Goan Hospitality

So I thought that I had experienced Goan hospitality when I first arrived on Monday and Fernandes helped me out and treated me to a nice dinner. But after spending the last week living in Benaulim, I have a truly different understanding of what hospitality really means. I don't think I've ever had so much food cooked for me before in my life, even back in my glutenous days. Benaulim is a very small town with probably just a few thousand people, and it did no take long for me to feel like a local. I had breakfast at Strusthi's Canteen every day this week, and on my last morning there, Mamata invited me to come back into the kitchen and she showed me how to cook my favorite Indian breakfast, Masala Dosa, which is sort of like a pancake filled with potato and fried onions that you eat with your hands. Best of all, it's made from gram flour and so is entirely gluten-free.

I was staying in Lloyd's Guesthouse, run by a couple named Louis and Maria. Louis works on an oil tanker for nine months of the year while Maria stays behind to handle the business at the guesthouse. After I told her about by allergy, Maria cooked Tandoori Chicken and a Green Masala Curry for me and showed me all of the ingredients to use and whatnot. She made me so much food that I had leftovers for the next three days. If you're ever in Benaulim, stay at Lloyd's, they treated me like family for the entire time that I was there.

But the best was yet to come. On Saturday, I took a taxi about 40 kilometers inland to Sanguem, a place that I searched for in my Lonely Planet only to find that it's not even mentioned. Needless to say, not many tourists come through here. Like maybe zero. Fernandes invited me to come and meet his family and join in celebrating the Meilagres Saibinn Festival, which is a Roman Catholic ceremony for the Lady of Miracles. We first went to Fernandes' mother's house, where a huge buffet of food was set up, then to his brother's house, with another huge buffet, and finally to his cousin's house with, yes, you guessed it, a huge buffet.

I spent the whole day hanging out with Fernandes' extended family - his nieces and nephews, brothers and cousins, aunts and uncles, etc. And everyone was bending over backward to accommodate me. If I finished a plate of food, a full one was already being offered to me. By the end of the day I was comatose (from the food...not the whiskey...) and yet Fernandes still insisted on sending me home with some leftovers as well as some fresh mangoes that his mother grows herself. Again, I felt like part of the family.

In addition to being treated so royally by the locals, I was fortunate to meet some other travelers in Benaulim as well...there really weren't so many at all. I met two English girls, Rachel and Laura, who are two idiots abroad, another Englishman named Kaleem who was the first person to read and critique the beginning stages of my book, and another English girl named Pip who had not read Great Expectations even though she's named after the main character. One of the three other guests at Lloyd's was a German girl named Elisabeth, who is probably the most enlightened person I've ever encountered. We were just drinking some tea and she was telling me about her life views, and I was just listening. I don't do that very often, in fact I never shut up, but all of a sudden I was just absorbed in taking in everything and not contributing and I just felt sort of weightless. I'm not so good at describing these things so I won't even try, but I think she taught me how to meditate without intending to give a lesson. I should ask, is it normal to have out-of-body experiences that last for two-plus weeks? Should I consult a doctor or something? I can only hope they keep coming.

I tried to change my flight because I wanted to stay in Goa longer, but the electricity was out this morning and therefore none of the internet cafes were open. So I took it as an omen that I should move on anyway. I'll be back...Goa is an amazing place with some of the most delicious food I've ever eaten. If heaven is in Luang Prabang, Gluten-Free heaven might be in Goa. I've arrived in Mumbai and tomorrow I'm going to be an extra in a Bollywood film...no big deal.