TONY'S TRIP TO SOUTH INDIA

Goa to Mangalore

BY TONY MYERS FRPS

We set off from our hotel in Goa early so we could get a full day photographing in the next city on our list: the city of Mangalore with its population of some 500.000 people. We followed the main coast road South which would be struggling to make a B grade road in UK, but it frequently winded alongside the beautiful Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats hills on the other side made some very fine scenery.

In the centre of Mangalore we found a nice hotel at a very reasonable cost of 500 rupees about £6.50 between us (No expense spared). Mangalore is famous for its Cashew nuts and also has a very large fishing port which is situated along the busy Gurupur river, a very important area of this bustling city.

We decided to put the fish quay top of our list and were soon to be rewarded by some very colourful images of women dressed in their beautiful Saris working very hard, dotted all along the fish quay loading ice into the holds of the fishing trawlers. The quayside was a hive of activity with some 30 plus trawlers either unloading fish or loading ice. Up until now... Indian women have been extremely shy to photograph, and getting any sort of decent portrait has been hard, but in this 'working environment' they were a little more receptive.

Around the quayside fishermen were selling and buying baskets of fish and the whole area had a great atmosphere about it, they were continually asking to be photographed. We left the quay to visit the fish market which was in the centre of the city. This was also a hub of activity with women selling every type of fish imaginable, including pieces of shark displayed on small wooden boxes with the stall holder sat on the floor behind and were a bit shy to pose for the camera.

We then moved on to visit the towns famous 120 year old college St Aloysius with its mural-covered walls and ceilings, we soon got talking to some members of staff who gave us permission to wander freely around taking pictures.

A class of boys gathered around us out of curiosity and we were able to have a good chat - and even a group photo of them, with the master following an exchange of email addresses we reluctantly moved on. Next day we set off for one of the most scenic areas of S India, Kerala following a long days drive of 12 hours or so we arrived at the city of Kochi, with its population of some 600,00 people. As it was evening time we decided to opt for suitable convenient hotel. At the city of Koichi you can see Indias oldest church and many of the 500 year old Portugese houses have been well preserved in the city composed of a number of Islands. We decided to stay on Wellingden Island hotel. We were made very welcome and glad to find the hotel and had a very nice bar that sold our favourite Kingfisher lager. Kochi is also one of Indias largest ports and a major naval base.

Next morning we did the standard City tour I also managed to get into the local fire station after some explanations; they agreed to a few group shots of the crew in firefighting equipment. We continued our city tour and moved on to the famous Chinese fishing nets strung out along the banks of the Lakshadweep Sea, these strange nets are slung from a giant wooden cantilever frame, which is then used like a large ladel to scoop the fish from the sea hopefully with a few passing fish, tourists are welcome to participate, but we preferred to make our observations from the beach-side bar. Where we could also observe the many large cargo ships coming and going into the nearby docks.

Later the hotel manager informed us that there would be a a big festival in the evening and as he was friends with the organisers he could arrange a photo pass to get us inside the display arena, he said many people attend (this was a understatement to say the least) this procession as it was was one of the biggest in the area. There would also be many elephants dressed in ceremonial regalia. It seemed like a opportunity not to be missed! however the manager suggested we dress in Indian style attire and we should buy a Dodi to wear to the festival, in the spirt of things...we of course went along with his suggestions!

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