As I typed the title of this post, I do know that it sounds slightly off … and no this post is not about packing men into your bags (Ladies or gentlemen) …

The most popular question I’ve gotten from friends and strangers alike for Carnival is “What to wear?”

I’m only going to answer this from the male perspective, since the female perspective of this question could span volumes and frankly I don’t have time to waste. As a man, I’ve learned that not packing the appropriate gear and amenities for Carnival will leave you miserable and inconvenienced … and more importantly, you will have to waste time wading through the abyss of Trinidadian traffic conditions and malls!

For a 5-7 day Carnival trip to Trinidad, every man should pack the following 7 items.

1. Sunscreen (One with high SPF and a spray on version)
   Sunscreen is the single most importation preparation for Carnival days, especially forfairer skinned people who aren’t accustomed to spending long periods in the sun.The sun can beat down on your skin and leave you red as a lobster. It’s amazing how many men will not pack sunscreen (including myself … I’ve learned many a lesson from bad sunburn and heat rashes). Make sure that your spray on sunscreen is tearless … nothing is worse than a burning sensation in your eyes from too much sunscreen.
   Here is an example of not applying sunscreen to your head and wearing your carnival costume.
   
2. Aloe Vera gel
   You will get sunburnt chipping in the daylight. The Aloe Vera will help heal and cool your skin.
3. One bottle of your very best cologne (Just One bottle!)
   Women in Trinidad like their men or all men “smellin’ sweet”. If you hope to pick up, wear some great cologne. Good cologne is expensive in Trinidad and women can smell the difference.
4. Two of your best disposable razors
   Don’t attempt shopping for disposable razors in Trinidad. They’re expensive and there is no selection. Take along your own shaving cream and not that Gillette gel crap.
5. Camelbak
   Seriously. Although your costume and band will come with all included drinks, nothing says friendly more than single malt scotch from your own personal stock. I’ve always wanted to play mas with a Camelbak … also you could always have cold water in it and not have to brave the lines at your truck. Here is the version I’m getting … It’s also phenomenal for a cooler fete!
6. Compact toiletry kit with a dependable Swiss Army Knife
• You should have some band aids for the road. Always great for helping out the females.
• Your Swiss Army knife can help any fashion emergency, open bottles and cut most things or people. (Nuff said there)
• Wet Wipes. Seriously! You’re going to have to use a toilet and it will probably be one of the mobile toilet stalls. You don’t want to be sitting on that .. with your bare skin. Take a pack and you will thank me forever.
7. Unlocked Cellphone
   You will need a cellphone with a local SIM Card. You can get these in the airport. Phone rates are cheap and will save you tons on roaming. Additionally, no local person will call your foreign number.
8. Great Shoes
   Do NOT cheap out on your shoes. You will be doing a lot of walking and chipping (Trini Speak for half dancing and half walking … it’s the standard, shuffling dance step of Carnival.) Get great shoes that fit right and won’t cause blisters. Blisters are the bane of every Carnival feter. Nothing is worse and bothersome than a blister on Carnival Tuesday. NOTHING!!! If you can match your shoes to your costume, even better.
9. Condoms
   Be safe, don’t come home with any souvenirs from Trinidad unless it’s KFC or a bottle of pepper sauce. Also you will never find the brand you like in Trinidad or more importantly, when you need them.

Bonus Item:

1. Sewing Kit
   There should always be one person in the crew, that has some extra stuff like this. Some bands, like Tribe, have personnel on site when you pick up your costume, who will make alterations free of charge. Not all Carnival bands offer this service; it’s advisable therefore, to travel with a small sewing kit, fabric glue, extra Velcro, safety pins and pair of extra shoelaces to make your own adjustments, if required.

