South India: Goa: Siolim House, Part I

Siolim House
Vaddy, Siolim
Bardez, Goa 403 517
91-832-223-2138/ 227-2941
www.siolimhouse.com




Yea, in spite of Goa's reputation, I still wanted to visit. DJKung really was not interested in checking out the likely over-hyped beach scene. To compromise, I picked Siolim house as a respite from all the beach action in Goa.

Siolim House is rather removed from the beaches. The closest beaches are Ashvem and Mandrem, a dusty thirty minutes by car or longer by scooter. I picked this place for some good pampering and r&r. DJKung and I agreed that it was worth it.

Siolim House used to be the home of the governor of Macau, back in Goa's colonial days.

Siolim House.

Reservations are essential, since they only have seven rooms. I booked a room for us for five nights but did not confirm. Luckily, when we arrived, a room was available for three nights. Antoinette, the office manager, was very gracious and deftly directed us to some afternoon tea and cakes while our bags were brought to the room.

Estate teas. These are also available for sale. It was nice trying a different cup each time. I am not sure if the picture adequately shows these clever tea spoons (the two on the left). Basically, there is a hinged clamshell contraption. You open it and scoop up some tea, then close it and cover with hot water. One side of clamshell has perforations for the water.

Sitting room. The detail on the carved wood chairs is just exquisite. DJKung and I really dug the long-armed plantation chairs, which allow you to put your feet up. There are some architecture books that we perused.

I wish I picked this book up. It has great detail on the unique details of Goan houses (e.g., windows, pillars).

Our room, which in hindsight we realized was the smallest one, opened directly to the courtyard and the pool beyond. I am just baffled that neither DJKung or I took any pictures, because we just fell in love with the room. It had these really high ceiling, whitewashed walls and big windows with wooden shutters. The ceiling fan nicely cooled the room down and we did not need any ac. The bed was a tall, romantic, four-postered and curtained affair with crisp white linens. And the bathroom, we swear, was about as big as the room and had white marble everywhere. Very luxurious.

The pool was very nice, too. Most of the time, it was only me and DJKung just splashing around. It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

Path to pool. The grounds, though not extensive, were lush. I saw a chico tree (unfortunately, the fruits were not yet ripe), hibiscus, gardenia.

In the mornings, the pigeons like to bathe in the pool, too. It was fun trying to scare them away.

This looks like some bird-of-paradise type plant.

The dining area was also directly across from our room, so it was easy rolling out of bed and showing up for breakfast.

This is the house dog, who we referred to as Fluffy. Unlike the local dogs, Fluffy was much bigger and had a full coat. Not surprisingly, he was always hot and would always try to find a cool spot to lie down.



Our room is to the left. Aren't those fat columns so pretty!

This is the part of the courtyard that leads to the kitchen. That structure in the middle has the remnants of an old well. We saw a lot of old wells on our forays about town.

View of the courtyard from the second floor.

The best adjective I can think of to describe this place is idyllic. We easily settled into this routine:

6am: wake up, listen to the sounds of the village waking up.

7am: get dressed, walk two blocks to the main street and pick up three newspapers.

7:30 am to 9:00 am: breakfast (see Siolim House, Part II). Read newspapers, chat with the jolly French guest.

9:00 am to 10:00 am: pool time.

10:00 am to 2:30 pm: go check out a beach and have lunch outside.

2:30 pm to 5:00 pm: back to Siolim, pool time. Siesta time for Superfatty. Afternoon tea.

5:00 pm to 7:30 pm: get Ayurvedic massage. Shower, get ready for dinner.

7:30 pm to 10:00pm: dinner and drinks outside.

10:00 pm: talk about how tough life can be, with all the decisions we had to make all day (where to eat, what to do, etc). Figure out which beach to check out the next day. Go to sleep.

DJKung and I were really comfortable during our stay here. The staff are all locals, and they took great pains to make sure that everything was to our liking. We've met some interesting people, specially Alex and Mandri, who were always so genuinely attentive. They arranged for a scooter rental for us (do not ask DJKung how it went), and then taxi trips for our beach jaunts, gave excellent tips for dining in the area, set up appointments for the masseuse, and helped us out with our inquiries for transport to our next leg of our trip. The owner, Varun, even gave us tips on hotels, clubs and places to eat in Mumbai!

