Dean & Ginny's excellent adventures...  Main Adventure Page

Grand Voyage--2012:  << Part 1 << Part 2 << Part 3 << Part 4 << Part 5 << Part 6 << Part 7 << Part 8
 << Part 9  << Part 10  << Part 11 << Part 12  << Part 13 << Part 14 << Part 15 << Part 16 << Part 17 << Part 18 Part 19
Part 20 >> Part 21 >> Part 22 >> Part 23 >> Part 24 >> Part 25 >>

Mangalore, our southernmost port in India, is on the western coast of the country. The pale sun barely peeks through the thick haze of pollution--no sunrise to speak of.  Some large wind generator blades on the dock might be a good sign that "things" might begin to change. Don't hold your breath.
The Geological Survey of India ship shares the port with us.

We got off the ship early and were greeted by an interesting assemblage of instruments--some modern, some not. >>

Mangalore is the center for much of the country's education and high-tech business. We did see the Infosys campus, and except for the ads posted on buildings and bus stops, there's not much external evidence of this business.

<< We followed this woman out through the gate out of the port. Never once did she bobble the bundle of sticks balanced on her head. 

Since the city is at least six miles away, we'd need a taxi for the day. Once out of the port Dean chose an older taxi driver who spoke pretty good English and made a good offer for a four hour tour, but he was merely bargaining for his bevy of drivers. Our driver, Hassan, didn't speak much English, but we accomplished what we wanted. We also shared the cab with our friend and fellow passenger Jane.

So we are off!


A bevy of school girls cross the road right outside the port gate.


St. Andrew's homes for the poor.


We passed a number of churches and church-run operations and Hassan wanted to stop at some of the bigger ones, but we told him that we had plenty of churches at home--we were interested in India's religions.


St. Joseph's church and manufacturing operations were next to each other.

 

So on to our first temple...

 

 

  

Venkatarama, a Hindu temple was our first stop. Shoes are not allowed inside.

 

 
A strange monkey god with his chest ripped open to reveal a man and a woman. It would have been interesting to see the Gangavathara Fountain in operation, but not today...

Then we went on to the Magaladevi Temple, marked prominently on our map, which is apparently much older. It's not much to look at in comparison to others, but still we could see other images and a lot of silver.


Outside in the back is a working kitchen area.

 

When we came out of this temple Hassan was talking to another taxi driver about how to get to the Jain Hindu temple--also prominently marked on our map.

Our taxi was a small-sized car, but there are other types of vehicular transport:

 

<< These white, higher end cabs are generally in better repair and somewhat more substantial. This is a good thing because the chaotic driving here can cause white knuckles for the passengers. 


These three-wheeled tuk-tuks seem to be much more numerous than the demand for them. We saw whole families lounging around in them. 

 
We encountered some slower than normal traffic after this gateway to a village or town.


Do you think there are too many sidewalk supervisors on this road construction project? The traffic cops have an impossible job, but they do have snappy uniforms.

 
Hassan asked us if we'd like to see a "country garden"--That sounded good to us. 
We missed the flower show and the rest of the garden was unimpressive, but we loved the signs.


 


Across the street from the garden a number of vendor booths are set up and are probably active only on the weekends. This one has a sugar cane press to dispense the sugary juice.

  Then we're off to visit the next temple... Our timing was unfortunate because two busloads of our fellow passengers had just unloaded here.

 


This young couple brought their child to the temple for some type of ceremony. When they go into these alcoves people pay the priests to apply some type of sacred paint on their foreheads.


On an upper level there are baths...


 


Before we left, it was time to make use of the rest rooms. This is the ladies room--no sitting and no running water.
Back to the streets...


These red-stone blocks are seen throughout the city--the workers on the left are actually shaping them with picks.

 Then to our fourth temple. This time Dean was befriended by a man who was really interested in making sure that Dean saw everything and knew the details and history. The central area, which you are to circle in a clockwise direction only, is relatively new and was built in only nine months and that every hand-carved flower is unique.  

He took Dean out the the back areas of the temple where there is a shrine to the cobra god and where they keep the holy cows. Jane and I followed along, but we were ignored. 