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Post tags: Male fete wardrobe, male packing list, What should a guy pack for Trinidad Carnival?, what to pack for trinidad carnival, what to wear for Trinidad Carnival, who should guys pack for Carnival

I’ve compiled a couple years of photos on Soca in Moka below. I assume that you’re here because you’re looking for tickets for the fete. I’m not here to tell you the fete is overpriced and that it has been overrated for years, because if you’re looking for tickets, then you don’t care about the price of these all inclusives. I could rant about the old times, where the food was just as good but the price was not 15% of average Trini’s monthly paycheck. (And even that percentage is according to 2012 OECD stats, so you know the average person isn’t even making that much in Trinidad)

Here are two pictures from Moka Sunday fete in 2005

Here are two pictures from Moka Sunday fete in 2006

Here are two pictures from Moka Sunday fete in 2008

I wont even bother posting pictures from 2009 or 2010 … the pictures were exactly the same. So how about this?

I don’t have tickets to Moka, but I will have a picture of a ticket to show you and the price. Is that ok? If not, see previous rant about Soca in Moka 2008 or  Soca in Moka 2006

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Post tags: pictures, Soca in Moka 2005, Soca in Moka 2006, Soca in Moka 2007, Soca in Moka 2008, Soca in Moka 2009, Soca in Moka 2010, Soca in Moka 2011, Soca in Moka 2012, Tickets

In Trinidad, we have a cliche… “Trinis like salt … cause they in eeeeeverything!” …

Sometimes I wonder what the hell I’m doing in some places myself. I’ve lived in Montreal for a couple years and I survived the great Montreal Icestorm (which really wasn’t that great … but losing electricity across the city makes you understand how pathetic and soft, normal humans are to the elements) … I thought it was pretty cool that it looked like Mr. Freeze walked through Verdun and hit us with his freeze ray.

So here in Calgary it’s cold … although not as cold as in Edmonton (where I heard it was -47C with the Wind Chill)

To give you an idea of how cold -47C is … you can do cool things like this …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGjwe-BCfms

This being said … what is not cool,

• Walking three blocks from your hotel to work and experience shooting, radiating pains in your fingers in 20 seconds of exposure
• Feeling your face freezing in mid breath
• Deliberately jaywalking and facing oncoming traffic because walking to the corner of the street is 20  feet too far to experience
• … oh yes, not being able to breathe – that is definitely not cool.

By the way, when I mention the walk from the hotel … this is what I mean, in terms of distance … according to Google … it’s basically 400m from door to door

So this leads to boredom and basically being stuck in front the computer … so lo and behold … searching my name leads me to find that today … I’m still the #6 Rishi out of 17.2 million search results on Google. I think this is pretty funky, when “Rishi” is like the “John” of Indian names. Although searching “The best Rishi in the world” … gets me nothing in top 500 … so I think I need to fix that.

By the way, this post has nothing to do with travel, food or anything useful except as a stream of unconsciousness … and to pat myself on the back!

© rishiray for Rishi Sankar: Ah Trini Travelogue / Ah Trini Traveller, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: best rishi in world, most widely known rishi, rishi, trini, trinidad

I started watching a movie this weekend …  this insipid Woody Allen movie called “Midnight in Paris” … it was so fucking stupid … I couldn’t even get through the first 20 minutes before getting annoyed … and the reviews talk about the charm and other nonsense … but the awesome part was the character Micheal Sheen played (this douche bag know it all professor) …check out the trailer from 0:23

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsaOnfoduKM

I hate these type of people with a passion and I always swore I would never become THAT guy. Think about the following scenarios with that guy ..

• You just had the best Gelato in Toronto and you tell him and he replies “Welllllllll … the best Gelato I had was just outside Santa Maria Maggoire , from a tiny little truck with 6231 flavours” … and you think …”Italy can go fuck itself with Gelato”
• You just had some awesome all you can eat sushi somewhere in Canada … and you claim that it’s awesome and you tell him and he replies “It’s alright, but the itamae-san who prepared my sashimi at 6:45am in Tsukiji Market was awesome“… and you think “Your eeta-mami-san can go fuck himself and the fish he was slicing … matter of fact … he should slit your throat open and stuff sashimi down it”
• You had some good Pad Thai … and you tell that guy … and his response was something like … “Pfft, if you think that was even Pad Thai, then you might as well have eaten shit and died … OK … hopefully you won’t die!”

