December 26th

Yesterday, Christmas Day, we had a “petite' breakfast. It was finger bananas and masala tea. Our hosts were so concerned about how little we wanted, but they were making us and the French lady a Christmas lunch. After breakfast we went back to our room and finished our last weekly contact with family.

For lunch at one pm, we back down to eat. They prepared us a small feast! We had fried chicken; chicken biryani with a yogurt sauce, called Raita; Papadam, which was a puffed, fried, and crispy bread; fresh pineapple; and a salad of carrots and red onions with fresh squeezed lime juice. It was so good. Then they brought us dessert of date cake, and homemade wine – it was tart, reminded me of a sour mead. The only thing I would have changed -is if  our hosts would have joined us!

After we ate; we went back to our room, for you guessed it, a siesta! We did not eat supper as such, but did have a few nuts, and raisins. Our host brought us some tea. Then we went out for a sunset swim, and actually felt cold when we came out of the warm water. Great day! We felt very blessed!! Hope all reading this had a blessed day as well!!!

Today, we had breakfast of a spicy beef stew; white sweet bread; a roti, of some sort; and boiled bananas. We bid our French lady goodbye, as she is changing places. We went back to our room and waited until 1130ish. Then walked into main part of town, because Jeff's glasses are ready! He got two for the price of one!! He paid approximately half of what they would have cost in the U.S.!! On our trekking we also bought an umbrella (not for rain, but rather shade!); also bought another hand foldable fan (the one I got in Portugal broke). We were heading back and Jeff stopped at a mechanical shop to see if he could borrow a hammer. The guy took it to a worker – they fixed my Portuguese fan, for free!

Back at our place, we had a delivery. I needed some T-shirts, so Jeff had ordered some. But they are too small. We figured out how to return. India has a service like Amazon, called Flipkart. This is how we received the package and how we will now return it!  🙁  Too bad I liked the tees! We took a siesta and cooled off.

Next we went for a sunset swim. The beach has quite a few more people on it – I'm sure it is due to the holidays. Tonight we had a decent sunset and a full moon rise at nearly the same time. That was pretty cool and special! Finished we went to our favorite restaurant. Our waiter guy was not there, and the place was busy. It seemed more chaotic. Took quite a while to get even our drinks. We both had the lemonana. Then we ordered an Chicken Badiya, which is a quite spicy, yet flavorful grilled chicken; also had Chicken Sheek Kebab, which was chicken formed around the skewer. Both came with naan, pickled salad of red cabbage and carrots, and a sauce (one mayonnaise based, one lime based). Then we split a peanut butter shake.

Walked back and bought a water from the tea stall on the way; because the lady who runs it, smiles everytime she sees us. How can you pass that up?! Then I blogged and Jeff read. Just another couple of blessed days in our lives.