Chocolate Rave

So, for the last 5 days, we’ve been in north Goa in a place called Anjuan. It’s basically a beach town that is famous for its Wednesday flee market on the beach. Because it has been low season, so far, on our trip, we’ve seen very few Westerners, but the fist thing we noticed about Anjuan, is that it’s full of gringos (my own term for foreigners). Some are smelly hippies who got stuck here about 30 some odd years ago and some are just passing through for a day or two, like us! From day one, we took a real liking to Goa.

Firstly, the food: we found an awesome restaurant that is inexpensive and has no customers, no matter what time of the day. They serve this Goan tasty treat called Xacuti. It’s a chicken curry cooked in a paste made with roasted aromatic spices and coconut and a traditional Goan specialty of chicken in a very rich gravy; our top 2 best dishes since we’ve been on our trip. Plus, the meals were accompanied by a banana milk shake, a banana lassi, a bowl of rice and 3 roti.

There’s this awesome bar not too far from one of the five star hotels Goa is known for and where we a currently staying. The bar is geared towards gringos. We checked it out our first day here intending on just having the one drink, but we got sucked into the amazing location, the cheap alcohol, good seats, excellent service and the most friendliest pack of stray dogs. We would have loved to also say they had good music, their sound system was massively distorted. Well, we figured ‘you can’t have it all’. We stayed there till late, got snookered and then realised we didn’t have enough money to continue the party, so we ended up staggering back to our hotel. So much for that ‘one drink’. But, what a great first day in Goa!

Kevin and his wife Alice were in New York to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. Alice had never been to New York before and really wanted to see the production of the Lion King that is currently being performed at the Minskoff Theatre. The couple had a interesting first year of marriage and it was full of major transitional ups and downs, though their relationship itself stood strong and continued to grow. After all they had been through that first year they loved each other more than ever and felt that they could take on anything else life had to offer. They also experienced some exciting and positive transitions such as being able to buy their first home together.

This was one of the reasons, well all of the previously mentioned circumstances accounted for the reasons that the young couple decided they deserved a special celebration for their anniversary that included a fabulous weekend in New York. Kevin wanted that night to be as special as possible and he wanted to make reservations in one of the best restaurants New York City. He researched various places and finally decided on Casa Lever.

The evening, in fact the entire weekend could not have been better and was truly more than what the couple hoped or expected it to be. Their dinner at Casa Lever was fabulous and Alice thought it was the perfect choice. She loved pasta and the shrimp was amazing. The art was also incredible and added a sense of sophistication to their meal. The production of the Lion King was great and they both loved it. The costumes, set and performances were truly amazing. In fact, they were both a little emotionally involved than what they, Kevin especially, would like to have admitted. They made a commitment that evening to make a special celebration every year for their anniversary and to add another life commitment while they were at it.