agonda

i am sorry it has been so long since i last posted. so much has hapenned, and i have not found a way to write about it all.
i am still in goa, in agonda, probably easily the best place in goa--it manages to defy the stereotypes of trance hippies, drug casualties, cheap merchandise, all-night parties, and over-developed, waste-strewn beaches. i attribute it to the germans. there are lots of germans here, and as my german friend jennifer put it, "germans like things to be tidy".
the travelers here also tend to be older than the backpacking palolem crowd, but younger than the aging hippie anjuna crowd. the beach is wide and clean, there are few stores selling crap, (see previous photo titled "backpacker alley"). it's an all around remarkably nice place to stay.
when i first arrived here, in early december, with my friend rachel from U.K. we landed lucky at jardim a mar, a beachside resort with restaurant, huts, and rooms. the space itself is stunning, the restaurant is shaded by palm-trees and parachutes with a large bed-like area that is strewn with huge pillows. the huts are prohibitively expensively gorgeous--at $30 per night they were out of our price-range, so we took rooms on the road. which were alse very nice for goa standards.
jardim a mar is german-owned, but nepali run. the guys who run it are a lovely group; binesh is the manager, with his cousin yadov sharing duties, and his other cousin nirmal doing book-keeping, bill-making, and bartending. then there are two waiters, manu, and rakesh. i was blown away by what a good waiter manu is. it's difficult to find a waiter in india who lives up to the american ideal, and nearly impossible in goa where everyone runs on beach time and it can easily take 45 minutes to get a cup of tea. manu is fast, good natured, and he remembers everything.
at first i only intended to stay for 2 weeks, but then i met nirmal, and we fell in love. it all hapenned very quickly, i will spare you the gushy details, suffice it to say it took a little while for my head to catch up with my heart. 2 weeks turned into 3 weeks after i met some really great friend from canada, bristol, whales, and australia, and then they left, and still i stayed. and then nirmal asked me to marry him, and after much deliberation i said yes.
so now i am here with the germans and the nepali--two cultures that couldn't be more different. i spend most of my days on the beach or in a cafe reading, i do afternoon yoga in my room, then at night i go to meet nirmal at jardim and play nepali poker with him and manu and rakesh and sunny, a punjabi guy who runs the tandoori oven, and kumar, the nepali head cook.
it's all very relaxing and idyllic--i am making up for years of neglected reading--flying through books. most recently i read "life of pi", a beautiful book about a boy stranded in the middle of the ocean on a life-boat with a bengal tiger. i recommend it to everyone. and then i read "a fine balance" a book about a cast of bombay characters who find their lives colliding during indira ghandi's "emergency", which i found entertaining and informative, but i thought the writing was a bit heavy-handed with the metaphor and foreshadowing, and lacking in style and grace.
i will be staying here for another 3 weeks, and then i will be going to nepal with nirmal and we will get married.
it's all terrifying and exciting and unlikely and amazing, and i am greatly anticipating the future. i will upload photos as soon as i find an internet connection that is up to the task.

merry christmas and a happy SNAFU

so yesterday i got an email from cheap tickets notifying me that there have been "significant changes" to my itinerary. i called last night, and after just about an hour on hold, (calling from india to the U.S.), i was told that my flight home has been canceled. i was really tired and crabby at this point, (it was 12:30 AM), and the air india office was closed, so there was nothing i could really do about it right then. so i will not be returning to the states on the 6th as planned. i'm not actually sure when i will be returning, but christmas eve is just about the worst time to have to contact any airline. in the meantime i am still having a wonderful time here... contemplating staying a week longer or so, i mean if i've got to pick a new flight anyway, why not? tonight there will be christmas yoga on the beach and our dear friend ben is super amped for sunset caroling, (also, naturally, terrifyingly, on the beach), he even printed out the lyrics to the little drummer boy for me, imagine, he actually wants to hear me sing(!?) then we will be going to the restaurant at jardim a mar for christmas eve dinner, lots of seafood platters for everyone, and a veg platter for me. we're making mulled wine after that, and then there is a dance party for our nepali friend binesh's birthday. christmas in goa is lovely, my anglo-indian landlady has reminded me a full 4 or 5 times about the morning mass in english, so i will be going to church this year.
i will keep everyone posted as to my return, and i will be calling the loved ones on the christmas eve-evening. i am sending lots of love and holiday cheer to everyone. xoxoxo

