I'm working on a full write up on my recent trip around India but in the mean time though I'd share a few words on the delights of eating out in India.
Just outside the Golden Temple in Amritsar we stopped for lunch at a small punjabi dhabba and enjoyed a fantastic meal of Roti, Naan, Paratha, vegetable curry and dhal which cost my girlfriend and I less than $3 between us. It seems throughout India that the quality of food you enjoy is inversely proportional to the price. 5 star hotels tend to have the worst food - served in the most asthetically pleasing mannor at exorbatant prices. Roadside dhabbas and street foods on the other hand are pulled directly off the stove or fryer and will be bursting with exotic smells and flavours. The only danger is that street food and small restaurants have the nasty habbit of making you voilently ill, a punishment that is almost worth the succulent delight of eating the food. Minimizing the risk of getting sick is fairly easy, you need to steadfastly stick to three key rules.
1. Drink bottled water everywhere. Indian drinking water is notoriously dodgy, in the rainy season it comes out of the tap a murky brown colour! It is in your interest not to drink this, if you do you are almost guaranteed to pick up a nasty case of disentry. A bottle of mineral water costs between RS12 and RS25, about AUD30c-70c, a small price to pay for an enjoyable holiday and ongoing health.
2. Always eat (temperature)hot food. Anything that is freshly cooked and served on your plate hot can't hurt you too much! I didn't stick to this rule towards the end of my trip as the delights of the various chutneys, raithas and lassies on offer were too much to resist!
3. ALWAYS wash your hands before eating. It's too easy to forget this one and if you do you will pay dearly for it. A simple walk down the street will coat your hands and face in a layer of reddish dust containing all manor of bacteria just wating to get in your body. Grabbing hand rails and other items will only exaserbate this problem! Most places have a wash basin and if they don't carry around a bottle of antiseptic hand gel.
Following these three rules it's unlikely you will get very sick eating Indian food.
The variety available is mindboggling. Even the smallest restaurants will offer up a 'menu' that comes as a rather large multi page book. On offer are usually a large selection of Punjabi, south indian, pizza, pasta, continental and chinese dishes. A quick peak at the kitchens of small restaurants will reveal nothing more then a simple gas burner, small fridge and a couple of cardboard boxes stuffed with unknown possibly magical items. From this, through some miracle of cooking remeniscent of the best Harry Potter has to offer, will emerge any of the 100 or more items offered in the menu. This is truely Masterchef gone large! It's not as if quality will suffer either(although hygine certainly might). The food coming out of such a kitchen will be hot, tasty, filling and compared to western restaurants, CHEAP!
On my trip from north to south India I savoured everything, some of the highlights were:
The finest Tibetan food - Dharamsala
Possibly the best Pizza and Italian food I've ever had - Delhi
Outstanding Punjabi food - all over india.
Deliciously filling Gujerati food - Mt Abu
Marvellous Kerelean food - Allepy
Eating out is truely one of the great delights of visiting India. Make sure you come a few kilos light because you will certainly be going back a few kilos heavier!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
India!
Well I finally managed to get a chance to travel around India(with my girlfriend) and it was great! I had no idea there were so many varied activities available and each city we visited had something special about it. We split the trip up into a few parts, the first month - Oct 1st to 25th or so travelling the North. Diwali in Mumbai with my family then 3 short trips to Aurangabad, Goa and Nagpur. My girlfriend returned to Australia after Nagpur on the 12th of November. After a 2 week break in Nagpur with my grandparents I continued on to South India alone for a whirlwind 7 day trip. On the itinerary were Chennai, Allepy Munnar and Kochi followed by a flight back to Mumbai!
Amritsar
We touched down from Australia directly in Amritsar late at night and left the airport to find our taxi-wallah standing there with my name on a piece of paper. After he realized neither of us could speak hindi he gestured wildly for us to follow him to his very comfortable AC cab. The ride to the hotel was a nice soft introduction to the crazyness of India, being late and a smaller city there wern't too many people around and the darkness prevented us from seeing too much outside.
