Janet and Joe Arrive Patnem, India

Patnem, India

Woke up to another lovely morning albeit a heat haze in the sky. I’m just going to stop commenting on the weather from here on in because to be frank, it’s going to be about 31-33C daytime, 22-28 night time, blue skies and sunny every day. If it isn’t by some bizarre aberration, then I’ll tell you, but otherwise…..
Bob walked into Chaudhi with Gloria as we had a few things to get: gin, tonics, ice, you know, the vitals….. also setting up an order for a local sim card for our phone, activating our ICICI bank Indian rupee cash card…… etc. Mick was going to walk there too but his back had been excruciating all night and he’d hardly slept so he stayed in bed. Maureen and I went to the beach and established camp.
Walking to Chaudhi is a nice 30 minute strike across the fields. On the way they spotted the new hot restaurant Octopus which we will have to try. It’s supposed to be really good. Bob and Gloria had breakfast in the Krishna in Chaudhi: Masala Dosa, the house speciality. Absolutely blissful, super thin pancake wrapped around a spicy potato, herb and onion mix served with yoghurt and salsa dip. Yes! The definitive South Indian way to kickstart the day. The Krishna is a rite of passage for Patnem. When you see it, always in the company of a more experienced Goan hand, you say nothing but shake internally knowing that your bowels face extermination of a painful kind. Likely to last months…. Honestly it looks a terrible terrible place… But in fact the turnover of food and its popularity means that it is in fact totally ok. The first time I went there I truly believed I was going to die or at least spend the rest of my holiday sitting on the toilet. But the food is wonderful and I’ve never had the slightest problem.
As I said Maureen and I headed to Salida, breakfasted there and set up camp for the day. The sea was limpid today and we had quite a lot of swimming. I am still catching up on the time gap and had quite a few sleeps on the beach bed.
On the way down the road, we passed Dinesh’s place, where we stayed for two years running in Patnem. I hadn’t seen him yesterday but he was in the garden today and he saw me before I saw him and came out shouting “Hello! You are here! Welcome welcome”…. so lovely….. we will go and see his new rooms before we leave. A lovely man.
The rest of the day passed as per usual beach Patnem. I read, swam and slept. Bob, who arrived about 1130, read and swam and spent the afternoon playing cut-throat Scrabble with Gloria and Maureen. We packed up about 5 and headed home. Mick had slept till 3 and was just about moving. Still not right by a long way though….
We expected Janet and Joe to be at the Tubki when we got back but they still hadn’t arrived. I’d reserved a table for 7 by the pool for the evening. So we were a bit nervous. However they arrived about 7pm, slightly knackered but still up for dinner. Gloria came up and joined us. We had g&ts around the pool to a glorious sunset. The dinner was sooooo disappointing. We have eaten at the Tubki lots of times in the past and it has been excellent. I think the restaurant must have changed management because tonight it was pretty dire. Long wait for food. Table not laid. Some of the dishes cold. Such a shame as we would have eaten there a lot because we are building up quite a group…. but shan’t repeat it as there are too many great restaurants to choose from. We made up for the poor dinner by superb company, lots of drinks and great chat. A lovely day!