Well folks, I’ve accepted that … THAT GUY is me, and I will join the legions of travellers who are recovering from utter and inane douchebaggery …

However in my defense, here was the thought process that went into the douchebaggery – I’ve invested time, money and energy into food exploration while on my travels. Through my travels, I’ve acquired an educated palate to the extent that when a Chef and Manager at Passage to Asia in Chaguanas, Trinidad tries to explain that the Tom Yum soup tastes a certain way because that’s the way they make it in Thailand – it will incur wrath and destruction and scorn … here is a snippet of the conversation

• <Rishi> This Tom Yum soup tastes nothing like Tom Yum soup
• <Manager> Well this is how we make it here
• <Rishi> That’s fine, but it doesn’t taste like what it should taste like … just offering feedback here. Where is the Galangal or Lemongrass?
• <Manager> Well this is how they make it in Thailand
• <Rishi> Ummm … unless you’ve been to Thailand more times than me, then you can’t make that claim. In Thailand, this is how they make the soup … (recites ingredients) … If you’re going to piss on my head … at least don’t call it rain!!
• <Manager> Well people here don’t know the difference …

This is what I mean … some people simply beg for douche baggery … absolutely beg for it. (Personal note : Any place that has a menu where they serve 4 different regions of cuisine, cannot be authentic … it can be tasty, but it cannot be authentic)

In the beginning, it was quite easy and simple, before douche progress

• Man like to travel
• Man has to eat while travelling
• Man eats lots of things, simply because you cannot find a roti or callaloo in Cambodia
• Man eats shitloads of other things, because he had to find out why people like Kangaroo in Switzerland
• Man gets call from ocean informing him they’ve run out of tuna.
• Man don’t care and becomes douche.

I feel like people and places are just out to fuck with me and my tastebuds … as though I am some type of idiot who likes paying and wasting money for utter dogshit food … and then having no name, no brain idiots on YELP affirm their utter ass fucking of food. If I had tons of money, to fly in my own chef or fly out to Buenos Aires for a phenomenal steak, then I would do so, but I can’t. So because I can’t fly out somewhere, does that consign me to silence about the ass raping of my favorite foods?

In my defense also, over time … I have become less of an ass about shitty food, unless you’re in Passage to Asia or almost anywhere in Trinidad, that will tell me, that the NON TRINI food they’re serving me is the same that they serve in the country of origin. Has anyone has a Shish Taouk or Gyros in Trinidad?

I have and it tastes like BBQ dogmeat laced with Angel Tears and Sadness sprinkled with FAIL salt.

So the next time, you meet a traveller who knows about food and they are an ass to you … regarding food … remember that they’re not trying deliberately to be douchy epic know it alls like Martin Sheen – they’re just sad, that they have eaten Revelations from the Book of Pepper Sauce, verse 3:99.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605783/

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There … I said it!

It’s not some huge achievement … it’s really just a goal. So I’m aiming to hit my 100th country before 40 (6 years from now), which shouldn’t be a difficult goal, but then the most difficult commodity to find in your 30′s is actually time!

All the social pressures are multiplied and the gloves come off in terms of social pressures to conform …

• Gotta get married
• Got to have kids before the woman’s eggs are dried up and we end up with special children
• Got to find money to pay for the ring and wedding
• Have to start planning for retirement … since the advertising from the banks ensure that you feel like crap now and that you’ll be fearful in 30 -40 years that you’ll be broke and living like a hobo

So try and balance those pressures, along with a goal that is mutually exclusive to those things. Don’t you think it’s a bit difficult? So what happens? I’ll tell … somewhere along the line, you either find a super happy compromise or you give up something.

Travelling along at a good pace … you don’t realize how many places there are to visit, except that there are a couple fantastic websites with a true inventory of places to visit. When you get to those websites, you’re really put in your place as a traveller. I’m not here to debate what is travelling or the style of travelling … whether going to countries for a couple days or even a long weekend constitutes a travelling experience or whether I should take a year off for the “Round the world” trip that is becoming so popular with people my age.

