Mangalore Mystery
160 miles south of Goa we now come to Mangalore. As I mentioned in an earlier post Mangalore was not on the original itinerary. It was slotted in to replace our intended visit to Sri Lanka. The crew made it very clear to us that Mangalore is not as well set up for tourists as the other ports, but in one sense that made it much more attractive as a venue, this was real India in all its loveliness and all its ugliness.
We sat on the balcony and watched the ship as it came into Mangalore harbour at 6.00 a.m. (1.30 a.m. UK time) and Mangalore is clearly an industrial port, but like many Indian places it has cows walking among the cranes. I particularly enjoyed the warning signs on the dock buildings, some aphorisms were very entertaining - 'Containers falls; God calls' and 'shortcut through here is a shortcut to heaven'.
We had an early breakfast (6.45 a.m.) before going on the tour. And met in the Cabaret Lounge to be directed to the right group for our tour. We got onto buses which were not air-conditioned (apparently there are no air-conditioned buses in Mangalore or the rest of Karnataka. The tour guide was a University student, again Mangalore does not have tourist guides as it is not often a stop on the Tourist route, she was studying Computer Science, her English pronunciation was closer to received pronunciation than mine.
We got on the bus and drove into the mountains. Comparing Mangalore to Goa and Mumbai, it was far less lush and green than Goa, with a lot more dust and dirt, but it did not have the same poverty as the slum areas of Mumbai. Indeed some of the homes and shops looked really good as I hope we reflected in the pictures.
We next went to a Cashew factory and had a wonderful time seeing the manual processes involved from the cashews arriving to the final wrapping. I'd eaten cashews all my life, but had no idea of the low tech nature of the operation and the amount of labour involved, but as our guide said, labour in India is cheap. The ladies working in the factory receive $2 (around 1 pound 20p) a week in wages. We received bags of cashews as we left the factory, and they really are fresh and tasty.
We next went to the Gokarnatha Temple in Mangalore town. The temple is dedicated to Shiva the senior of the Indian gods. Though within the temple there are also shrines to Ganesh, Krishna, Annapurna and Hanuman. What a spectacular and spiritual place. The devotion of the local people is hard to explain, they are reverent and prayerful as they move from shrine to shrine and receive blessed water and puja.
After the temple we went for a coffee/fruit juice and a comfort break at a nearby Hotel (It was one of the Taj group hotels). Wow was it nice to get into an air-conditioned place. The temperature had been in the high 80's all day, and the only cool was through open windows when the bus moved.
We next went to the large Jesuit institute in Mangalore - St Aloysius' College. The College chapel is 126 years old and is decorated by some wonderful mosaics. Our pictures do not represent how good they are. Better to look at the chapel website which shows them in all their glory.
Then it was back to the dock and thirty minutes after we boarded the ship set sail. (1.00 p.m. Indian time 8.30 a.m. BST) with us viewing this from our balcony. It is now 1428 miles, four days travel, to our next destination of Phuket
I mentioned in my post last Sunday, that I didn't know how I would get to Mass today, and unfortunately it was not possible. However the Captain lead a Interdenominational Sunday Service (which was essentially an Anglican service of the word) in which we had 6 hymns, so while it may not fit the letter of the obligation rule, means I at least made every effort I could to worship on the Lord's day. Sarah, the pianist is a catholic girl from Swansea! (What a small world). Though she didn't know the tune for the first hymn, O worship the King, so we sung it unaccompanied. After 45 minutes of prayer I met with some of the other Welsh people on board who were also at the service. Leighton and Lillian who we met on the flight over, and Ron and Joyce who we met at Mumbai airport. Drew having spent an hour in the gym spent the rest of the afternoon on the balcony watching the sea. Which was a little rough at times. After the service I went back down and spent some time reading my novel.
Peter and Jean, two of the people who share a table with us, and are also in an Owner's Suite (theirs being at the back of the ship) were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. They invited us to join them in their cabin for pre-dinner drinks. So the rest of the day, up to 12.30 a.m. (8.00 p.m. BST), is in the Food and Drink section of the blog!
