What a contrast

Friday, today,  is the day I join the tour. Having slept for so long last night I’m feeling really seedy, desperate for a coffee and a shower but neither are happening in this dump of a hotel I booked. It is so grotty I will not use any of the facilities and am feeling rather despondent thinking that this is as good as it will get. I can handle the basic, but plain grime is another thing.  The shower drains into a bucket, there is no towel (and I didnt see the need to bring mine), the dirt is akin to that which I once found in a place I had rented, the air con came in the form of a ceiling fan that squeaked as it turned. The electrical wires hung from the wall looking as though they were searching for somewhere to set up home and I am sure filled with gunge.  The photos looked so nice, the reviews were great but obviously from people who had few expectations. 

My Uber ride appeared as planned and we set off amidst the chaos. Yesterday it was terrifying, today it is ho hum. The noise of the horns is beyond belief. I’m sure the occupants of the road - tuk tuks, bicycles, cars, motorbikes, cows all think they have priority and the horn seems to be the way those in control of something motorised let the world know that they are on the road. In the space of the ten minute ride we had a number of close calls, nearly head on with a car, backed into by a tuktuk, swerved to avoid countless vehicles who stopped within a millimetre from our car. All the while toot, toot, toot. The air here is bad enough with smoke from surrounding fires but the exhausts of these unmaintained vehicles just makes it worse. It was already hitting me in the back of the throat and was mightily unpleasant. 

But after the short Uber ride I was delivered safely to the lovely Surya International Hotel which was everything the write up said it was. Lovely clean room, bathroom that worked and best of all a jug so I could make myself one of my coffees (I do not venture far without a few packets from home).  I am excite to be here. The other big plus is that there is a restaurant!!

Thats where I am now, writing from my phone and getting ready to dive into a chicken do piaza with a chapati to follow. I wonder if it is one of the chapati’s I helped make yesterday?

Now to taste:

A spoonful and I am hooked, delicate spices with a bit of heat, chicken tender as and loads of onion. The first mouthful leaves my mouth buzzing. But it gets better when I tear off a piece of chapati and gently fold it round a mouthful of the chicken mix, raising it to mouth as I take in the scent. Why does it taste so much better when you eat woth your hands. Us westerners think it is primitive but my goodness we miss out when usung utensils.  

The hidden bones did not detract from my enjoyment but reminded me to send a request to my friend at home “Keith please dont tell jokes while I am away”. He will know what I mean. 

After such a delicious meal it doesn’t seem right to go out into the smog where my throat stings and my eyes hurt, so I am headed back to my room for a shower, another coffee and maybe even a nap. Although I havent done much since I arrived everything has been a pain and damned exhausting so I can now relax and let the tour guide take care of everything.

More to come later. 

It is now 8:30 pm and we have just returned from a delightful dinner. Just before heading off we had our tour induction where we met our fellow travellers and heard of the delights that were to follow. Our tour guide goes by the easy name of “Baggy” which is a shortened version of something quite unpronounceable; A lovely young man from Rajasthan. My tour companions are three young ladies, 2 from the UK who are here for a wedding in Goa plus a young lady from Melbourne who has just come from a wedding in Bali; all lovely and I am sure will be great to travel with. 

Our welcome meal was at a very posh but traditional thali restaurant, Suruchi; thali being an assortment of different dishes served with different types of bread and accompaniments.  To avoid all the yogurt type dishes I have declared myself dairy free so got the vegan version which did include heaps of ghee (clarified butter) so I am not sure how that works. 

The wait staff were dressed traditionally in perfectly starched white robes together with colourful headdresses. Not quite the street food type of eating I was expecting but will gratefully accept. All part of the price. 

My meal included small bowls of a number of vegetable curries, each and every one was delicious, but my favourite was a potato curry that oozed with flavour and was even better with a roti bread wrapped around before it took the journey into my mouth. Just heaven; quite spicy with warm notes of cardamom and bay leaf. My kind of flavours. 

Rice and kedgeree were brought round at some stage and although I was full I tried the kedgeree to see if it was anything like what we have at home. Absolutely no similarity except that both versions have rice and are yellow. There was no egg, no veg, no smoked fish (but this was a vegetarian restaurant) just a smooth textured rice dish that had quite a smoky taste. 

My favourite was what looked like a wee pancake (bottom of the first photo next/right of the samosas)  but was actually a millet bread topped with jaggery and ghee (jaggery is sugar straight from the cane before it is processed). Sweet and luscious I could have eaten more. I loved it. It wasn’t the dessert but for me the perfect ending to a delicious meal

Our first night is over. I’m ready for bed and looking forward to an early start tomorrow.