Avocado dreaming in Anjuna
Trip Start
Nov 04, 2007
1
40
62
Trip End
May 03, 2008
Anjuna,
India
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
There wasn't much to keep us in Panaji for long, so we decided to move up the coast a short way to spend a few days relaxing by the sea before our train to Mumbai. So we caught a couple of local buses and ended up in Anjuna.
Anjuna was apparently, at one time, the capital of the Goa party scene. However we were more interested in the massive market that takes place every Wednesday, and this was our main reason for picking the place. We thought it might be funny to see what the Goan party scene was like too...whilst in Goa we may as well after all...
What we actually discovered was that Anjuna, whilst undeniably very touristy, must have passed its heyday - and, for this year - high season as it really wasn't that busy
View from the restaurant that served avocado
. The market was massive - wierdly, a good 10 minutes walk from the main village - and resembled Camden-in-a-field, complete with trance music blaring out from little snack-stalls and all manner of pipes and accessories on sale for less than legal use. There were also a huge number of jewellery stalls - mainly selling things similar to those we'd seen in Varkala, many throws and wall-hangings, wood-carvings and other such items tourists like to buy as gifts. However, we didn't see anything that seemed special enough to warrant using the tiny spare space in our backpacks so actually managed to leave without spending more than a few rupees on drinks! It was fun looking round though...The next couple of days we spent pottering around from cafe to restaurant and in between reading books on the beach with the very cute cows. After the Wednesday market Anjuna became even more quiet so we often had places pretty much to ourselves. We attempted to take a look at a Full Moon Party that we'd been given fliers for, in an attempt to see some of the party-scene, and couldn't find it (neither the party nor the scene...) Anjuna might not have been the most amazing bit of coastline, but it was pretty enough and filled the bill of a good place to stop just fine.
A note on Avocados
We first tried to get hold of an Avocado way back in Luang Prabang
Lanterns in a market stall
. And failed, repeatedly. We tried again in Chiang Mai; on Christmas day we went to a cafe that had 'AVOCADO' written in big letters on the blackboard outside, only to be told 'it's finished'. In Bangkok we tried again, and failed. Thus began a bit of an obsession...Although Avocados were on the menu in both Mammalapuram and Pondicherry, they were not to be had. Indian restaurants don't work like British ones. They have menus, which have pages of very yummy looking dishes. You try to order and are usually met with a puzzled expression and shake of the head. So you try something else. Same response. So you ask, 'What do you have today?', and they point at often just one or two items. Thus, finding an Avocado in India seemed to be unlikely when we often couldn't even get brinjal bhaji.
However, in very-westernised Anjuna, with time to kill and a host of tourist-orientated restaurants (who could make nice pasta, but whose curry was awful), we kept trying. One lunch time we walked along a row of five places before giving up and having a veggie burger.
One restaurant owner noticed that we kept asking and so one lunch time he proudly announced 'yes, we have avocado!'. Oh joy of joys and wooo hoo!
So we sat and waited for our Avocado. And waited. And waited. After about fourty minutes we realised that chance of lunch materialising was getting unlikely, and used to Indian restaurants we knew that they'd probably leave us waiting a bit longer before coming back and declaring 'it's finished'
Cows catching some rays, Anjuna
. True to form, the guy came back to tell us the Avocado had gone bad. However, in a gesture that was so unlike any service we'd had in a restaurant so far - where customer service usually means grunt-n-slam-down-the-plate, he had actually driven to the market to try and find another Avocado - hence the delay! Alas, the market didn't have any...but the restaurant had earnt our loyalty and we continued to go back for meals.Laden with our backpacks, we popped in for a very brief bite to eat just before getting our bus out of Anjuna. We knew the menu by now and needed to be quick so when the guy came up to our table we just ordered quickly. 'Oh,' he said, 'but today I have avocado!!'. He looked so pleased with himself, that even though we had our doubts, and needed to be quick, we ordered Avocado and Toast and waited in trepidation.
And it arrived!!
Mashed, tasteless and spread thinly between two slices of toast. DOH!