I’m going to leave all the qualitative arguments, about what is meant by the word “visit”. Some travellers claim you must spend a night in a place; some argue it is enough to visit a lavatory there; some will say you have to sleep on a park bench or do it for less than $2 USD to make it real … I don’t really care about the qualitative aspects, I’m going to get to more

When I first started travelling, I based my “Top 100 bucket list” on the Hillman Wonders list, then as I got to more and more of that list, I also realized that there tons of places that weren’t on the list and that I wanted to visit. So while doing a search for other well travelled Trinis, I stumbled upon a newspaper article on Charles Veley (who is the world’s most travelled man) … obviously this dude had the fortune of being a millionaire in his 30′s, so he had time to craft and formulate a plan to achieve his goal of being the most travelled person in the world – which is no mean accomplishment!! He even developed a website and created a master catalogue of places … again, the luxury of having money to play with :D

Did you know that there is a phrase to describe uncontrollable wanderlust : Dromomania. It is the addiction to new experiences, the vagabond neurosis. I’m pretty sure that I don’t have that particular mania … since I do like being in my house and I don’t really think I’m an experience junkie … this weekend, I had tons of fun just lying in bed watching movies on TV. Never underestimate the awesomeness of simple pleasures.

Anyway … back to the list … so now having wasted time cataloging and stalking the list to come up with a total of 208 for myself, puts me on the Gold list, I found that Garron Hansen was the #1 Trini with 137 places … so I had to investigate, then in true Trini macco forms … I “googled” him to figure out, he wasn’t even a Trini … well me thinks so … I will add him on facebook and macco then

Anyway, it’s about 24 days before I head out to Trinidad for Carnival 2012 … hopefully there will be more feedback on my Trini World Beating Quest!

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Post tags: i want to travel the world, most countries for a trini, most countries for a trinidadian, most travelled people in the world, the most travelled people, the most travelled Trini, the most travelled trinidadian, which trini has seen the most countries

Going anywhere off the beaten trail in Trinidad can be a risky proposition. Hiking through the forest is definitely one of those recreations in the riskier categories, especially when you read of the holdups, group robberies while on the hiking trail, or hearing of trapguns shot at people who venture off the marked trails because the lost hiker stumbled into a marijuana field.

That being said, for those who are willing to hike through Trinidad, there are a number of different trails that lead to waterfalls and gorgeous vistas throughout Trinidad. Today’s hiking experience was done through Caribbean Hiking Adventures. This was my first time hiking with this company vs hiking with Island Hikers. I would highly recommend doing a group hiking expedition, if you going to do any hiking in Trinidad.

I struggled in writing this post, since I didn’t know whether to blog about the hike itself or the company – so instead I’ll describe the experience. In Trinidad, the phrase used to describe any inefficiency, laziness or lack of sophistication is

“Wat yuh expect, iz Trinidad nah”

This is the same phrase I will use to describe my perception of the organization of the hike. According to the email sent from them, we were all told to meet just off the highway in Arima for a 7am sign up (see screenshot below). Note that on their website, you can register online and pay online also.

Of course, in true Trinidadian/West Indian style, they were nowhere to be found at 7am, in fact we had to call a couple times to find out if the hike was still on, due to inclement weather. Eventually, the organizers showed up at 7:35am at the roundabout. This was annoying, since to be on time, I woke up at 5:30am … yes, this is a foreign concept that’s been bashed into my Trinidadian brain. So how do you think, this lack of communication worked out for the sign up process …

The whole sign up fiasco was more annoying, since we got there on time but didn’t leave till 8:30am to start driving to Aripo.

Suggestions for improvement

1. Multiple meetup spots – one at Arima and one at the final location in Aripo. (Late comers can come directly to the final location) – this can be applied to any hike where the initial meetup spot is not the location of the hike
2. Online registration for all. By pushing this, they don’t punish the people who follow the rules. If they can get email, they can surely reply via email or form
3. Proper expectation management – this is not the first time you’re doing a hike … set the proper expectation via the website about times and distance.
4. Map handouts for hikers

Once we all got to the final jumpoff point, it was yet another series of confused communications, resulting in … guess what??

Finally by 9:30am, we finally started hiking.

