We took a highlights tour and visited two museums, the Dutch Palace and the Indo-Portuguese. The amount of Dutch and Portuguese influence in India is amazing, especially since most of us think of only the British dominance of the country. But in Cochin there's a Dutch style house next to a Portuguese style with a British one across the street. It's really a mix.
The busy shopping streets are absolutely crazy. On foot, we thought that any minute someone was going to run up our back with a scooter. In India, the three G's are necessary to drive: good hands, good brakes, and good luck. It seems that what they do in cars, buses, or scooters is lay on the horn and step on the gas. We took our chances on a stroll down Jew Street to the spice shop and the old Pardesi Synogogue. There are actually very few Jewish people in India anymore, we're told.
Finally, a stop at the fish market adjacent to the Chinese fishing nets.
A word about the weather. They have a dry season in what's our winter and then the monsoon season the rest of the time. Dry season or not, the temperature and humidity both run in the 80's to 90's. Add the pollution and you get good old LA style smog. Hot tourists with burning eyes wanted to get back to boozin' and cruisin'.
On to Mangalore. Here we went temple hopping in Karkala. First, there's Lord Gomateshwara, 212 steps up the hill and towering over the area. He's backed up by the 24 prophets and a local priest.
Next, a stop at Soan's farm, where they're growing one of just about everything. One thing they do very well is pineapple juice. Delicious. Just needed rum. Then on to the Thousand Pillar Moodbidri Temple.
The drive back to the ship took about an hour, and it was the most interesting one yet. Mostly in narrow back roads, there were a lot of pauses to narrowly miss opposite direction trucks and busses, but as we went we saw roaming cattle, goats, and coconut retrievers. Did they belong to someone or are they just wandering, we wondered? Nice houses, shacks, hovels, cell phone ads, dust. And trash. Everywhere. It seems that historically, people ate off banana leaves with their fingers. When finished, one threw the banana leaf and leftovers out the door and the cattle ate them. No trash issue until plastic was introduced. Situation changed but people still throw the leftovers out the door. There are no trash cans because who'd pick them up? The country is trying to get people to keep their cities and villages clean but it's an uphill battle with no trash removal services in most areas.
