Hoorah Goa! and train tales too

We have found ourselves a lovely beach hut and are taking a few days off in the sunshine - a little holiday from the long holiday! It feels like heaven on our beach. The sun is warm, the sea gentle and the splashing of waves on the clean sandy beach is all we can hear. It smells of sweet jasmine and  oleander and high above our heads hang ripe coconuts. Our little restaurant serves coconut lassi and fruit pancakes by day and tandoori prawns, king fish, tuna, red snapper or other succulent looking fish hooked fresh from the Arabian sea each evening.
Sanju our host is from Uttarakhand so if thrilled that we have come from there. He says people come to Goa and take away a very unreal picture of Indian people - these people are here for business, their intention is solely to make money from tourists and they work very hard at it, no-one lets you walk past their stall with out trying to get you to look. They do this to very resistant tourists all day long, they are relentless and perfectly charming with it mostly.
Sanju tells us the best train to get back up to Delhi - which is very useful information - there is a fast one, that takes only 2 night - fast when you consider the distance. So we don't need to fly back, his is very good news for us.
He and his mates return home on this same train from Goa at the seasons end. They splash out on this expensive train because they have worked so hard. They buy a bottle of whisky, and hole up with a lap top and films in a/c carriages with sheets, blankets and all meals provided! WE liked the sound of this!

Breakfast on arrival, fruit from Mumbai, clothes came straight off

Our Hut

Our view

We found a small little bay just over the rocks from Palolem beach and set up home here for a few days. We have some Indians some English, some German and some Austrian other staying on same beach and we play Jenga together in the evenings - a new version called TEMPLE JENGA - is a bit wilder - you set the blocks up on edge in offset squares - its much more fun and much faster turn over. If you loose you get to write your name on a looser brick.

Clare with Sanju, Cookie and Bobby - why won't Indians smile in photos?

slightly more of a smile?

Clare and her 'friend' Sanju....

Our train from Mumbai to Goa was an adventure!
...... We went to the station to get the train out to Goa at 10.15 pm - a night train - only find the ticket I thought I had brought on-line was a waiting list ticket. I was aware that these existed so thought I had been careful to avoid them but it had slipped my notice. I was also unfamiliar with what to do about it. Our names were on any list normally pinned up on train doors before departure and its lovely and reassuring, to see your name upon the list - but rather unnerving when your name is not on the list too, I find and does not bode well. I looked everywhere for CHIEF TC. I had been told he would sort us out. Eventually the train leaving time came so we found ourselves a spot between carriages and sat on our bags waiting for the CHIEF TC to come and help us out - he didnt come - so I searched the very full train for him. Turns out the tickets had been cancelled and my money refunded, according to his list. He shooed me out of 2nd class air conditioned carriage where I had found him - very nice, and told me we could stay on train but - no seats. Very nice that we werent thrown off but you wouldn't believe where we had to spend the night! You know those loos people talk about on trains in India? They smell and are covered in stains and normally you would wear wellies and rubber gloves to go anywhere near? Well we slept on the floor right outside two of these along with 5 classy looking chaps, who were much better prepared for their night in hell. They had brought newspaper to sit on, one had some cardboard, another removed a cream coloured cotton sleeping bag into which he climbed and settled on his newspaper, another a very slinky shiny blanket - he wrapped himself

 in this and passed out. Clare and I looked at each other and part of me died inside at the thought of the night spent in this place - we had no choice at this stage though! The train really was full, overfull in fact - it was a holiday and everyone was off to the beach for the weekend. 

The night was long and filthy, we did end up lying on the floor - which I would have normally had had a problem walking on, let alone sleeping on! But I had sat considering this situation early on in the night and I had a feeling as tiredness came over me that my resolve to sit upright on my ruck sack all night may weaken! But morning I was rolling all over the stinking place with a chap snoring rather too close to my left ear. Clare listened hopefully to Dharma talks from Gaia House for a while, hoping to Zen out but she too had collapsed by 3am and was snoring peacefully almost in the urinal. 

I have now put all clothing, blankets, shoes and body though a serious wash - we have survived to tell the tale! TB or Hepatitis may develop at a later stage I suppose. 