christmas

so i have decided to stay here in goa for christmas. i have made a really solid group of friends here one of whom is jo, a lovely girl from whales, who is basically the christmas spirit personified. we're going to have a party and make mulled wine and decorate the beach hut and make christmas roti, which was my suggestion, see when jo asked the guys from jardim a mar, where i am staying, if we could use their oven to make christmas cake and they told her that they don't have an oven, i quipped, "that's okay, we'll make christmas roti!" and jo said "brilliant!" but now i'm afraid i don't really know what christmas roti is.... whatever it is i'm sure it will be delicious. my land lady has already informed me of the english mass on christmas morning so it may be the first time i've been inside a church for a non-touristy reason in quite a while.
as far as my health is concerned i am a little worried i might have a parasite, because the antibiotics aren't really touching the nausea and i still have no appetite. so i'm going to get some precautionary blood work done and take some bikinni photos and make the best of the situation.

update

so i am still in goa. i got sick about a week ago with something that felt suspiciously similar to an illness i had in thailand almost exactly two years ago--and because i think i am tough and don't ever want to go on antibiotics, i wound up with a serious bacterial infection that spanned three weeks swallowing christmas and the new year.
this time it started as mild nausea, then proceeded to full-fledged nausea, i tried to take a tums, and vomited that up. every time i tried to eat food my stomach would clench in protest. if i did manage to choke a few bites of something friendly down, like say bananna, (mind you i've had no appetite), as soon as i stood up after the meal i would immediately feel faint and pukey. it got to the point where all i could do was drink cups of ginger tea, force-feed myself yogurt and sip daintily the broth from carrot ginger soup. now i know how anorexics feel! after about 2 days of this LA lifestyle i realized it was time to get on antibiotics. everyone kept on asking me if i was having "loose motions", which is the indian term for diarrhea. i tried to explain that i hadn't been having any motions really, which meant whatever i had couldn't have been dysentery, but then i wasn't eating either. then i started getting fevers, and of course i have been feeling weak from the weight-loss. so i am on my 3rd day of ciprofloxacin and paracetamol and i am starting to re-gain my appetite. this morning i had a fruit salad with yogurt and watermelon-mint juice, a veritable feast considering. tonight i've got plans to (try to)have italian food with some friends.
and so, i may be staying here for the holidays... i know it's not "real" india, but it's just so damn comfortable and vacation-ey. my illness gives me a nice excuse to not move anywhere for a while. it's great, a whole day can slip by and i'll have done nothing! what a huge luxury considering how crazy my summer can be. all in all i don't feel too bad

vegetable pulao

this is a wonderful rice dish that can be served as an accompaniment to vegetable, meat, or fish curry and a dry curry like cabbage thoran.
this recipe is for 4 people or so, but can easily be doubled.

vegetable pulao

2 tbsp ghee
1/2 tsp salt, (more to taste)
small handful cashews
small handful raisins, (preferably white)
1 c. long grain basmati rice, (white, washed and drained)
small handful of diced green beans
1 diced carrot
1 diced onion
1/3 c. diced green cabbage

2 1/4 c. water
3 cloves
5 green cardamom pods
1 inch piece of cinnamon
5 black pepper pods
2 start anise

heat the ghee in a large pot and add the onion and salt.
when the onion is half cooked add the cashews and raisins.
when the raisins become puffed up add the green beans and sautee for 2 minutes.
add the cabbage and carrots and sautee for another 2 minutes
stir in the rice. sautee the rice for 8 minutes or so, until it just begins to have a golden color.

in this time you should also boil the water in a separate pot with all your spices.

when the rice is slightly golden add the boiling water and spices. bring rice to a boil then cover and turn down to a very low heat to steam. i am not a genius when it comes to cooking rice--actually i am lazy and i usually use my rice cooker. in this instance i think it should take 15-20 minutes to steam. i am sure when i try this on my own it will involve a little anxiety and plenty of trial and error. perhaps you are a person with more rice instinct than i.
good luck and enjoy!

new york

i am flying from india to new york on january 6th. i may need to crash on a couch for a day or two before heading to the cape. if you let me sleep on yours i will bring you a cool present.

where i'm at

right now i am in goa, at agonda beach. it's beautiful and peaceful and far less cynical and overdeveloped than palolem. rachel, (my friend from the UK), and i decided to take a beach vacation. since i won't be going to sri lanka after all i was pretty amped at the prospect of 2 weeks on a beach. we're going to return to fort cochin for the holidays, but for now we're relaxing. rachel has a lot of writing to do, (she's ghostwriting an "autobiography" for a psychic healer in the UK), and i've got a lot of yoga to do. right now i've got a cozy little room off the beach and in front of to an outdoor yoga studio. i will return to cochin refreshed and ready to dive back into my cooking classes.