Food and Drink
For breakfast I had grapefruit juice, orange segments and Salmon and Cream Cheese on blinis. Drew went for orange juice a grapefruit and All Bran. As we were heading out so early we didn't have time for anything cooked.
This evening we went to Peter and Jean's cabin and shared Champagne and Canapes with them. We received some free canapes in our cabin earlier, but as they were all sweet ones I left those to Drew. At Dinner I had a wonderful Smoked Duck with wild greens and a cassis vinaigrette which set the dish off. Drew had a crab quiche which was dressed in a Jalapeno sauce. We then had the next course, capon broth with tortelli for me and a salad of grilled vegetables for Drew. Our mai course was again spectacular, I had Roast Cornish Hen Forestiere (what I would call a poussin and Drew would call a 'little baby chicken') served in a pan gravy with mixed mushrooms and a jacket potato (actually the menu had rice on it, but they are really accommodating and I wanted a spud to mop up the fantastic gravy. Drew went for Fafelle alla Rustica, which is a pasta dish with veal, morels and green peas in a creamy sauce. For dessert I had cheese and Drew decided to have two dessert courses a strawberry flan and some cheese. We shared three bottles of Pouilly Fuisse with Peter and Jean during the meal and then they went on to the disco, but we stayed in the Casino bar listening to the pianist where I had a brandy and drew a beer, followed by a Port for Drew and a Absolut Martini for me (just the basic Vodka and Dry Vermouth). Then it was off to bed.
We sat on the balcony and watched the ship as it came into Mangalore harbour at 6.00 a.m. (1.30 a.m. UK time) and Mangalore is clearly an industrial port, but like many Indian places it has cows walking among the cranes. I particularly enjoyed the warning signs on the dock buildings, some aphorisms were very entertaining - 'Containers falls; God calls' and 'shortcut through here is a shortcut to heaven'.
We had an early breakfast (6.45 a.m.) before going on the tour. And met in the Cabaret Lounge to be directed to the right group for our tour. We got onto buses which were not air-conditioned (apparently there are no air-conditioned buses in Mangalore or the rest of Karnataka. The tour guide was a University student, again Mangalore does not have tourist guides as it is not often a stop on the Tourist route, she was studying Computer Science, her English pronunciation was closer to received pronunciation than mine.
We got on the bus and drove into the mountains. Comparing Mangalore to Goa and Mumbai, it was far less lush and green than Goa, with a lot more dust and dirt, but it did not have the same poverty as the slum areas of Mumbai. Indeed some of the homes and shops looked really good as I hope we reflected in the pictures.
We next went to a Cashew factory and had a wonderful time seeing the manual processes involved from the cashews arriving to the final wrapping. I'd eaten cashews all my life, but had no idea of the low tech nature of the operation and the amount of labour involved, but as our guide said, labour in India is cheap. The ladies working in the factory receive $2 (around 1 pound 20p) a week in wages. We received bags of cashews as we left the factory, and they really are fresh and tasty.
We next went to the Gokarnatha Temple in Mangalore town. The temple is dedicated to Shiva the senior of the Indian gods. Though within the temple there are also shrines to Ganesh, Krishna, Annapurna and Hanuman. What a spectacular and spiritual place. The devotion of the local people is hard to explain, they are reverent and prayerful as they move from shrine to shrine and receive blessed water and puja.
After the temple we went for a coffee/fruit juice and a comfort break at a nearby Hotel (It was one of the Taj group hotels). Wow was it nice to get into an air-conditioned place. The temperature had been in the high 80's all day, and the only cool was through open windows when the bus moved.
We next went to the large Jesuit institute in Mangalore - St Aloysius' College. The College chapel is 126 years old and is decorated by some wonderful mosaics. Our pictures do not represent how good they are. Better to look at the chapel website which shows them in all their glory.