I was being a bit of a princess about this, I can see that! Why could I not buy myself a seat for the night?! Why didn't anyone realise this was too much for me - coudn't they tell I was an old woman from a different culture?! And my friend too - much older and really not up for a night in filth down on the floor with the limbless beggars! Why didn't they give up their sleeper for me?! Anyway by the end of the night I had come off my high horse and felt at home on the floor with the chaps on newspaper, sort of. Lots of people slept on the floor of that train and it looks like lots of people travelled free for over a 1000 miles like we did too! 

Keoladeo National Park - Bird Sanctuary

Pair of Sarus Cranes and thats the baby on the left.

Wow what a place! So many birds and other creatures too. Quiet too and very beautiful. A conservation project, like many created in England - for shooting of ducks, by the very rich. 4035 or there abouts bagged by some chap from Chelmsford. (Earl of Chelmsford or Lord Chelmsford or something in 1876) That was a few years back. There were problems with keeping the water levels up to provide a year on year sanctuary for migrating birds so very recently water is piped in. Some birds were put off in the dry years - they no longer see Siberian Cranes which is a great disappointment to them but they do see very rare Sarus Cranes. I was lucky enough to see two pairs of these too.

Sarus cranes mate for life and if one of a pair dies so does the other I am reliably told. So this  picture is of a lone crane but be sure its mate is just off camera

I can't tell you how many ducks we saw after a little encouragement I quite got into them! They have quite sensible names like spotted bill duck if they have spotted bills and comb ducks if they have combs on their bills (strange place to carry one I know but thats ducks for you).  Thats a comb duck below, lump on its bill is a comb. A shoveller duck has a bill like a shovel and whistler ducks whistle like traffic police! All amazingly beautiful and in huge numbers on the red algae covered low waters amongst the acacia trees.

 These little fellows are so cute! Little grey owls I believe. My favourite picture!

And then there was the python we saw, above is the first sighting - that day Clare was feeling poorly so I went out by myself into the wilderness. And this is what happens I find a huge python! It was tucked away in a bunch of logs. I returned the following day to the same spot to see if I could see more of the snake in the mid day sunshine and I did. This time Clare was there too. We saw another later that day too, by the road side next to its hole just taking the noon day sun in. We were told that until they had warmed up they were very slow moving, once hot though they could move very fast so we slunk away to find some more ducks.

Check out the size of this baby! Hard to tell from a photo but he was a good 12 ft long. This was taken on day 2 at 11am. Our rickshaw driver had predicted that this would be the best time to see him in his full glory and he was right. He lived in the logs and had been seen a few times by locals. Very exciting to see this beautiful reptile in the wild

The other python - tiny by comparison about an inch across its body, the one above was about 3inches across its body

And then there were the Kingfishers - we saw three types - this one the black and white, obviously

Black and white woodpecker

This one not a wood pecker but our rather lovely Rickshaw driver/guide - who taught himself english - enough to tell us the names of all the ducks anyway and to make sure we saw the pythons.

This one the white breasted woodpecker for reasons obvious from the front

And the common woodpecker which everyone has seen at home so no pictures and it was vewry small and shifty so difficult to photograph.

A trutle about to kill a cormorant apparently according to our guide - I doubt this somehow, it wasn't moving very fast and the cormorants looked quite nonchalant too.

These are storks and are only here for 6 months to breed, they cover the acacia trees  with nests  and I have much better pictures somewhere

More adult storks

Revisiting Delhi....

No-one can prepare anyone to the shock of arriving in Delhi. It provides quite an insight to the workings of the mind, well mine anyway. I think I know how things are, I know how the world around me works - then I land in Delhi. Here there is nothing familiar to attach myself to. The guide books says, “it will seem strange at first but you will adjust”. ‘Strange’ indeed, and strangely I do adjust. It always shakes me that I find my initial reaction is tempered beyond compare when I return after a few weeks travelling around India. The filth, deprivation, squalor, hassle and frustration have slipped away and I see a modern laid back, cosmopolitan city buzzing with compassion, humour, tenderness and a touching willingness to engage with each other and me. I sometimes can’t believe it is the same place, it makes me laugh each time.

Clare not in Delhi but light relief from the words.

