Sunday, November 30, 2014 - New Mangalore, India

We were up at 6 am and had a big breakfast in the restaurant buffet.  The ship was a bit delayed being processed on our arrival so our tour didn’t start until about 8:30 or so.  Fidova was our guide, a very pretty young Indian woman but she was a terrible guide.  She asked us more about where we were from than she told us about Mangalore and the area.

Our first stop was a Hindu temple Moodbidri – or the temple of 1,000 columns.  It was interesting.

A Buddha statue near the Hindu temple Moodbidri outside of New Mangalore, India

The Woodbidri Temple

The temple of 1,000 columns

A tall obelisk on the temple grounds

The Thousand Pillar Basadi of Sri Chandranatha Swamy Moodbidri

The outside of the massive temple

Then we went to a large granite mound that had a hand carved Buddha on the top.  There were 212 steps to get to the top.  It was hot.

The view of the jungle and temples from the top of the hill

Lots of restoration underway at the statue

The Statue Karkala

The Statue Karkala

The statue as seen from outside the walls

Granite rocks and views for miles around

Then we went to Soan’s Farm and Dr. Soan took us on a tour to see lots of different plants that they grow on the farm of ~ 60 acres.  Tim bought some black and white pepper corns.  It took us 1.5 hours to get back to the ship.  We had lunch by the pool since the restaurant was already closed.  Lunch was followed by a delicious afternoon nap.

Lily pond with flowers at Soan's Farm

Dr. Soan showed us lots of plants on his farm

He had every type of bamboo imaginable

And pineapple plants with pineapples on them

We watched the ship sail out of Mangalore from our balcony.  We dressed and went for a drink in the Lounge and talked to Jo and Georgia from the show.  They were fun.  We invited them to dinner but they told us the ship doesn’t let them do that every night.  So we went to the dining room and had a really good meal – both of us had lamb chops and they were good.

I didn’t want any more to drink after dinner so we retired for the evening about 10.  A restful night at sea.