As for the hiking itself … as I grow older, I’m seeing a lot more of Trinidad than I ever saw growing up there. The ironic thing is that if I had done all of this while growing up, there would have been little elements of risk, that there are now … ah well c’est la vie.

It’s definitely an easy, family friendly hike in the sun, however as it rained the night before, the trail was slushy and those without proper hiking footware found the going rough. Better communication would have solved this frustration – had the organizers explained on the website that there would be some walking through pools and river water.

Even with a simple hike plan … there are many levels to the river and multiple shallow ponds as you hike higher and higher

Finally, on ending the hike, there was no proper checkdown of the people that came down from the hike. They assumed that as long as all the cars left, then there was no one lost and the organizers left before all the hikers left.

Overall : Great hiking expedition, but lack of organizational skills, communication and direction … makes it one of those “your mileage may vary” experiences.

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Post tags: aripo village, aripo village hiking, aripo waterfalls, Aripo Youth, Aripo Youth Development Organization (AYDO), AYDO, Caribbean hiking adventures, caribbean hiking adventures review, hiking aripo, how to get to aripo village, pictures

In this being a forum for my travel writing and musings, I’ve typically avoided opinions on race/religion in Trinidad & Tobago – since there is really no simple cure for what ails Trinidad. You cannot fix in a couple months, what it took more than 40 years to build.

Thanks to Eric Williams, I’ve come to know the true long term effects of “Gerrymandering”. This is one of my two favorite words … the other being “Schadenfreude“. The case of the latter word … a significant percentage of BOTH racial demographics in Trinidad revel in the misery of the “others” here . This “significant percentage” would be the welfare class created by Mr Williams’ policies and perpetuated by multiple governments later down the line.

In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander; however, that word can also refer to the process.

Gerrymandering may be used to achieve desired electoral results for a particular party, or may be used to help or hinder a particular demographic, such as a political, racial, linguistic, religious or class group.

Further to those simple definitions … does the further extension seem any less familiar to anyone in Trinidad?

The two aims of gerrymandering are

1. Maximize the effect of supporters’ votes
2. Minimize the effect of opponents’ votes.

This is done using a combination of methods, but the two main strategies are packing and cracking.

1. The idea of  packing, is to concentrate as many voters of one type into a single electoral district to reduce their influence in other districts. In some cases this may be done to obtain representation for a community of common interest, rather than to dilute that interest over several districts to a point of ineffectiveness. For anyone who lives in Trinidad – I don’t need to paint any pictures of the apparent reality of this. Consistent efforts many, many years ago were made to bring in people from other “smaller” islands to ensure that the voting would continue in a certain trend for 30+ years.

2. A second strategy, cracking, involves spreading out voters of a particular type among many districts in order to deny them a sufficiently large voting bloc in any particular district. The strategies are typically combined, creating a few “forfeit” seats for packed voters of one type in order to secure even greater representation for voters of another type. Again, something that has been experienced in Trinidad for more than a generation.

The following map illustrates the brilliance and futility of our system. It is to scale in terms of geographic area, but it is definitely not representative of the population distribution nor projected population growth patterns in Trinidad. Note that in spite of a crushing loss – the losing party still managed to capture 29.25% of the electoral seats, yet these proportion of seats doesn’t represent 29.25% of the popular vote.

You can find more electoral maps by clicking the picture at Adam Carr's electoral archive site ...

Taking a look at the overall stats, without any further breakdown … it works out that only with a population completely fed up with the status quo … that a change happened yet the stats show how tenuous that hold is …

• 29.25% of the electoral seats took almost 40% of the total vote – hence a 1.36 : 1 ratio of % population to electoral seats for the losing party
• 70% of the electoral seats took almost 60% of the total vote- hence a .87 : 1 ratio for the winning party.