In Delhi germ theory seems defunct, cloths black with dirt are used to wipe surfaces, food is chopped with knives wiped with these same cloths and cooked in the dust of the street. Deep frying and the roasting heat of the tandoors must be our protector from pathogens. No pavement or road surface is smooth or finished, all at pot holed and broken and left half made. Rough concrete is used to build a steps from road to pavement and steps are mostly at least a foot deep – making each step an accomplishment. Rats slip leasurely from the holes jn the concrete to take their share of the pickings. No woodwork or fence is well-painted, all dabbed in paint with cloths leaving uneven coatings and drips everywhere. It is a shambles with rubbish tossed from every workplace, shop, stall, pocket, mouth, arse hole and nostril. Street sweepers clear haphazardly with their witches brooms into concrete bunker havens for street animals from cows and rats to the packs of wild dogs to pick through. Some is burnt - giving the characteristic wood smoke smell of Delhi streets. Small charcoal blocks are lit using litter fires by crouching lads tending snack stalls to keep their snacks warm – another more acrid plastic burning smell.

Silly picture but I was very excited that my camera was working again. It had packed up in the cold of the mountains I think.

I stood for a brief moment outside the metropolis tourist home and notice a large black rat slipping in and out from under the broken concrete step. It came out to collect the remnants of a chapatti – slightly too large to pick up in one piece – discarded by someone from the long queue of dark, black head scarf cloth wrapped and blanketed against the cold destitute and poorer than poor young men and boys who had waited to get a free offering of food earlier as dusk fell. The shop next to our hotel had been preparing aloo sabji in large round caste iron pots and small puri – all day – as an annual charitable offering to the poor of delhi. The rat was taking advantage of the leftovers after the crowds had dispersed back to their dark, black, cold alleyways. A destitute dog too hung limply trying to hide its head between two bikes, too weak to move far, too scared to lie down. I wondered if it would find a tender release over night and we would find its body in the morning – quiet and painless.

All this pain, resourcefulness, compassion, charity and so much more in a small glimpse from the hotel door step as Chinese, European and American tourists walked in and out to their comfortable and clean white sheets, hot showers and wi fi.

arrival in Lohaghat

We arrived in Lohaghat and were met by two weather beaten and cool looking dudes wearing head bands and smiling broadly. The local newspaper sees us arrive and sends out the photographer to get a picture for the next issue! We hit the headlines – must get a copy!

Loharghat

A huge and totally delicious lunch has been prepared by Sakets mum – known by all as Mummy. We eat and she makes chapattis throughout the meal, keeping up a steady flow – a traditional role for the person who has cooked we are told when we ask why Mummy is not joining us to eat. It was so delicious and set the tone for the next few days. We were very well fed by this family who are real foodies! We were cooked for three times a day, chai came in a continuous flow and we took the opportunity to join in and pick up what we could about cooking with the local ingredients in Uttarakhand style. We leant how to cook chapattis, parathas, a variety of spicy soups, egg sabji or curry, bean sabji, some chutneys, and much more.

Arrival at the town house and Christmas present opening

We spent our first night in the town house and walked over to Khuna along the valley in the morning. Susie, who is like a mountain goat in her walking and choice of mountain path - included one of her challenges in this walk. We were subjected to a life threatening walk along an overhanging edge with a 100 foot drop into a rocky river. I saw her disappear around the corner before I looked down to see the hideous drop. I stalled for a while taking in the meaning of life and then, dropping caution into the void below, took a deep breath and looked forward rather than down before tentatively following. Clare seemed relatively calm in the situation. We took the lower river route every time we passed this way again - Susie felt threatened by my pallid demeanour I think. She is a bold and ballsy woman!

Susie and I on walk up to cottage in Khuna

I had a go at this and I think it takes a lot of practice

In Khuna is the cottage where Saket and Susie spend their time, when not in Nepal or elsewhere. They have a large tract of jungle and fields around the cottage where Saket and Susie hunt - for boar and pheasants to eat. They grow hemp for the seeds and the fibre from the stems - from which their caretaker used to make sacks to sell at market, wheat for flour,  satsumas, lemons and apples - on the terraced slopes below the cottage.