Arrival and checkin at 'Hotel Airlines' went smoothly, a quaint little place with a dusty outdoor garden. Room was clean, large and had airconditioning, a must as we discovered for the scortching October heat. As with most of the places we visited safety is not a high priority for Indians, this was strikingly obvious to us from the way the air conditioners were positioned. The condensed water dripped directly onto the only walkway to the rooms. The tiles there were polished smooth and thanks to the air conditioners, constantly soaking wet creating a deadly game of russian roulette for guests entering and exiting the rooms.
The next day started with a reconasaience mission on foot around the hotel. Stepping out from the oasis of the hotel we were blasted for the first time by the full force of India. Rickshaws, cars, busses, goats, dogs, scooters, beggars, hawkers and a baffeling supply of errant cows rushed along the road outside the hotel. I being Indian by birth was able to blend in, but my girlfriend being Australian was like a magnet for touts and rickshaw wallahs. They would constantly pull up right in front of us, blocking out path and ask if we require a rickshaw. Upon rejecting one a second would pull up, then a third and so on. The stream is never ending and almost drives you insane! After a brisk 'stroll' which required a catlike sixth sense to avoid being hit by a wayward scooter and the agility of an olympic hurdler to dodge the rickshaws pulling up in our path, we returned drenched in sweat to the hotel.
That evening we went to see the Wagah border ceremony where Indian and Pakistani border security try out out stomp each other. The crush of people was unbelievable, all sweaty and smelly but remarkably peaceful in their jostling for a good vew. A grandstand had been errected to allow more people to see the ceremony and the battle to climb the narrow staircase to the top was furious. The crowd itself was almost as interesting as the ceremony, shouts and cheers were going up constantly trying to drown out the Pakistani cheers on the other side of the border. The ceremony itself seemed like some kind of crazy theatre show. Larger than life lanky characters wearing outrageous costumes stomping and yelling their way up and down the narrow road to the gate. Scowling across at their counterparts on the Pakistani side and despite the turbulent history between the two countries it never seemed like there was any hostility. As the sun came down the border gate was closed and I made a swift escape before the majority, down the rickety stairs that lined the grandstand. Pickpockets are a major problem at busy locations and thankfully both my girlfriend and I came out with all our possessions in tact.
Having a nice hotel to retreat to is priceless. After an outing it feels like returning to heaven after a battle with the devil in hell. We slept soundly that night.
Next morning was a trip to the Golden Temple, we were still not used to the heat and it was scortching! The main drawcard is that some parts of it are made out of gold however the structure itself is not particularly intricate or impressive in its construction. There were as usual thousands of people in the temple complex, the line to enter the temple itself stretched for about 100m and was moving painfully slow. We decided not to go inside the temple but rather to walk around the courtyard and temple complex. As with most of the holy places in India, a strage sense of peace descended on me as I entered the temple complex, this in itself made the visit worthwhile. We sat in the shade for sometime enjoying the crazy calmness of the place before moving off in search of lunch.
Just outside the Golden Temple in Amritsar we stopped for lunch at a small punjabi dhabba and enjoyed a fantastic meal of Roti, Naan, Paratha and vegetable curry which cost for the two of us less than $3.
After our delicious lunch we headed back to the hotel, which now seemed almost like a 5 star luxury resort to us compared to the chaos on the street. It was time to get some rest as the next day was to be the first experience of the Indian public transport system!
The train station wasn't too far from our hotel, the very friendly room attendant had ordered a cycle rickshaw for us, however the thought of an hour on a cycle rickshaw followed by about 8 hours of train and bus travel didn't sound appealing so we grabbed an auto rickshaw instead.
We arrived relatively early this was our first big travel the destination was Dharamsala. Amritsar is a small station so there wasn't much rush.
Our trip on the train was nice, since we were going to Dharamsala we had to get off the train at Pathankot and grab a 5 hour public bus the rest of the way. I was famished at Pathankot and we decided to grab a meal just outside the train station at an authentic Punjabi dhaba. It was a small dark dingy restaurant with a big wok and tandoor roaring on the footpath outside. I suspect it was frequented by taxi and truck drivers rather than foreign tourists, the patrons all seemed to by eyeing us as we walked in. I am glab for eating there though as for about RS60 - less than $2 we had roti, naan, dhal and veggie curry. It was absolutely delicious, possibly because we were hungry, food always tasts better when you're hungry!