NATIONAL SUMMARY OF VOTES AND SEATS
===================================================================
Votes and seats are compared with those won at the November 2007
election.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Enrolled voters:                 1,040,127
Votes cast:                        722,322  69.4
Invalid votes:                       2,595  03.6
Valid votes:                       719,727  96.4
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Party                            Votes      %     Change   Seats
-------------------------------------------------------------------
People's National Movement         285,354  39.5  -06.4    12  -14
People's Partnership Coalition     432,026  59.8  +07.5    29  +14
Others                               2,437  00.3            -
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                              719,727                 41
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, this is not meant to be any type of significant academic analysis on politics in Trinidad – there are tons of books for that … but a simple high level snapshot of what ails Trinidad … and why a “State of Emergency” is only a short term measure – it will not control or solve the welfare class mentality that stifles innovation in business and creates a pseudo-prison state, where people fear for their lives when the darkness drops.

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Post tags: gerrymandering, gerrymandering in trinidad, trinidad

One of the more famous religious sites in Trinidad is the 85-foot-high Hanuman murthi — the largest outside India it’s claimed, and the architectural designs of the pinkish/saffron (Kesari) colored Dattatreya Mandir at Orange Field Road, Carapichaima.

Now in Trinidad, you would assume that if there is a sign off the highway at the Carlsen Field flyover, you would expect that there would be tons of signage directing you over to the temple. However, because this is Trinidad, there is actually no easy way to find the temple. Once you get off the Old Southern Main Rd, it is fairly easy to ask anyone walking along the side of the road for directions to the temple. It’s definitely worth the drive in.

The structure was built according to the Dravidian style of architecture of South India.

Two gray concrete elephants provide water for devotees to wash their feet before entering the main mandir at the northern side.

The inside of the dome has seven stages of graded architecture, with numerous figures of musicians playing the various types of musical instruments in seven different colors. This is symbolic of inviting a guest into the main hall of the big mandir.

The color schemes are the same as in India, Swamiji said. The same architectural style is evident inside the mandir dedicated to Lord Dattatreya. Inside the main mandir there are several smaller ones dedicated especially to Lord Dattatreya, Lord Siva and to the Mother Goddess.

Personally, I found the close ups of the effigies to be a little creepy. The wide eyes make me a little unsettled, but it is difficult not to admire the effort and work.

Now for all the lovely murals and work, it does cost money to upkeep the temple, so donations are gladly accepted.

The sculptures and murals are lovely to look at.

After going through the exterior of the temple, then it’s off to look at the 85 ft Hanuman

The murti of Lord Hanuman is one of the tallest statues in the Caribbean.

How to get to the temple from Port of Spain:

• Proceed south on the highway. Continue in a southerly direction passing the Chaguanas Flyover then past the Chase Village Flyover until you’re at the Freeport flyover. (Note a “flyover”, is Trini for overpass)
• Turn off the highway on the left and take a right turn which will take you below the highway. Continue driving until you reach an intersection with traffic lights. You proceed straight across the intersection.
• Drive for about 5 minutes until you reach a field on the left after a school.
• From here you can make a right to see the Yoga Center/Hanuman Murti or turn left and drive until the road ends at the “Temple in the Sea”.

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Post tags: carapichaima, carapichaima temple, Dattatreya Temple, Dattatreya Temple celebrates five years, dattatreya yoga centre trinidad, hanuman temples, hindu temples in Trinidad, How to get to Carapichaima to see the Hanuman statue and Temple by the Sea?, Religous Sites in Trinidad, trinidad, trinidad temples, Trinidad's Dattatreya Yoga Center

KFC and Wifi … you don’t need anything at Piarco

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It’s been about 20 years since I last went to the Pitch Lake in La Brea. One might ask why I haven’t been back to this geological phenomenon located right in my “backyard” in Trinidad in so long … well it’s simple really … it’s always been there and will always be there.

As for the facts

• The Pitch Lake is the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world, located at La Brea in southwest Trinidad.
• “Discovered” by Sir Walter Raleigh in the year 1595 … never mind the local people knew about it before time.
• Can be used to pave roads … except that the roads leading the Pitch Lake are amongst the worst in Trinidad.

There are various legends associated with the lake. Local tribed believed that it was the wrath of their Gods that was inflicted on them after killing a Hummingbird – to punish them, the Gods sank their village into the pits of hell and what bubbles up are their spirits and remains.