South India: Kingfisher Airlines

Kingfisher Airlines

Because of our tight schedule, we've decided to fly between the provinces in South India that we wanted to visit (Kerala, Goa, Majarashta). India has quite a few budget airlines that flew in these cities. We picked Kingfisher because its website was easy to use. We did hit a snag getting tickets online, because my Visa card would not approve the charges. Amex did approve the charge, but the Kingfisher required bank verification of credit approval within thirty minutes of my booking and required that I call their toll-free US number. Which did not work.

Talk about stress! After some harried searching on their website, I found another customer service number and spoke with the Kingfisher rep, who insisted that I get bank approval. Good thing the Amex rep I spoke with smoothed everything out.

Btw, Kingfisher Airlines is part of the Kingfisher beer empire. Interestingly, its head CEO had been on trial for tax evasion.

Welcome kit: refreshing wipe, free pen, Mentos.

The great thing about Kingfisher is that they will feed you, no matter how short the route is. The meals are included in the price of the ticket. For our Kerala to Goa flight, which took two hours and involved two stops, we got two meals, and declined the third one. The attendants were able to hand out the food really fast, because everything was prepacked in these Kingfisher meal boxes that eerily looked like cigarette cartons.

Breakfast. From left: chickpeas with yogurt; basmati rice with corn and beans; mousse.

Breakfast #2: the mousse made another appearance. Tomato and cheese sandwich. Potato salad.

This meal was served on the Goa to Mumbai flight that we later took. The tomato and cheese sandwich came with a sweet bun and fresh fruit.

We were very pleased with Kingfisher and would definitely fly with them again. I would say that the only gripe I could possibly have was that flights to the Andaman Islands were hard to find at the last minute, but really, this was more our fault for booking tickets really late.

South India: Kerala: Green Palm Homes, Part III

Green Palm Homes, Part III

Yet another interesting part of our stay at Green Palms involved a trip to the local watering hole. We're noticed that Kerala in general seemed to be a mostly dry province. The sale of alcohol is heavily regulated. (Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it is a Communist state?) In fact, they even take down your name and address when you buy beer at the mainland store.

The main exception to this stringent rule is the sale of toddy. As mentioned previously, toddy is the fermented sap of the coconut flower. I suppose that being an indigenous brew, that pretty much anybody can make at home, it would just be too cumbersome to regulate it heavily. Toddy seems to be the brew of choice here in the backwaters.

Thomas gamely brought us to the local toddy shop for a taste. All the patrons were men (no surprise), who were quite discomfited by the sight of all these tourists barging in on their local pub.

I wish we took better pictures of the place, but it was very dark inside. It was a very no-frills place --- a tiny shack with a low door, lit by a single lightbulb. There were two semiprivate stalls with rustic, rough-hewn benches and tables. DJKung went to the bar, and saw that all they sold was toddy in clear, unlabeled glass bottles. We sat with two men at one of the stalls, but they quickly left us. Too bad, we were ready to engage in some local gossip too.

Cheers! Toddy is definitely an acquired taste. I was expecting a strong local brew like the Indonesian arrak (coconut wine), which is great with ice and honey. Thomas said that he gave us the strong, day-old stuff. It was a cloudy thin liquid, just like in the picture. To me, it tasted like rice vinegar!!!

Thomas had hired some canoes for us. He also entertained us with folk songs while they rowed home. It was a magical moment, just listening to them singing along with the swoosh of the paddles going through the water. Once in a while, kids would wave at us, and we would wave back.

On our last night at Green Palms, DJKung and I went for the sunset cruise on a small motorized boat. We had the boat all to ourselves too, and puttered around the backwaters for two hours. Along the route, some people were taking their evening baths or just washing dishes. Some locals were indoors watching tv. Our guide had excellent timing. We reached a big lake and lingered there a bit and waited for the sun to set.

DJKung being amazed at the breathtaking sunset views.

We attracted some hangers-on, who I guess were either in a rush, or were just getting tired of paddling.

Hanging around in the big lake. I like how the coconut trees in the background are of different heights, like notes on a scale.

Overall, we highly recommend Green Palms. It gave us a taste of how life was like in the Keralan backwaters. I felt that Thomas has some ambivalence with how tourism in general is affecting the community. It is a fragile ecosystem--- too much tourism will certainly degrade both the environment and the people's way of life, yet at the same time, some tourism is needed to support the local economy. There is no easy answer, I'm afraid. Nevertheless, we feel especially privileged to have experienced the backwaters with such a gracious and knowledgeable host.