Even in a few weeks one creates habits! I have a few favourite places to eat and hang out which I frequent most of the time.
The interior design of the restaurant at Cheeky Monkey where I stay seems inspired by Thousand and One Night and it is really convenient to have a superb restaurant at your doorstep! They offer absolutely awesome salads and pizzas (think I only had better ones in Venice!). There are not too many restaurants in this country where I would dare to have fresh veggies and salad leaves, but here everything is super fresh. If that is not enough, perfect homemade pasta and noodles with prawns and roasted vegetables are also on the menu. And, dare I say, their hummus is almost better than any one I had in Israel.. (I said almost, ok?). The owners and staff are the friendliest ever and make sure my every wish is met.
In Magic Park as I mentioned before they have the most nutritious and yummy food, the Sunday special evening buffet is a classic. In the afternoon a sparkling pink ‘Galaxy’ is perfect – a homemade probiotic grape champagne that gives the system a re-boost in the heat of the day. My no-sugar diet is working very well and it is a total relief not to crave sweet things anymore, feels like I got a whole new space freed in my mind – more than two months now! Nonetheless, once in a while I indulge in the M-P-non-sugar-chocolate-pralines :)
For Indian food I have mostly returned to Kinara, a kind of hidden away restaurant with good food and neat prices. It is the best place in Arambol for thali – a genuine Indian meal with sambal, vegetables, rice, chapatis, papadums, pickle and curd. I like to sit in their garden when it has turned dark and see the stars twinkle between the palm leaves.
At the end of my stay I have developed a habit of having a banana-pineapple-coconut-pancake-breakfast at a thai place called Marum. It is a very relaxing café to sit and have a chai while using the wi-fi. The white painted rough wooden walls are decorated with of flowers, coloured lights and chalk-on-blackboard signs. Cane furniture and coconut mats complete the simple yet beautiful style. It is mainly an evening place and the staff are working late so they never open on time in the mornings. A few times I have been waiting outside talking to one Indian woman who works there in the early day. It has been so interesting to hear her stories and opinions about things in society. It is not so often you get to talk to a woman like that, it is usually the men who take care of the business and do the talking! Every time my standard breakfast is ordered she knows I am there and she comes out to say hello.
Finally, I have spent hours reading in company of a latte macchiato in the shade under the mango tree at Re(love)ution. Lucky for me coffee here is so weak even I can drink it! Saturdays I have often had a treat of a cheese plate with two gouda varieties, smoked buffalo mozzarella and a freshly made cottage cheese. Yum! There is a nice crowd hanging out here in the daytime when the afternoon is too hot for other things, so I have enjoyed talking and making friends. On the reading list was poetry by Tagore and Jim Morrison, Paolo Coelho’s ‘Veronika decides to die’, Kahlil Gibran’s ‘the Prophet’ and ‘Halfway up the mountain’ by Indian author Kiran Khalep. Can easily recommend all of them!
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