Not a good time to get sick

Jack Fruit, Spice Plantation [Enlarge & More]

It was 22:10, the train was already 10 minutes late arriving in Madgaon train station and Jono had been sick four times already. Of all the nights to pick to be sick it had to be the one where we had a 16 hour journey ahead of us to Kochi. We’re not sure what the culprit of the food poisoning was but our suspicions lie with the ‘light buffet’ we were given at a visit to a spice plantation.

We ended up spending four nights in Colva, a beach in south Goa. It was definitely busier than the others we had visited and the great location of the hotel and pool kept us there for two nights more that we were going to.

The spice plantation visit was to break up the routine of taking it easy having a swim and something to eat, the tour around the plantation was really interesting and informative. We learnt that the most expensive spice is saffron, the age of the beetle nut tree can be worked out by counting the rings on the outside, three per year and that the husk of the nutmeg nut is used to produce mace.

Train to Kerala [Enlarge & More]

We have about four hours of the train journey left to Kochi and Jono has been up and down all night running to the toilet. He’s asleep now but he recalled to me earlier how on his first run to the toilet he managed to get outside the berth door and be sick on his arm and then take a couple of steps and be sick on the floor and finally sick outside the toilet. He was still smiling though! He’s had a few more trips since and used both the Western and Indian (hole in the ground) style toilets depending on what the need was.

I tucked into a lovely breakfast of spicy omelette and bread this morning and as soon as Jono smelt it off he went running, I did feel a bit guilty but one of us has got to keep our strength up.;)