How to get Holi out your hair

Once again, I came out of Holi with a hangover and multi coloured hair. This festival would never take off in Europe.

I turned my bathroom into a chemistry lab and tried every cure I could find on the internet.
Here are my findings:
Lemon juice - removes maybe 2% of the colour
Mayonnaise - useless and smelly
Ketchup / tomatoe paste - Kinda works, but I think you would have to repeat the process 10 times to get rid of everything.
Baking Soda - Didn't do anything
Vinegar - Not much difference, but my hair did feel good after.
Baking soda and then add vinegar on top - AMAZING. It took 90% of the colour out my hair. When I added the vinegar, the baking soda literally fizzled and I think this reaction is what sucked out all the green.

Note: This worked for me, but please be careful if you try anything I have suggested as I was fully aware that my hair might all fall out and am kinda thanking my lucky stars at the moment.

Animals are funny

I brought my umbrella just in case it rains.

These are MY fish.

Rickshaw wisedom

Kerala, well, if God lives there...

Dan and I have been fortunate enough to have a long train of visitors over the past 5 months and as they have been close friends and family I happily tagged along to their travels around India.
The most interesting part of all these trips, is which places have garnered the most interest and in which order they are seen.
Everyone wants to first see Mumbai, Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur and Varanasi. This is usually done in 10 days. The second tier of desired destinations are Kerala, Goa & Manali.

The only down side of this is that when the visitors started arriving, I found a few destinations repeating on me.

So when my parents planned their second trip to India, my excitement to see them was slightly tainted by having to see Chinese fishing nets, Kathakali (local dance) and Vasco Da Gama's grave... for the third time. They wanted to go to God's Own Country - Kerala.

My first trip to Kerala was wild. Lior and I found a fabulous rickshaw driver - Rinu (09895167727 / 08907999904) who raced us around town to show us all the usual things (even let us drive his auto) and then took us to a restaurant in the back of a house in the middle of nowhere, I was tentative to say the least. We sat under a coconut tree, drank palm wine and ate the tastiest fish covered in curry powder. I am a fussy eater so I had to put my brave face on to handle this and it was more than worth it. The tastiest dish of 2010. Actually it draws with the french toast and fruit breakfast we had at The Kashi Art Cafe.


The second trip with Dan and his parents was a completely different experience. We were traveling in a little bit more style. The Malabar House in Cochin and The Raheem Residency in Allepey. Both were beautiful and really showed off the high end of travel in Kerala.

When my parents arrived, I packed my bags with a sigh, wishing we were going to Darjeeling or Pondicherry or some other unexplored (by me) destination.
But Kerala would have none of my bullshit. It made me swallow my sigh and realise how little I knew. The place was still fascinating, third time round.
Our guide told us that The Trade Winds get their name from a course along which the winds can be expected to blow in the direction of travel. The winds blow from the Cape up to India, around and back down to the Cape. This is the path the Portuguese used to get to India in the 15th Century.
The highlight of this trip was the Kerala style cooking evening we did at The Marari Beach Lodge (part of CGH Earth, an amazing group dedicated to ecologically responsible travel). The single table restaurant is in the center of a thriving organic garden, filled with every sort of veggie, herb (and snake) one could imagine. We picked our own ingredients and were taught how to crackle mustard seeds and what on earth a gourde is. The food was delicious and we were sent home with a recipe book - which has found a very comfortable home in my kitchen.



When I left, I knew I would probably never go back to God's own country and I was pretty sad to say goodbye. Then again, we have a few people coming to visit us this year...

Beach bums in Goa

These 2 walked along a packed Goan beach for approx 1.5km.

Eating away at a weekend

I arrived in Goa with a list - not of beaches, or sights, or parties, but of food spots.
And we did a good job of plowing through the list as well as what was put on our plates.

North Goa is a mine field of kiff restaurants. There is a great mix between beach bum hangouts and wear a pretty dress spots.
We ate at pretty much all of them. Here they are:

Sublime, Anjuna (it's on google maps) - beautiful setting, great at night, excellent food - lots of beef, delicious cocktails. I ate baked fish in a tomatoe, baby potatoe and caper sauce, along with 5 lime martinis. Mmmm mmmm.

La Plage, Morjim Beach (there's good signage along the road) - On a beautiful beach, with great seafood. A mixed salad and mussels in cream and white wine sauce were on my plate.

Thalassa, Vagator Beach - Big fat Greek restaurant. Really nice vibe, might need a booking. Consumption: Suflaki - pita filled with beef, tzatziki, feta and salad.

Lilas, (to the right after Baga bridge) - Breakfast spot, owned by a German who knows all about sausages. We had straight up eggs and French baguette for brekkie, although the menu was extensive, we needed something to soak up those martinis.

Baba Au Rum, Anjuna (on the road between Canlangute and the Saturday night market) - Delicious pastries. Croissant for me.

Bean me up - Vegan dining. I had a plate full of every legume in the world.

Brittos - Local food (Baga Beach) - it's a busy spot on Baga Beach. Goan food and yummy sea food. I had grilled fish and hot chips. There were also a lot of fockin prawns.