Mangalore, India

Today is April 20th and it is Heather's 42nd birthday so have a wonderful day, Heather.  We will dock in Mangalore at about noon.  So the morning is at sea.

We were up early and in the pool by 6:25am.  Maybe we should invite the man who removes the netting to dinner in Compass Rose as the pool is scheduled to be opened at 7:30am but because we are up there early, he removes the net early.  We both did one hour of swimming.  While we were swimming, Elda was hiding Easter Eggs.  So when we finished our swim, I collected some eggs but found out later that the egg hunt does not begin until 10am.  So I sort of cheated.

Breakfast in Compass Rose with a Mimosa and Eggs Benedict.  Being Easter and everything, a treat.

The Easter Egg Hunt was a big success.  I won but then again, I had an edge as I watched Elda hide the eggs.  And I helped some others find some eggs.  Not sure what I won but probably Regent points.

They also had someone named as the Easter Bunny.  So you were to ask people, staff, etc if they were the Easter Bunny.  It turned out it was Gami.  And I did not see him in the morning so we did not win that contest.

As we were docking, we saw this bird flying about the ship.  Not sure what kind of bird it is but it was fun to watch.  Notice there are two birds in the picture.

And then one of them took off.  Looks like our eagle but need to figure out which type of bird is in this part of the world.

And of course, we had security from the locals.

India imports teak wood from Indonesia in order to make furniture.

Lunch in La Veranda as we are going out on tour as soon as we arrive.  I only had pizza as nothing floated my boat if you know what I mean.

We gathered for the tour and off we went.

This was one of the worst tours ever.  We could not hear the gal at the front of the bus.

Our first stop was at the Gokarnath Temple.  You needed to remove your shoes to enter the temple.  And the marble was so hot that people were burning their feet.  So I did not go into the temple.

The Temple is beautiful with its sculptures.

The ladies of India wear the sari and they are beautiful with different colors etc.  There were several marriages taking place at the same time at the Temple.

More interesting things to see outside the Temple.  No pictures were allowed inside the Temple.

They decorate the cars to celebrate the weddings.

Next stop was at a cashew factory.  We got to see how they shell and process the cashews.

Most of the process is done by hand.  One can now understand why cashews are so expensive.  This lady is shelling the cashews.

Here they separate the cashew from the brown coating after the shell is removed.

The ladies processing the cashews by hand.  They opened the factory for us as we were here on a Sunday and they are normally closed on Sunday.  So only a few of the workers were around.

Next we visited a private home.

This is the garden in front of the house.  This is the oldest home in the city.  Now the widow is the only one who lives in the home.  They had 5 sons and one daughter.  But only one son is still in the area.

We thought Gretchen would love this room as it is purple in color.

The front of the home.

Another view of the front of the home.

The street outside the home.  Lots of buses and tuk tusk.

If I had the time, I would have bought these purple pants but not time to shop.

And finally we went to St. Aloysius Chapel.  The Chapel was closed when we arrived but finally opened so we could go inside but no pictures were allowed inside.

Quite a large campus.

This is the front of the Chapel.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside.

And because we were a little early getting back to the ship, the guides decided to show us the local beach.  This involved a drive down a long lane and then a turn around and back to the ship.


Back on the ship where we cleaned up and dressed for dinner.

Dinner in Compass Rose and then back to the suite where we sat on the balcony and enjoyed our after dinner drink.