.jpg)
It’s another sunny day in India as we arrive at Mangalore. We are deep into Hindu country now…there are significant populations of Buddhists, Muslims as well Catholics. But Hindu is the religion of 80% of Indians.
Click here for the Mangalore detailed Photo Gallery.
Mangalore derives its name from the local Hindu Goddess Mangaladevi. It developed as a port on the Arabian Sea—remaining, to this day, a major port of India. Mangalore’s port handles 75 per cent of India’s coffee exports and the bulk of the nation’s cashew exports.
We had a drive through the city and then stopped at The St. Aloysius Chapel. This Catholic church was built in 1884 and is known as an architectural marvel that compares with the chapels of Rome. What makes this chapel unique compared to the other chapels in the country is the beautiful paintings that cover all the walls and ceilings.
The next stop was at the beautiful Kudroli Gokarnath Temple. This is an important temple built in 1912 and is one of the main attractions of Mangalore. There were a bunch of school children inside the Temple area and they enjoyed getting their pictures taken.
Just outside the Temple, we saw a vendor making, and selling, sugar cane juice. They used a machine to press the sugar cane and out came the juice. We didn’t try it, but heard that it is very sweet!
Next we visited a private home, called the Belmont House. This is one of the oldest houses in Mangalore. Mrs. Joan Peres, the owner, and one of her sons greeted us and we had a chance to explore their home and see how they live. The house was spacious with an open air feeling and a large garden area. They had an interesting spice grinder contraption in the kitchen pantry area – it was very large and they explained that they grind a lot of spices!
Our last, and possibly best, tour of the day was at the Achal Cashew Factory. Interestingly, the true fruit of the cashew tree is a kidney or boxing-glove shaped piece that grows at the end of the cashew apple. Within the true fruit is a single seed, the cashew nut. Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense the nut of the cashew is a seed.
They took us through the process of making the roasted cashew nuts, which has a lot more steps that I expected. There where at least 10 steps that they walked us through at the factory and the end result was incredible. Definitely the freshest and best tasting cashew we’ve ever had!
We all bought some packages of nuts and, as it was already 1:30 pm, we hungrily ate them on the bus on our way back to the ship! Yummy!