The caretakers family was to play a large part in our next few days. The family consists of four generations, the eldest man - Jugta - died about a year ago. I took some lovely photos of this man last time I visited Khuna. He was the caretaker of the Punetha family land and his family lived with him in the caretakers cottage. Jugta lived on this land for 72 years. He was a hard worker, he used the terraced fields well, took good care of the land, never stopped finding ways to earn a living for his extended family. Now he has passed on the family dynamic has changed and the care taking of the land has to be taken on by someone else. No-one has stepped in to take on this role - Jugtas daughter works the land as best she can but her son drives a jeep taxi in town and his wife and their three children are less interested in the country life. Jugta's wife has left to stay with other relatives. 

We had a captivating time with this family - sharing their days, eating with them, drinking chai, celebrating the five year old girls birthday with a party! They were so engaging and I think it was as much a thrill for them as it was us just watching each other. The children were transfixed by Clare's white tummy particularly - they caught a glimpse which sent them into a giggling frenzy!

Suehany, Susie, Puyosh and Saket

Preymar and Amu preparing our supper

Puyosh the youngest - a slightly suspicious look, he relaxed after a while, thats his dad in the background.

The birthday celebration happened around supper time, there was a cake - made in town and a box of sweets - which mysteriously we ate before the main meal. Mum and Dad had brought their little daughter a red woollen outfit and we too had brought her a red sweater. So she was well kitted out in red!

The cake!

Little Deepi in her new red gear

Below is Amu - a teenage niece staying with the family, Deepi, Suehany and Susey, and me in my new and gorgeous beret, unmatching shiny black coat and sun reddened cheeks.

Streamers hanging down and happy faces!

Lohaghat and Khuna - the himalayan foothills

 Journey to Lohaghat....

We swept through small settlements, small road side stalls and stopped for a break in a small town half way from Lohaghat, we had been on the road for three hours uphill all the way, a bumpy, pot-holed, precipitous road most of the way. Delicious chai and a plate of aloo, a bean curry and a yellow dahl for lunch. I tried to get some sabji, Susie had told me it was delicious – but the guy was resistant, it was in short supply.

We saw some  Macaque monkeys steel away a string of crisp packets, reaching round with a long arm over the edge of a tin roof and screeching off up the hill to his mates on the top of the hill above the busy street, possibly to share but who knows! AND the views of the Himalayas was spectacular - Clare was thrilled it was her first view of these snow covered peaks. They are awesome and evocative - we are so lucky to be here to be on this journey into the cool fresh and clear mountain air. 

First view of the snow covered Himalaya en route to Lohaghat

At the lunch stop - half way to Lohaghat.

Arrived in Lohaghat and started eating...

susie, saket and me

susie, saket and clare

Heh! Just arrived back in Delhi, its pouring with rain but warm. We have had such a foody feast up in them there Himalayas - I have some delicious recipes to share. Here are just a couple to get you going......

Hemp seed chutney

Ingredients

Hemp seeds roasted

Salt (to taste or left out for me)

Lemon juice

Green chili

Coriander or mint – fresh

Grind all ingredients together and thats it - yum yum

Use this as a relish to accompany a dish such as Veg Pilau, we had hemp seed chutney and the following tomato chutney with ours

Tomato chutney 

2 bulbs of garlic crushed with a good handful of fresh coriander, a small onion, 2 chilli green, salt and lemon juice. All mashed on a stone and mixed with 6 chopped tomatoes and pounded to a paste. Unbelievable amounts of salts added to the mixture at the end by Saket but maybe after tasting we can modify or agree to this. Also lemon juice.

(didn't taste over salty at all)

Some recipes here contain hemp seeds which Susie and  Saket grow here on the slopes near their cottage. We picked over the seeds carefully removing and leaves and twigs. Susie says she learnt to leave the seeds drying in hot sun for months before using, when used fresh as she did once – they were out of action for a few hours, with dry mouths and feeling giggly and dreamy. Once dried and roasted then crushed on the heavy stones they use here for grinding and mushing things together the pate gives a delicious earthy taste to some of my favourites.

Breakfast stuffed paratha 

We climbed out from the cold of the shaded cottage early one morning. My fingers were frozen till we reached the grassy flat hill top, laid out the mat and hungrily scooped into the chuntneys and paratha.

Two finely chopped red onions

Chopped fresh coriander leaf

1-2 chopped green chillis

2 bulbs chopped garlic

Fresh mint chopped

Dried fenugreek leaf (mathi)

Mint chutney masala – which contains mango, mint, salt, coriander, pomegranate seeds, cumin, chili and black pepper - make it up as you go.

