Today we arrive at our first port in India. I took the Highlights of Mangalore tour and visited Gokarnanatha temple, an Artisan Village, St. Aloysius Chapel and the Belmont House.
The first thing I saw as we were leaving the port was a cow on the pier!
The Gokarnanatha temple was painted in gold paint and had many statues of Hindu gods and goddesses and a couple of cow statues.
On the way to the artisan village, we stopped at a pharmacy for a couple on board the bus- they wanted to buy cheap medicine. It was significantly cheaper then the cost in Canada where they live. I was OK with that except they bought every single pill the pharmacy had which means the locals would not be able to get any until the next shipment.
The artisan village had demonstrations of how folks historically made items such as coconut oil(using oxen), baskets(using reeds), cloth(made with loom controlled by hand & foot) and flattened rice
The catholic St. Aloysius Chapel has fresco painted walls painted by an Italian artist and is remarked to be like the Sistine Chapel. The ceiling isn’t fresco painting but rather oil on canvas. The chapel is surrounded by St. Aloysius College with it’s 14,000 students from Kindergarten to University age.
Belmont house is a private home that is still in use and lived in.
