by two old ex-employees, both flowing with information. We learned that until 1909 he track was made up of red bricks, but with the improvement in engines and tyres, the bricks were tarmacked over and a metre of bricks were left by the winning line. It is customary for winners to get out, kneel down, and kiss the bricks, so we did!

Back to Chicago via Joliet

We headed back up towards Chicago, back through the prairie lands again, before stopping at Joliet, just outside Chicago, for our last night together. Joliet is on Route 66, but is a large modern town nowadays. We went to a bar/restaurant called Juliet’s and had a lovely meal and a few glasses of wine!

It was so cold that night, minus 9c!! Food was lovely, and I got to try the national favourite – deep fried truffle ravioli – simply delicious, followed by home made tiramisu!!!

After 4 weeks together, we dropped Mike and Brenda at Chicago airport and we spent a few more days with friends Paula and Perry at their apartment on the outskirts of town, chilling and relaxing. One of my requests during our stay was to visit a cat café, Paula had made it her job when travelling the world to visit as many cat cafes as possible (www.theneighbor’scat.com), while Perry tries chocolate milk in an effort to find the best in the world, or the best in the USA (www.afoolzerrand.com).

So we went to a Cat Arcade, the owners of a cat rehoming charity have set out a room with old arcade games and sofas and chairs, so cats and public can interact in a relaxing environment. The cats were so happy to be stroked, played with, cuddled and cooed over and this helps with their socialization before they are rehomed. Whilst we were there a man arrived with a cat carrier and scooped up a lovely older cat, was given advice on how to let the cat settle on arrival at its new home and he left, grinning like a Cheshire…..cat!

A sassy grey feline was happy to be stroked, rolling over for tummy rubs, but every so often let me know she had had enough!

We popped into an old building which was home to the Schlitz Brewery, a “tied house” that sprung up after Prohibition (1890 – 1903), a Tavern owned and operated by the brewing company in what could have passed as an ornate residential property.

That ends our journey to the USA, hope you have enjoyed all the pictures and write ups!!

Being a Tour Guide in Croatia 1!

6 June 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

Part 1 – Carlos & Wendy

During our 4 weeks at Rovinj in the Istrian peninsular, we had not one but two lots of visitors! They did not have the best of weather, but when it was raining we introduced them to our latest game called Quirkle, something like dominoes but more strategic, or we played cards, or as a last resort, we stopped in the odd bar and had a few drinks and nibbles!

However when it was not pouring down, we explored! Carlos and Wendy arrived first, we took them to see Motovun, a small hilltop town surrounded by a complete medieval wall. We explored Rovinj itself, drank a glass of wine or two in the harbour, wandered up to its hilltop cathedral and alley full of ancient tall buildings full of artists galleries and restaurants. Wendy and I spent nearly half an hour talking to a very interesting artist, who told us the story behind a massive altar painting that was in his gallery, which is an old church.

We went into Pula, where we were defeated several times by hordes of school children, discouraging us from going into the Ampitheatre Arena so we just viewed it from the outside. We did walk up the hill to the castle and admired the wonderful historic displays as well as the views over the massive, now defunct, port and surrounding hillsides.

We also stopped occasionally at other local towns and explored the remains of Roman buildings and towns, as well as dining out at local large and small restaurants. One place called La Vigna, was just outside the campsite, is a smallholding and vineyard run by a couple and their daughter, where we ate in their front room, ate food all grown and cooked by them, ate their freshly baked break and home made wine. It was divine!!