Add knob of butter

Can add mashed potato to bulk it out a bit.

Mix all ingredients together on a flat bowl with your hand

You need melted ghee or butter to cook the stuffed Paratha

Heat ghee till hot in pan and then roll out the dough (dough made with whole meal flour and water, with a little mustard oil - or veg oil if no mustard oil available - added at the last minute)

Make a circle with dough just a little bigger than for chapattis. Put on top a handful of finely chopped and mixed stuffing – the finer the better to prevent holes. Make into a small parcel, sealing the stuffing in well, make into a ball in your hand and then roll out gently at first with a rolling pin. Pay attention to the edges or you get fat uncooked bits at the edge. Fry till golden brown in the hot ghee.

Alternative stuffing options are mint and peas chopped mint and mashed peas

Meat option is mince, with masala added of course

Potato is nice too – pre cooked

Cheese and spinach, cook and chopped spinach first then mix with the cheese

Accompaniments are garlic pickle(recipe to follow) or mango chutney, or the tomato chutney (recipe to follow)

Hot mustard oil poured onto peeled garlics with pickle masala mix, and salt to taste. Leave for months and use as a pickle/relish.

Rajma – kidney bean soup - This is totally delicious, takes an age to make but so does all this food in India. We suggest taking the day off, asking friends around and get cooking the spices.

Rajma for six people

Ingredients: Kidney beans soaked overnight (3 good handfuls)

Very finely chopped onions 4-5 lge to medium size

Paste of garlic ( 2 bulbs), ginger(at least an inch), black pepper corns (30 or so), cumin seeds (good handful), cloves(6 or 7), and 6 black cardamom (seeds only), cinnamon (an inch long stick if narrow otherwise half inch if fat, and this needs to be broken into small pieces). Make paste in mixer or on back doorstep adding a few drips of water

Very finely chopped tomatoes 3 or 4 small or 2 large

Sabji masala 2 tsps (mixed spice powders, one portion grd coriander, 2/3 portion grd cumin, small amt red chili pdr and small amount turmeric to taste).

Whole spices: Coriander seeds (handful), 3 bay leaves (broken into two) and 2 black cardamoms (just bite open and add whole, skin and all)

Ghee

Salt to taste (heaped spoonfuls added here)

Method:Heat mustard oil in pressure cooker until smoking

Add a spoon of ghee

Fry onions with bay leaves, black cardamom, 2 cloves and handful of coriander seeds. Fry until onions are well translucent no quick way out.

Add spice paste, fry fry fry adding a dribble of water every now and then to prevent sticking, don’t disappear to work on computer or anything…

Add veg masala, fry fry fry and do as ye are told above..

Add tomatoes, fry with salt fry fry and still don’t go for shower/computer/phone/text etc.. Tomatoes need to cook until dissolved.

Add beans, a lot of water and a knob of butter, check salt, put lid on and now you can do your housework, finish your PhD, twenty situps, shower, chat, watch a good show because this bit is long..say about half an hour

Cook till beans are cooked and soup thick. Resist the temptation to speed up time or over fiddle ie. Stirring. Give it a chance to cook. This dish is definitely far superior in taste the longer it cooks and spices and flavours get in.

Garnish with fresh chopped coriander

Serve with greens or pumpkin/hemp/lemon/garlic mix. Greens can be spinach, mathi (fenugreek), spring onions, leeks or pumpkin cubed and fried in mustard oil, possibly with some cumin seed and fried red chili in, at the last minute before pressure cooking add fresh chopped green chili if desired - then pressure cooked for a blast if pumpkin but just cooked slowly over a low heat if greens. Keep it simple to accompany the delicious kidney bean subji.

Also plain chapattis, of course. Get someone else to make these! Too busy frying.

For desert we had Gulab Jamun which taste like treacle pudding but Susie tells me they are made from cheese milk and sugar, deep fried into balls and then dropped into a sugar solution and boiled. Yum.

Gulab Jamun

spinach sabji which accompanies the rajma well, with chapatis and thats the meal -  enjoy

Delhi

We have been in Delhi now for three days and leave very early tomorrow. Clare has been a real star adapting to the chaos and dust like a pro. We are both pretty keen to get out now and head for the hills - we have seen enough crowded streets, blanket wrapped cold people, and heard enough pooping of horns, mopeds and bikes.

