5.2.26

Every morning since we’ve arrived I’ve been awake and eating biscuits by 6am. Today Liz and I are going to Margao market and the alarm was set for 8am. I was dead to the world, reset it for 30minutes, then hit snooze.

Liz also struggled, think we’re not used to 2 late nights on the trot.

We pulled ourselves together, messaged Mounika as we still can’t get hot water. She explained we need to turn the boiler dial until the indicator light comes on. Tried that, still nothing. No indicator light.

We both need a hair wash, maybe we can find somewhere in Margao which is a large town, where the market is.

We’d decided to walk, it took about 50 minutes and another 20 once there to find the market.

The walk was beautiful through jungle palms with a little traffic. We loved seeing all the variety of houses and little chapels. I found a, suitcase sized puppy. So cute.

As we neared the town there was a lot of litter on the side of the road. Such a shame.

We asked several people the way to the market as Google wasn’taking any sense.

Each person told us something different. Hoorah. We found it.

A local lady warned us we might get followed around the market. We did, by 2 women, I’d assumed they meant men. No big problem.

The market is like those in Vietnam and Thailand. Rows and rows, a rabbit warren of stalls selling shoes, clothes, hair accessories, perfumes, spices, sodas and cakes.

A bit disappointing as all the same old same old. Nothing traditional and no more touristy clothes.

One of the ladies we saw on our way in asked us to stop at her stall. She was sweet but had nothing we wanted to buy. Her sister had a small shop outside the market, we followed her there and bought a couple of bits.

We hadn’t eaten and needed coffee. I spotted Lotus cheesecake. Perfect.

We ordered black coffees, the first place we had seen with a freshly ground coffee machine. The waiter showed us a frappe section of the menu and said no hot drinks.

When he went off to get soft drinks for us I asked a waiter standing by the machine what was wrong with it. Nothing. 2 Americanos ordered.

Liz couldn’t drink it. More confusion when she asked for tea. How can she not have milk in coffee but happy to drink tea? Black tea we explained. More confusion, especially when she asked for a straw…

So I managed my coffee and ate the the Lotus cheesecake which was massively disappointing. It was all quite amusing though.

We caught a bus back and enjoyed the music.

The bus was just 30 rupees- 24p and took 15 minutes. It stopped at Maria Hall, 2 minutes from our apartment.

Realising we had planned to get our hair washed in the town but forgotten we asked our nearby barber, but they had no water.

Quick change and bags packed for a couple of hours on the beach, at Roger’s.

Resigned to using just cold water we got in to find the boiler light on!

Lovely hot showers and off to Cinnamon restaurant to meet Sharon and Kevin for dinner.

I ordered chicken satay and received the longest, perfectly spiced and cooked chicken, a slightly spicy peanut butter, fabulous coleslaw and garlic naan.

We ended up being almost the last to leave, a bit of a pattern forming!

Observations…

Women arent told the sex of their babies during pregnancy.

Young Hindu children have their ears pierced, male or female. Sometimes as young as just a few days old.

No Indians smoke.. Well so I thought. There’s huge fines, possibly even jail time if caught smoking outside their homes 😳