With our bellies satiated we trecked back out into the swealtering heat, it was about 2pm by now. We were hunting for the bus stand and my only weapon was a little broken hindi. 'Bus stand kaha heyy' I would blurt to anyone who'd listen - 'where is the bus stand', eventually someone informed us it was about 1/2 a kilometre away and instead of walking in the heat with our heavy packs we decided to grab an auto rickshaw. Bargaining as a foreigner is fun, theres no way to get a fair price so it's best just to do your best and enjoy it. He started at RS50 and we bargained him down to RS20(still way too much) and hopped on. Along the short journey we noticed he was working quite hard to lug us and our luggage along in the burning sun. We decided to give him RS50 anyway, when we stopped at the bus station he looked tired so we gave him 100, the smile on his face alone was worth it. One of the men at the station saw this and said something to him along the lines of 'This is your lucky day!'. The thing is to us that is about $2.50 while to him that's a days wage, it might allow him to enjoy something he normally could never afford such as a movie ticket or a nice meal. We never felt too bad getting ripped off and it was quite common for us to give double the fare to cycle rickshaw drivers. We were suckers, I know, but their job is a long day of hard labor for little money and no respect so it hardly seems fair to screw them out of 5 or 10 Rupees, an amount of money we wouldn't even pick up off the ground if we found it in Australia.
The Pathankot public bus stand wasn't quite as chaotic as I'd imagined, a rather large dustbowl surrounded by ticket vendors and food stalls. It was reasonably busy with people milling around and busses roaring in and out. Upon finding the correct booth for busses going to Dharamsala I discovered the attendant was fast asleep at his post. Rousing him took a few subtle ahems and after a leisurly round of stretches he finally asked me what I wanted. After a brief discussion I was able to buy 2 tickets to Dharamsala and also find out which bus to board, it was already waiting with people already boarding.
Amritsar
We touched down from Australia directly in Amritsar late at night and left the airport to find our taxi-wallah standing there with my name on a piece of paper. After he realized neither of us could speak hindi he gestured wildly for us to follow him to his very comfortable AC cab. The ride to the hotel was a nice soft introduction to the crazyness of India, being late and a smaller city there wern't too many people around and the darkness prevented us from seeing too much outside.
Arrival and checkin at 'Hotel Airlines' went smoothly, a quaint little place with a dusty outdoor garden. Room was clean, large and had airconditioning, a must as we discovered for the scortching October heat. As with most of the places we visited safety is not a high priority for Indians, this was strikingly obvious to us from the way the air conditioners were positioned. The condensed water dripped directly onto the only walkway to the rooms. The tiles there were polished smooth and thanks to the air conditioners, constantly soaking wet creating a deadly game of russian roulette for guests entering and exiting the rooms.
The next day started with a reconasaience mission on foot around the hotel. Stepping out from the oasis of the hotel we were blasted for the first time by the full force of India. Rickshaws, cars, busses, goats, dogs, scooters, beggars, hawkers and a baffeling supply of errant cows rushed along the road outside the hotel. I being Indian by birth was able to blend in, but my girlfriend being Australian was like a magnet for touts and rickshaw wallahs. They would constantly pull up right in front of us, blocking out path and ask if we require a rickshaw. Upon rejecting one a second would pull up, then a third and so on. The stream is never ending and almost drives you insane! After a brisk 'stroll' which required a catlike sixth sense to avoid being hit by a wayward scooter and the agility of an olympic hurdler to dodge the rickshaws pulling up in our path, we returned drenched in sweat to the hotel.
That evening we went to see the Wagah border ceremony where Indian and Pakistani border security try out out stomp each other. The crush of people was unbelievable, all sweaty and smelly but remarkably peaceful in their jostling for a good vew. A grandstand had been errected to allow more people to see the ceremony and the battle to climb the narrow staircase to the top was furious. The crowd itself was almost as interesting as the ceremony, shouts and cheers were going up constantly trying to drown out the Pakistani cheers on the other side of the border. The ceremony itself seemed like some kind of crazy theatre show. Larger than life lanky characters wearing outrageous costumes stomping and yelling their way up and down the narrow road to the gate. Scowling across at their counterparts on the Pakistani side and despite the turbulent history between the two countries it never seemed like there was any hostility. As the sun came down the border gate was closed and I made a swift escape before the majority, down the rickety stairs that lined the grandstand. Pickpockets are a major problem at busy locations and thankfully both my girlfriend and I came out with all our possessions in tact.