 

 
Dean was allowed to feed the cows some over-ripe bananas--we'd been wondering what happened to all those bananas that we'd seen in markets. There is one last temple on our tour, the Jain Hindu temple. The Jain sect takes great care to avoid harming any living thing and you are not allowed to wear leather into the temple.


Not much to this temple. No one was there and we were not allowed in. At this point we were near the central market, so that is our next stop. 


Ladies weaving flowers into necklaces and hair adornments and a vendor splashes water in front of his space in a vain attempt to reduce the dustiness.


The betel leaf is a mild narcotic. It was time to head back to the port--we'd used up our four hours that we'd agreed upon for the tour.

When we got back to the ship, showers, lunch and iced tea made us feel human again.  What a gritty, but interesting  place. 

~ ~ ~

  
The next day our stop is Marmagao, where the main attraction is old Goa about 10 miles inland, which still displays its Portuguese origins. We opted to stay close-by and walk around the small port town of Vasco de Gama.

 
The local market looks fairly orderly near the main street, but when we went down the back corridors, chaos reigned supreme. but, look at the size of those white radishes!


But people were quite friendly and wanted to know where we were from.


The man next to the bike is probably keeping track of some type of transactions with the vendors.

 
Even though it seemed chaotic to us, a garbage trunk is making its rounds. In the middle of the market area, a couple of old arches are slowly being covered with vegetation. 


Next we walked through a very poor neighborhood next to the beach. We asked the women if we could take a picture of the children. One grouped them for us.

 
There seems to be no running water or toilets in these hovels, but there were a couple of public toilets apparently to reduce raw sewage effluent on the beach. I went to use one and the women gathered around insisted that I use the one with the actual toilet. I have to say that squatting seemed preferable considering the state of cleanliness. As we walked by a men's bathing spot, I averted my eyes, but they were happy to pose when Dean asked to take their photo. 

 
We walked down a narrow alley between the living spaces to the beach. Dean asked this young woman, who was hanging the laundry, if he could take her photo. She quickly rearranged the blue sari around her neck; it had been tied around her waist. The beach was filled with fishing boats, crows, and stray dogs, which we expected.


Pigs, however, were a total surprise. The crows ate the bugs from the backs of pigs, but there was no shortage of garbage on the beach. 


A beach cleaning crew has a hopeless task, since people are apparently blind to the mess and the odor.

 
Fishing crews arrange their nets between two boats. 
We took this photo from the beach so you can see how close it is to the ship.


After dumping their nets onto tarps, men sort through the catch, put the fish in baskets, and then rinse them in foul-smelling seawater at the edge of the beach.

As we walked to the far end of the beach we found the answer to: How do they move those heavy wooden boats up so far onto the beach? An old-fashioned turnstile manned by four men and one guy running on the beach putting flattened logs (with rope handles on either end) under the boat to reduce friction.  

 

We walked up another narrow alleyway at the end of the beach. Here we found a Hindu crematorium. Not much happening here today, so the chickens roamed the marble floor inside.

 

As we walked away from the beach, the neighborhood improved dramatically in several ways: the quality of housing, vehicles in the driveways (There were actual driveways.) and cleanliness.


A Hindu temple with a sea-going motif--a mermaid with a pearl--is in this neighborhood.

 
Dean stopped to talk to a woman looking out her doorway; silently the fish lady, who had been carrying her load on her head, squatted behind him.  He was surprised when he turned around. Don't you just love that a cat has shown up for a handout no doubt.


We walked around this small park in the center of town. Most of the benches are occupied. 


Larger fishing boats create a colorful foreground next to our gritty dock area. This port's business is iron ore and coal. The conveyer belt is to load this type of cargo into bulk carriers. 


Once aboard the ship we took showers, had lunch and hydrated. We watched the stream of fishing boats parade by. Many of the fishermen waved to passengers on the ship. They don't get many cruise ships in this port, but that's okay with us.  We'd rather see the real people living their real lives. Our last stop in India is Mumbai...

Dean's Log: Days 80-81

Itinerary graphic    On to Mumbai... >>

Main Adventure Page

Top of page:

 

 

© Sky-Bolt Enterprises 2001-2012