A couple of Indian ports to not do twice

We just left Goa, after visiting Mangalore the day before. In my estimation neither was worth the trouble we went through, not to mention money we spent, for Indian visas.

First it was hot, very hot, and humid. Mangalore is just a busy,somewhat dirty city, even by Indian standards. We took a shuttle ship-to-city and return. The stop in Mangalore was a large shopping mall, air conditioned thankfully. But at the end of the day, still a mall. I bought a bottle of rum down a side street and returned to the ship next shuttle. Judy and Melinda stayed longer, and Judy bought a very pretty Indian-patterned tunic, which she wore to our onboard Italian restaurant, Tuscana last night.

Today Judy was feeling the effects of something she ate, so skipped the Goa tour. Melinda and I did take it, and it can only be described as too long, too hot, too bumpy (we sat in seats over the rear axle, which did not appear to have either shocks or working springs), and for the most part uninteresting.

We visited Old Goa, which featured two 15th century cathedrals built by Portuguese Jesuit priests (I suspect using local labor for the heavy lifting.) The cathedrals were originally in a town, but all the non-church buildings were gone, due to a cholera epidemic that wiped out a large part of the population, in spite of what must have been fervent prayers to no avail. I suppose the needless death of large numbers was explained as part of God's mysterious plan, or punishment for infractions by the locals, much the way Jerry Falwell said 9/11 was payment for people being gay. Maybe there were too many gay people back then....

Then, after what most agreed was enough, we were driven and led through a daily market, which if you have seen one you have pretty much seen them all, especially the seafood department. Someone carried a large tub of fish water past me and slopped much of the contents on my leg. I spent the remainder of the tour having sly glances thrown my way as the fish smell only strengthened in the heat.

We finished with a well-intentioned visit to an old Portuguese house for fresh fruit, samosas and Kingfisher beer. We convinced the guide to mercifully return us to the ship early, being very hot and josteled.