Then it was back to the dock and thirty minutes after we boarded the ship set sail. (1.00 p.m. Indian time 8.30 a.m. BST) with us viewing this from our balcony. It is now 1428 miles, four days travel, to our next destination of Phuket
I mentioned in my post last Sunday, that I didn't know how I would get to Mass today, and unfortunately it was not possible. However the Captain lead a Interdenominational Sunday Service (which was essentially an Anglican service of the word) in which we had 6 hymns, so while it may not fit the letter of the obligation rule, means I at least made every effort I could to worship on the Lord's day. Sarah, the pianist is a catholic girl from Swansea! (What a small world). Though she didn't know the tune for the first hymn, O worship the King, so we sung it unaccompanied. After 45 minutes of prayer I met with some of the other Welsh people on board who were also at the service. Leighton and Lillian who we met on the flight over, and Ron and Joyce who we met at Mumbai airport. Drew having spent an hour in the gym spent the rest of the afternoon on the balcony watching the sea. Which was a little rough at times. After the service I went back down and spent some time reading my novel.
Peter and Jean, two of the people who share a table with us, and are also in an Owner's Suite (theirs being at the back of the ship) were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. They invited us to join them in their cabin for pre-dinner drinks. So the rest of the day, up to 12.30 a.m. (8.00 p.m. BST), is in the Food and Drink section of the blog!
Food and Drink
For breakfast I had grapefruit juice, orange segments and Salmon and Cream Cheese on blinis. Drew went for orange juice a grapefruit and All Bran. As we were heading out so early we didn't have time for anything cooked.
This evening we went to Peter and Jean's cabin and shared Champagne and Canapes with them. We received some free canapes in our cabin earlier, but as they were all sweet ones I left those to Drew. At Dinner I had a wonderful Smoked Duck with wild greens and a cassis vinaigrette which set the dish off. Drew had a crab quiche which was dressed in a Jalapeno sauce. We then had the next course, capon broth with tortelli for me and a salad of grilled vegetables for Drew. Our mai course was again spectacular, I had Roast Cornish Hen Forestiere (what I would call a poussin and Drew would call a 'little baby chicken') served in a pan gravy with mixed mushrooms and a jacket potato (actually the menu had rice on it, but they are really accommodating and I wanted a spud to mop up the fantastic gravy. Drew went for Fafelle alla Rustica, which is a pasta dish with veal, morels and green peas in a creamy sauce. For dessert I had cheese and Drew decided to have two dessert courses a strawberry flan and some cheese. We shared three bottles of Pouilly Fuisse with Peter and Jean during the meal and then they went on to the disco, but we stayed in the Casino bar listening to the pianist where I had a brandy and drew a beer, followed by a Port for Drew and a Absolut Martini for me (just the basic Vodka and Dry Vermouth). Then it was off to bed.
posted by Anonymous @ 8:18 am
1 Comments:
At Wednesday, September 06, 2006 1:23:00 am,
Anonymous said…
Hi Janet,
Glad the blog is taking up time. It takes some time to write too, but it is a great way to provide reminders for myself, while also sharing them with others.
As regards the Cashews, can you bring food into the UK? I know it used to be banned, but that might have been just when foot and mouth were endemic. Let's just say I'll try.
I haven't had chance to chat more with Sarah, I'm not prone to go to the shows in the evening. She is one of the entertainers at those. Hopefully I'll see her next Sunday and see if she is related to someone we know.
As regards Martin's questions:
1 - This is not much fruit for people who drink a litre of Tropicana every morning :-) I know this may be to much information, but Drew's bowels have been even more regular than he is at home!
2 - Love the idea of the wild greens, in this case I think they were using it to refer to things that would normally be called weeds, as opposed to the normal cultivated crops used in food. They were lovely all the same
3 - Yes it went down very well. You know we both like and use Chilli a lot, so Drew says it was nice to have that bite to the food. The pieces of crap also looked (note I wasn't allowed to taste!) large and juicy.
Update on the sea day, in a couple of hours after I've had breakfast.
Thanks for the Cricket update.
NB - As we have left India and next stop is Thailand we are now on Thai time, so we are 6 hours, rather than 4.5 hours ahead of the UK. Hence this pre-breakfast comment is at 1.00 a.m. your time.
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