Fruit Mixture in Pondicherry

Fruit mixture

Menu

I could read Tamil with considerable effort by the time I made it to Puducherry(Pondicherry) for the first time. A man was selling refreshing beverages in his shop near the bus station. The menu was painted on the wall. All I could read and decode with confidence was the second item, fruit mixture.

So I had a glass of that. It was good. Not sweetened beyond normal limit with added sugar or diluted with water to maximize profit. Recommended.

Nepali Beer

Beer comes in big 750ml bottles in Nepal and they cost only 200NRP (less than 2 Euros). There are several options too. Nepal Ice, Everest and Gorkha are the ones I liked. Nepal Ice being the lightest one. But these are the options for average tourists. For the more adventurous ones I recommend trying things brewed at home.

The culture of Nepal is quite accepting of drinking and almost every house in a village brew their own booze. The home made beer is called 'Chhang'. Depending on the village of origin, it tastes and smells between strange to horribly repulsive. In some parts you may also find home made spirit, called 'raxi' (also spelled 'ragsi' on hotel menu). Same applies to 'raxi' regarding smell and taste.

Nepali men usually lose control when they drink, so be careful. Most start talking really loud. Some would start singing or dancing - I liked the ones of that kind. Have mixed feelings about another kind I found who start speaking English after a few a shots and believe alcohol improves ones English language skills.

Jus Gelas Besar

The Chinese Malaysian girls are great; the ones from Kuala Lumpur made me immune to the charm of exposed female legs. Many of them wear ridiculously short shorts or mini skirts. Being born and brought up in the country of sari clad ladies, the exposed legs were a novelty to me. Having seen so many legs throughout the day, I became immune by sunset.

But on a serious note, they are really great. The first two Malaysians I met were U-Jean Ch'ng and Adeline Lee, both Chinese Malaysians. U-Jean taught me some words from Bahasa Malayu. Adeline donated 1.00RM in my quest to Malaysia after I had got the visa. She also helped me out by providing directions to several places around KL over phone or text. Grateful to these ladies, "Terima Kasih".

On my fist day in KL, the first sign that I managed to read and interpret all by myself said "Jus Gelas Besar 2.00RM". Means "Big Glass of Juice for 2.00RM". Just a few weeks back in Dhaka while walking across a slum with U-jean, she had said "Besar is big, kecil is small". I passed this knowledge to Euzawa. Whether he has passed this to someone else remains unknown.

I went to that place later to check how besar was their gelas. It was quite besar!