We have both nearly died once and are thankful to be safely in bed at the end of the day. I nearly lost Clare between platform and train on the metro, one leg went down a lot of tall dark men bent to grab her and smiled with relief - 'thank God she did not go down as the trains run straight over people who fall down there' one relieved man smiled quietly to me. Phew I thought must take better care of the little one I didn't realise she could disappear so easily! As for myself I just walked out into in the path of a moped hurtling along at motorway speed rather than a cattle, goat, ricksha and people busy street speed. I saw life pass before me and thanked God too.

Costa Coffee! I don't believe it either and this is in Delhi too - first day and we needed a respite - you can't imagine the culture shock. The coffee was shit as usual which was so reassuring. Day 2 I had an incredibly good cup of the finest coffee I had tasted in ages at the Imperial Hotel hidden behind high guarded walls near the TIbetan Market. We stole in and had a tea and a coffee and gawped at the wondrous paintings of Raj times, an incredibly ornate mirror and beautiful architecture of this victorian relic of a hotel.

Clare in Imperial Hotel Delhi for a few moments only

glorious mirror in Imperial Hotel

We have been amongst a hubub of harsh noises, a mass of dark brown eyes – some chilled with the hard toil of life but most as warm and friendly as the small bright street fires keeping their boney hands warm. None of it makes any sense at all, most is unsettling, suffering is unconcealed despite municipal attempts to sweep it away but there is a tenderness and generosity of spirit in the people of Delhi. We were helped on our way by this and for me it upstaged the attempts by some to mislead or deceive us. Happy to leave the noise for the peace of the mountains but my heart has been warmed by the connections we made.

The Vodafone shop man who helped us connect our Sim cards, made our phones work and sat with us for hours whilst we rested in his office, he was helpful and warm, gentle and calm. Suggested things that may be helpful and related some stories of the people coming and going from the store as we sat. 

The warm open smile of the spice man as Clare asked him if she could take a photo of his stall and his willingness to engage with us. These people are big hearted with each other too, I see touching interactions all around me, with street children, between friends, great camaraderie between the people living their lives out on the streets - something we don't see so much at home, I am sure it goes on but its behind closed door and with central heating - another blessing not yet experienced here by myself, yet at least.

Just bought an Indian Sim card.

Onward to Haldwani tomorrow, generator just kicked in as electricity failed, all lights went out and now we have a new noise. Early start, taxi picks us up at 4.45am for train station. Must get some sleep - time clocks are still all wrong.

Day 5

Left Delhi behind today after a short sleepless and cold night. At 4.45am our taxi drove through ghostly quiet streets of Delhi along sweeping boulevards of sometimes eight lanes, usually chock a block full of every conceivable vehicle, to Anand Vihar station – close to the magnificent Akshardham Temple we had visited two days before. This huge modern temple housed a murtis of Swami Narayan. 

The station was the first signs of life this morning and it was quite a contrast as stations tend to be in India. All went according to plan - we found our names on the list of passengers pinned up on the platform, our porter put our huge weighty bag right by where our carriage would be when the train pulled in. The platform filled up and the train pulled in on time. We headed out of Delhi watching the dark and the fog lift as we meandered across the great plain to the East of Delhi towards Uttarakhand. We saw shanty towns, small fires burning, dogs scavenging and children playing far too near to the train track for safety as well as neatly planted fields and row after row of Poplar trees. 

On time arrival in Haldwani, we were taken to our hotel by taxi driver who asked if we had husbands, we both said yes and asked him if he was married(mistake - should have changed the subject at this point). He said no and that he had just sex with women who commonly rang him up and (at this point he impersonated a western woman in a comically high pitched voice) asked him to come and have a drink with them - of course this inevitably ended up with sex. We think this was an unforgivably bad attempt at a proposition. This interaction brought me down to earth with a bump of course - it was the speed and directness of the approach. I have yet to make sense of his fantasy world but felt disturbed by him.

Haldwani however was sunny and almost hot, we had a great Tali for lunch and wandered the streets following a bunch of cool sadhus for a while. Off to a temple to play, carrying tablas, harmonium.

Tomorrow off to Laharghat in a jeep.