Mormugoa (Goa)
After a night’s sail from Mumbai, we docked in the India state of Goa in the a.m. It is a key trading area for India, with coal and cement being loaded and unloaded. Oil is also big here. As our ship came into the harbor this morning, we passed several oil rigs. The fishing industry was also evident. Still, it’s noticeably a very poor place.
The Portuguese colonized the western coast of India in the 16th century, building forts on various hillocks along the coast. Since the 1600s, the area has had its ups and downs economically with the British and Portuguese and Dutch colonizing and then leaving. Jesuit priests came as well and constructed palatial buildings, offices, schools and of course, churches. We chose not to do a tour in this port as the tours all went out of the area to see old churches or temples or beach resorts. None of those interested us today.
In Mormugoa, we walked to the town closest to the pier ------ Vasco da Gama. We did not have bus service at this port and we wanted a bit of a walk. We find that walking gives us a clear picture of the reality of our surroundings. Often times it is very different than a view from a bus window or the view near a tourist attraction. As we walked we said, “No thank you” over 50 times to the never-ending taxi drivers and tuk-tuk drivers. They were all trying to get us to go on some tour with them to a beach, temple or church. We were not interested. Beach resorts are one of the main tourist attractions. Seeing the pollution in the water deterred us from visiting a beach. Our walk was rather precarious because of the many taxis, fuel tankers, other trucks, cars and motorcycles and bicycles. Without a sidewalk, we had to walk in the street. The town had a few old shops and hotels with a fruit market and side markets. Once the beggars started towards us we decided to walk back to the ship and call it a day. We didn’t see any other tourists in the town. We got a few pictures of the colorful fishing boats and the fruit market. The heat and humidity did us in as well. All in all, we definitely got an insight into the way of life in a west coast Indian town.
As we get closer to the equator, the heat and humidity will keep going up . It is the total opposite of our dry heat in Arizona. We sweat here!
Mangalore, India
After another night’s sail, we arrived in Mangalore which handles 75% of India’s coffee exports and the bulk of its cashew nut export. In 1498, Vasco Da Gama, the Portuguese explorer landed near here. After many years of being conquered, reconquered, surrendered and defeated, various people ruled the west coast of India. Since India’s independence in 1947, the west coast of India has witnessed the development of business and commercial enterprises. The fast population growth has added many problems. The wealth grow richer. The poor grow poorer and more populated. Just recently the cities we’ve visited have begun to see a bit of a middle class. The poverty however is rampant and visible.
In Mangalore, we walked and walked in the heat and humidity trying to find a bank to cash 20 US dollars. We only wanted a few rupees for the last day in India and did not want to use an ATM and get too many rupees, so we searched out a bank in this big city. Not too hard to find? Well, in India, nothing is simple. After many requests for help, we finally found The State Bank of India. (One small bank we happened upon earlier in the day was smoke filled with incense burning and had no air conditioning. How people were able to work in that environment all day long was beyond us... my eyes burned and I only walked in and out. I guess it’s what they must get used to, but it was a bit much.)
Anyway, we had a “real” Indian bureaucratic 30 minute experience in a side room of the bank with a stamp, stamp here and a stamp stamp there and the filling out of paperwork there and a stamp stamp here and a stamp stamp there and checking of documents here and copying of documents there. (They asked us to go across the street to copy our documents. We told them we have no rupees!) After all of this, we still did not have rupees! Low and behold, we were given another document and told to go out to the lobby and wait in line for a teller. We did. She checked our document, left her cubicle to find out if it was correct, came back, rechecked it, stamped some more and finally gave us our 980 rupees. She had a huge sign near her desk telling of her lunch hours. The banks do not open until 10am and they close at 4pm. India is a total nightmare of a bureaucracy of paperwork with many many people involved in one simple little task and then someone else there to check it and then someone else even higher up to check all of it. We’ve see this in action every single day when we depart the ship. Our documents have to have a face-to-face meeting with an Indian official, then another official checks and rechecks and then Indian police on the dock check documents again and then again when we are all on the bus going into town. We have 420 people on our ship. It makes for an interesting mix of patience and impatience when the morning starts. At this point in time, India is very worried about terrorist attacks, especially from Pakistan. It makes our TSA in America look pale.
Since we’re only tourists, we take it all in stride. It’s easy to compare, but when traveling it’s best to just be a good observer.
Today we arrived in Cochin, India. Cochin is known as the Queen of the Arabian Sea. Located in South India in the state of Kerala, Keralites enjoy an area with dense tropical forests and Kerala’s famous backwaters. We toured today and enjoyed listening to an Indian guide telling us about his home area and showing us the sights. We visited the first church (1779!), the Jewish section (now only 11 Jews reside there), saw the interesting Chinese fishing nets (it is thought that they were introduced by traders from Kublai Khan’s court), Fort Kochi Beach and then had a nice ride through parts of the Kerala backwater and the harbor in an old rice boat. Along the market area, the smells of spice and fish intermingled with the sea air. It was nice to be in an air-conditioned bus as it was really really hot and humid.
Bikes! And, it just wouldn't have been complete without the snake charmer! Snowed in Denver and is a mess of ice and slush today on city streets!. Thinking of you. Going back to Breck Mon.
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