Having a nice hotel to retreat to is priceless. After an outing it feels like returning to heaven after a battle with the devil in hell. We slept soundly that night.
Next morning was a trip to the Golden Temple, we were still not used to the heat and it was scortching! The main drawcard is that some parts of it are made out of gold however the structure itself is not particularly intricate or impressive in its construction. There were as usual thousands of people in the temple complex, the line to enter the temple itself stretched for about 100m and was moving painfully slow. We decided not to go inside the temple but rather to walk around the courtyard and temple complex. As with most of the holy places in India, a strage sense of peace descended on me as I entered the temple complex, this in itself made the visit worthwhile. We sat in the shade for sometime enjoying the crazy calmness of the place before moving off in search of lunch.
Just outside the Golden Temple in Amritsar we stopped for lunch at a small punjabi dhabba and enjoyed a fantastic meal of Roti, Naan, Paratha and vegetable curry which cost for the two of us less than $3.
After our delicious lunch we headed back to the hotel, which now seemed almost like a 5 star luxury resort to us compared to the chaos on the street. It was time to get some rest as the next day was to be the first experience of the Indian public transport system!
The train station wasn't too far from our hotel, the very friendly room attendant had ordered a cycle rickshaw for us, however the thought of an hour on a cycle rickshaw followed by about 8 hours of train and bus travel didn't sound appealing so we grabbed an auto rickshaw instead.
We arrived relatively early this was our first big travel the destination was Dharamsala. Amritsar is a small station so there wasn't much rush.
Our trip on the train was nice, since we were going to Dharamsala we had to get off the train at Pathankot and grab a 5 hour public bus the rest of the way. I was famished at Pathankot and we decided to grab a meal just outside the train station at an authentic Punjabi dhaba. It was a small dark dingy restaurant with a big wok and tandoor roaring on the footpath outside. I suspect it was frequented by taxi and truck drivers rather than foreign tourists, the patrons all seemed to by eyeing us as we walked in. I am glab for eating there though as for about RS60 - less than $2 we had roti, naan, dhal and veggie curry. It was absolutely delicious, possibly because we were hungry, food always tasts better when you're hungry!
With our bellies satiated we trecked back out into the swealtering heat, it was about 2pm by now. We were hunting for the bus stand and my only weapon was a little broken hindi. 'Bus stand kaha heyy' I would blurt to anyone who'd listen - 'where is the bus stand', eventually someone informed us it was about 1/2 a kilometre away and instead of walking in the heat with our heavy packs we decided to grab an auto rickshaw. Bargaining as a foreigner is fun, theres no way to get a fair price so it's best just to do your best and enjoy it. He started at RS50 and we bargained him down to RS20(still way too much) and hopped on. Along the short journey we noticed he was working quite hard to lug us and our luggage along in the burning sun. We decided to give him RS50 anyway, when we stopped at the bus station he looked tired so we gave him 100, the smile on his face alone was worth it. One of the men at the station saw this and said something to him along the lines of 'This is your lucky day!'. The thing is to us that is about $2.50 while to him that's a days wage, it might allow him to enjoy something he normally could never afford such as a movie ticket or a nice meal. We never felt too bad getting ripped off and it was quite common for us to give double the fare to cycle rickshaw drivers. We were suckers, I know, but their job is a long day of hard labor for little money and no respect so it hardly seems fair to screw them out of 5 or 10 Rupees, an amount of money we wouldn't even pick up off the ground if we found it in Australia.
The Pathankot public bus stand wasn't quite as chaotic as I'd imagined, a rather large dustbowl surrounded by ticket vendors and food stalls. It was reasonably busy with people milling around and busses roaring in and out. Upon finding the correct booth for busses going to Dharamsala I discovered the attendant was fast asleep at his post. Rousing him took a few subtle ahems and after a leisurly round of stretches he finally asked me what I wanted. After a brief discussion I was able to buy 2 tickets to Dharamsala and also find out which bus to board, it was already waiting with people already boarding.
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