Getting to the Pitch Lake is easy trip from Chaguanas, but when hunger strikes, it calls for a sidetrip to Debe – the capital of all things fried – Indo-Trinidadian style.

First on the menu was Saheenas. Look at them .. so sad … being trapped in their oily prisons … we had to release them … in our bellies

Next on the hit list was the various other friends and family of the Saheena

• Aloo pies (Fried dough stuffed with seasoned potatoes, curried chick peas (Channa), mango pickles (Kutchela) and two types of mango chutneys)
• Baiganie (Fried dough stuffed with strips of whole eggplant, curried chick peas (Channa), mango pickles (Kutchela) and hot sauce – like an eggplant fritter)
• Multiple doubles … no explanation required

For those uninitiated in the Trini protocol of anything …

• Nothing – Plain, boring and the mark of the utter tourist
• Slight – a touch of pepper and sweet chutney – typical tourist order
• Regular – Typical Trini order – a little bit of all chutneys and pepper sauce
• Heavy/Plenty – Venturing into no man’s land, unless you the know “Doubles man” chutneys well and know that he doesn’t have a really hot pepper sauce.
• Kill It – The mark of the expert white rum drinker aka Alcoholic (no more taste buds), the mark of the “Iron Stomach and Rectum” or a “Doubles man” with the hottest hot pepper sauce possible. The “Doubles man” will give you a slight nod of recognition.

Then it was time for a sweet or two …

Starting from the top

• Above the glasscase (from the left)
  • Rice cake : Rice Krispy squares with Cinnamon
  • Jalebi :  It is made by deep-frying batter in a kind of pretzel or circular shape, then soaked in syrup. Sometimes rosewater or lime juice is also drizzled over it.
• First shelf of glasscase (from the left)
  • Chocolate Barfi : Carmelized condensed milk, with sugar, chocolate and nuts
  • Jam Cookies
  • Kurma : Muslim sweet that has now become ubiquitous all year around in Trinidad
  • Regular Barfi : Carmelized condensed milk, with sugar and sprinkles
• Bottom shelf of glasscase (from the left)
  • Coconut sugar cake: Carmelized condensed milk, with sugar, chocolate and nuts
  • Almond Fudge
  • Nut cake
  • Some unknown thing at time …

So after our early lunch, it was on the Pitch Lake. A tour of the Pitch Lake can be as long or short as you want it. Our tour guide Jonnie was an affable fellow with a big toothless smile … well his first two teeth were missing … we assumed that it was to pay the pimp of the lake. However, he took his time and showed us all around and took us on the paths safely.

So the first pass around is to see the machinery used to harvest the Pitch from the lake. The story is that the labourers would have to fill 24 of these trolleys in a given day for the work to be completed.

After the trolley was filled, it would hauled up to the refinery to be processed. Again was a semi-manual process with hitches having to be attached to each trolley.

The top layer of the lake looks like an old parking lot. However, unlike any regular parking lot, the surface yields very easily. On hot days, it can be quite unsafe to walk on certain areas and of course driving on the top is forbidden, as a car or even a cow would sink into it fairly quickly.

The top layer of the lake is known as the skin. It can be easily peeled off and is quite dry and flaky.

The tar is also over 350 feet deep at the center of the lake, which is shaped like an inverted cone. The Trinidad Geological Society has a nice amateur rending of what it looks like.

So continuing on, we went to the most famous part of the Pitch Lake. As well as regular tar, there are also lighter distillates visible on the surface of this waterhole, as well as the soft creamy colored substance at the bottom of the hole, which is known at the “Mother of the Lake”.

After walking around the rest of the lake, then it was time to wade through the sulfurous waters in and around the lake. The gas action and methane bubbling through the lake is always evident.

The waters themselves are quite clean and are supposed to be very good for the skin.

And of course, you can pick up a water lily or two.

And you can always grab a 6 pack of Carib, park your car and head back into the pools for a relaxing bath.

© rishiray for Rishi Sankar: Ah Trini Travelogue / Ah Trini Traveller, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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