Mangalore

Over the years we’ve had a few people tell us that we wouldn’t like India. The crushing poverty and wealth disparity are too depressing they’d say. With that in mind, we weren’t sure what we were going to do in Mangalore. We’d identified a couple of tentative plans, including possibly going to Panambur Beach, which is adjacent to the cruise port. Then we learned that Oceania would run a shuttle to the City Centre Mall, which would get us into the city proper. Liz did some research and we made a new plan. We’d use the mall as a starting point and walk to the Sharvu Mahaganapathy Temple, then to St Aloysius church and school, and to Mother Theresa Peace Park.

With that plan in mind, we waited to be called to exit the ship and go through Indian immigration. While we waited we checked out the harbor from our veranda. Numerous Brahminy Kites and Black Kites soared around and we spotted a family of Indian Peafowl. We also saw a cow wandering along the wharf, giving us a chance to explain to the boys the status of cattle in Indian culture. The call to disembark came just after 8:00, so we buzzed down to the gangway. The welcome was pretty extraordinary: there was a group of drummers drumming, the port entrance had been decorated with flowers, and we were showered with flower petals as we entered the terminal building. Immigration was easy enough and then it was on to the shuttle bus.

I had two main impressions of Mangalore as we drove to the city center. First, the city looked a lot like other cities we’d seen on our travels. It wouldn’t have looked out of place in Brazil, for example. Second, nearly all the signs were in English as well as a local language (I’m ignorant of Indian languages; I know many are spoken across the country but I have no idea which are which). I don’t know if this is a holdover from British rule or a handy common denominator that cuts across the multiple languages in use.

It was about a 25-minute ride to the mall. Once there we plugged the temple into Google maps and were on our way. The most challenging part of the walk was crossing the main street the mall was on. Two lanes each way, no crosswalks or signals to help. Luckily there was a small divider in the middle that gave us a place to perch halfway through. The rest of the walk was easy and took us maybe 15 minutes.

Once there we were immediately struck by the beauty of the temple itself. It was bright and colorful and being actively maintained by a handful of painters at work. The temple was structured as a central building surrounded by outbuilding forming a courtyard. We took our shoes off and entered the courtyard area where a number of people were attending and going through rituals. We got some looks as we were obviously not locals, but it was all very welcoming. One man approached us and pointed out a few things. His English was just OK, so it was hard to understand all he said, but the effort was everything. Entering a place of worship can be a bit intimidating. You want to be respectful, but you don’t know the rules, so you’re not sure what counts as respectful in every case. Having someone reach out like that made us feel much more comfortable. We walked around the outside and took it all in. We did not go into the interior building as that felt a bit too intrusive.

The temple was originally built in the 12th century. You could see how the surrounding area has been built up and redone over time, but the temple has kept its place through the centuries. It was a wonderful place. Leaving there, we headed to St Aloysius church. This was built up on a hill, known as Lighthouse Hill, so the walk involved a bit of a climb. The street leading up was rather narrow and didn’t have a sidewalk, but per Google Maps this was the way, so DJ and I headed up (DJ’s job was to manage the phone and be our navigator). Unbeknownst to us, a couple of locals were talking to Liz and Thomas behind us, offering to help the obviously befuddled foreigners. Liz shouted up at us to come back, but we were out of earshot. So they followed us up. We worked up a bit of a sweat but made it up and found the church. Walking in we were met by a young man named Jordan, who offered to give us a bit of background on the church. Turns out his family has been involved with it for six generations. He told us about the method used to paint the inside, which is all done in fresco – paint on wet plaster. It looks like marble, but is in fact all fresco. It was a stunning effect.

After a seeing the church, Jordan led us over to the small museum on site. He had kind of adopted us at that point and talked the museum attendant into letting us in for free. The museum was definitely a catch-all, with displays ranging from old stamps to antique cameras to animal bones.

After touring the museum we looked for the Mother Theresa Peace Park. Turns out this was really just part of the church and school grounds. But a nice shady area. We then walked back to the mall for a cold drink. Diet sodas don’t seem to be much of a thing in India, so it was a challenge to find something, but we persevered and found some Diet Coke. Then we treated the boys to some ice cream at a little stand called Turkishow. The vendor goes through an elaborate presentation when making the ice cream cone, which was pretty funny. Less funny was trying to pay: the stand did not take credit cards, and the QR code present was not working for our phones. I wound up scurrying to an ATM to get some rupees to pay for the ice cream.

After ice cream it was back to the shuttle and back to the ship. It was a great outing in Mangalore. The temple, the church, and the mall were all filled with local people going about their daily lives, which is something we always enjoy experiencing. From the moment we got off the ship people were welcoming and friendly, going out of their way to be of assistance. Great start to our first time in India.もっと詳しく