Sultry Days Patnem, India

Patnem, India

The weather has been downight sultry over the last couple of days. This had made us lazy and sluggish and therefore we have stayed on our loungers, dozing, reading, swimming….. not doing anything interesting enough for blogging about.
Well, I say that, but yesterday Mick and Maureen went off on their first excursion courtesy of Christopher the taxi driver who also owns the land Salida is built on. They went first to the elephant orphanage and rode elephants. Then they went to the spice farm and had a tour around and many explanations and then had the free lunch and drinks that come with admission.
In the evening, they were tired and decided to eat in the Tubki and the rest of us went down to the beach and ate at Nirvana. I don’t know why we don’t eat here more often as the food is very good and it’s a great atmosphere. The dining area on the beach is surrounded by flaming torches and atmospheric lighting and we struck lucky as Mondays are the nights when they host Indian classical musicians who come along and give a wonderful concert. We have been to this several times before but had forgotten it. Anyway, there was sitar, tambour and flute and very lovely it was too. The evening was capped off by an amazing firework display right beside us (maybe too beside us for h&s) that went on for over an hour.. Fabulous.
Today, poor Mick stayed in the hotel as he had an episode of Delhi Belly overnight. This is not due to food or drink imo but is to be expected. If you take our European guts, subject them to extreme heat and a week of spiced food and rich sauces, it is going to affect your errr…. digestion. It is quickly past and then your innerds sort of right themselves in an Indian rebirth. Anyway, poor Mick was reborn overnight.
It’s the time of the year when they start to harvest coconuts around here. They are still green which is the way the Goans like them. Also, they like to get them down before the winds get up later in the year and they run the risk of nuts falling and damaging buildings or people. Got a picture of a villager climbing up the tree and harvesting the nuts. Amazing how they go up with no handholds or ropes.
Mick was fully recovered this evening and we had a round of g&ts at the Tubki and then headed down to April 20, the best restaurant on the beach. I had Lentil Balti which is a beano feast of 5 types of lentil/beans with melted cheese and a lovely gray. Just delicious and as much as I could eat for £1..80. A most congenial evening.. Joe made me laugh so much with some of his theatre stories which would crease anyone who’d ever been in the slightest bit of theatre. My jaws were aching by the end. Took me back 30 years to my fun and games with Miss Penny Sambrook and co in Montage Theatre. Good times…