The nightlife is very mellow in Palolem. This is mostly due to a 10pm cut off point for loud music. A group of entrepreneurial young Indians have got around this by starting a phenomenon called 'Silent Noise'. Every Saturday night you can see different coloured beams of light being shot into the sky from behind the southern headland. Should you decide to follow these lights, over a precarious path across the rocks, you would stumble across a huge, weekly silent disco. The premise of this disco is that everyone is issued with a set of headphones with three channels on. There are three DJs effectively battling with each other. The wearers of the headphones can swap between the three channels depending on what music they want want to listen to. There was an (overpriced) bar selling (watered down) booze to ensure everyone stayed suitable refreshed. The crowd was hundreds strong and a mix of Indians and tourists, resulting in a very fun, festival vibe. The fact that there is no noise being emitted (except for the occasional whoop when a favourite song comes on) means everyone can party till 4am. We had a fantastic night out. The whole operation was really professionally done, and worth every rupee of the seemingly steep 600 rupee entry fee. Needless to say a quiet day in bed with lots of cold water followed this night out.
Another entertaining way we spent one evening was doing a cooking course with a local chef called Rahul. In the 3 hour session we learnt how to make a masala paste from scratch, which is used for the base for many curries. We progressed from that to making Aloo Gobi which is a Goan staple made from potato (Aloo) and cauliflower (Gobi). Next we made Mushroom Butter Masala, which also appears on Goan menus in different forms, such as the delicious Paneer (cheese) Butter Masala. Next came the Daal Fry, which most Goan's eat twice a day, at lunch and again at dinner. It is a watery curry made predominantly from lentils (daal), or sometimes chickpeas (channa). I have not been massively enamoured with Daal Fry up to this point but the one we made was delicious.
In addition to these three curries we learn how to make Roti bread (also called Chapati) from scratch, which was unbelievably easy and entertaining to do. We also were shown how to make a Vegetable Paratha, which is sort of like a mix between a naan and a pancake, with vegetables in the middle. As well as all of this we also learnt about different spices and herbs that are used in everyday Indian cooking. I hope we retain enough of it to actually cook some when we get home. Rahul provided us with a bunch of recipes, and his email address in case we do struggle. As we have been enjoying the Indian food so much it was only natural that we should want to try and recreate some of this when we get home, so being taught by an authentic Goan chef seemed the only way to go!
The weather has been glorious, with the exception of 3 days of monsoon like weather when we first arrived in Palolem. The days get clearer and hotter, with less humidity, and the nights get colder, though with amazing views of the stars.
After three weeks on and around the beach we are happy to be moving on to central Goa to see the Spice farms at Ponda.
We spent one night in Ponda, which is a bustling market town rarely frequented by tourists. Lonely Planet gives it a bit of a bad rap as there is not much to see, but we quite enjoyed it as we could integrate with the locals with less fuss and hassle than there has been in other places. The nighttime markets were fun with an array of fruit, spices, rice, flowers and livestock.
Early the next day we set off to the nearby spice farms. We are both glad we made the effort to do the trip as it was eye-opening and interesting. We saw how the spices that go into everyday Indian (and Western) cooking such as vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, different chillies, holy basil, lemongrass, turmeric and ginger to name a few. The guide was very well informed and clearly loved what he does. The tour was finished off with a hearty buffet of different Goan foods. Curried Okra appeared on the menu so I was happy.
We travelled back to the capital, Panajii, for the last few days before we catch the flight to Sri Lanka. We have come back here as it is the nicest place near the airport, we like the town and it has the best (and cheapest!) restaurants!
We have only really travelled on the local buses the whole time in Goa. They are great fun, very cheap, and easy to navigate...once you know how! There is always a bus to your destination waiting at the bus stand, and the journey always costs considerably less than 50p each. The conductor just shouts the destination over and over again, and you usually have to jump on to a moving vehicle. The buses are absolutely crammed with Indian people and on market day the stench of fresh fish can be overwhelming!
When we arrive in Sri Lanka on Saturday afternoon we are spending a few days in the geographical capital Colombo before heading to the cultural capital, Kandy and the hill country. We have absolutely loved India, but we are ready to move on to the next adventure.
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