India: Mangalore

Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Mangalore, India 

The ship arrived in Mangalore about 8:30 a.m. Mangalore was originally 7 islands, filled in to make the city. We had another ship tour scheduled: “A Day in the Life of Mangalore.” We were greeted by drummers on the pier.

The tour bus drove us to a private home, the Belmont House. It was originally built and inhabited by the 18th century Collector and Magistrate of British India. The house passed through a few hands after that until the current family bought it—Joan and Michael Peres. 

The affluent Peres family were successful coffee and rubber merchants with plantation estates in the area. We were served lemonade and snacks on their front veranda, comfortably shaded from the heat of the day. The property has gorgeous gardens, and Joan Peres still lives in the house filled with antiques. She was mourning the recent loss of one of her sons, and started crying when she talked about it. Charlie played a couple of songs on their piano, and took photos of some vintage paperback books on the shelves of a bedroom. 

Next stop was the main local market. It’s a ramshackle open building containing vendor booths, largely food but also household goods. The parking lot was filled with tour buses, right next to stalls selling fresh and dried fish. There was wonderful-looking produce. 

Dried fish, which we’ve seen over most of the world we’ve traveled so far.

One amusing story at the market: I saw a tiny Indian woman buying some kind of spice and was asking about it—not much English spoken here, but the vendor gestured for me to hold out my hand for a sample. He put a small amount of the substance on my palm. I was a little confused, but proceeded to taste it with the tip of my tongue. The vendor and vendors close by shouted out, alarmed. They indicated I was supposed to smell it. Now I was really confused. It slowly dawned on me it was snuff! I probably had a horrified look on my face since everyone started laughing, and finally so did I! 

The snuff seller. I thought it was a spice!

On the way out of the market, we bought something called “jaggery.” It was an unrefined form of sugar, pressed into slabs, and tastes a lot like brown sugar. We broke off pieces and ate it like candy.

We had the tour bus drop us downtown at a mall with a shuttle going back and forth from the ship. We looked around the mall. One shop only sold clothing for Islamic women. Others had bright, colorful clothing for other women. It was a normal mall; unfortunately we didn’t have rupees and the store with the best deals didn’t take Visa.

The Ghoomar Restaurant advertised what we thought was Thai food, but was actually “Thali” food. They had only one lunch, and it was brought out on a tray (one per person) with small stainless steel pots of various foods (chutney, sauces, soup, etc.) along with some rice and flatbread. They spoke no English, so it wasn’t until the next day when we dined with an English speaker that we found out how to eat it properly (with your fingers). Nonetheless, we enjoyed every bite with forks that were provided. It was excellent. The bill came to about $5 total.

Our first experience with Thali food in India

We managed to catch a shuttle back to the ship before melting in the heat.