Elephanta Island

Sunday 18 February 2024

My first poha for breakfast - I'm hooked!

I caught a cab down to the Gate of India first thing to go to Elephanta Island.  I thought I’d need to queue ~30 mins for a ticket then wait for a half hourly ferry.  As it turned out, I bought a ticket immediately from an official seller (not the main queue), was pushed to the front of the ferry queue and walked straight on.

On a Sunday the ferries run as soon as they fill, so there was a pretty constant stream of them chuntering across the bay.  The journey takes just under an hour.  The views across the harbour and bay were poor and I couldn’t decide if haze or smog was the contributing factor.  It is slightly disorientated, as if sailing in fog.

The passengers enjoyed themselves by throwing snacks to the gulls who swept in circles past the boat performing airborne manoeuvres to catch the treats.  It was sad to see how disgustingly dirty the water was.  It is obviously used as the local rubbish dump (we’re not that much better in the UK) and the surface had all sorts of debris drifting past: single shoes, fruit juice cartons, plastic bags and bottles in particular. 

To get to the caves at Elephanta - the object of my (and everyone’s) visit - you first walk 150 m to the village.  Or for a few rupees you can get the train.  This saves little effort as once you reach the village you still have to ascend 120 stone steps to reach the caves.  Unless you pay 1600R (~£16) to be carried aloft.

It was a hot and crowded walk up, jostling with sellers, browsers, walkers, dogs and monkeys.

At the top you pay your entrance fee and enter the caves area.  As expected, the caves were all busy with tourists (takes one to know one) so I joined the crowds and viewed the amazing stone carvings.

Most feature Shiva, one of the Hindi Gods, and various trials and tribulations he encountered.  They are in excellent condition despite the Portuguese, who “discovered” and named the island, fired shots into the caves to see how deep they were.  I can’t imagine that did the stone friezes much good.

Aside from the main cave there are a few others of by far inferior quality, especially with respect to carvings, but it was still worth seeing them.  They got less 'developed' the further from the main cave you walked and cave number 5 was certainly on the elementary scale.

Let’s talk about monkeys.  My initial “aaaw aren’t they cute?” thoughts soon turned to irritation at the way they have adapted.  Of course, only because pesky humans have mistreated them.  They (the monkeys, as well as people) have a taste for lollies.  I’m not sure if they start getting used to eating discarded ones, or were fed them, but now the monkeys not only expect but demand them.  They pretty much swipe them from the hands of their owner and run off to eat them.

I decided to walk up to Canon Hill for the view.  Littered along the route were hundreds of water bottles.  It turns out it’s not necessarily that Indians are prolific litterers (although I didn’t see much evidence to the contrary as, since there are few bins, discarding rubbish casually is the norm) but that they are being entertained by the monkeys.  So people get 3/4 down their water bottle, put the lid back on them throw it to the monkeys.  They then laugh as the monkeys flip the lid, tip over the bottle and lap up the water as it spills onto the ground.

Anyway Canon Hill has canon on top - sorry if you're surprised.  I think they were installed by the British and look pretty beefy versions.  They were two on this hill top.  And the views were shabby due to the aforementioned haze/smog.  I was very amused by what looked like a Hindu ascetic running around the canon trying to get good photos - you expect them to glide, not sprint.  

On the return journey I had a Ruthy treat.

Once back I explored more of Mumbai.  This time I walked up the west side of the peninsula up Marine Drive.  It must be a beautiful place to watch sunset and was full of young people chilling.  My work head noted the coastal protection here ;-)

This area of Mumbai is a UNESCO site containing numerous Victorian/Gothic buildings, many from the British colonial era, and a plethora of Art Deco buildings line this stretch of coastline.

Walking back through the city centre, I strolled through the financial district - sleepy on a Sunday.  In fact, it was so quiet that various cricket games were running in the empty streets.

I walked back to the hotel after an unsuccessful hunt for a restaurant.  1700 on a Sunday is not the ideal time.  I hadn’t eaten lunch, except for the sweetcorn and some nuts, so needed something.  As a last resort I fell into a local eatery in the shopping parade under the hotel.  It was nice enough: good food, attentive service and a cold beer.  It would have been ideal if they had banned smoking...

Off to Mumbai (or, I didn't mean to go to India)

Friday 16 February 2024

Last Autumn, my daughter Caitlin’s friend announced that she was getting married in Pune, India, in February 2024.  Caitlin and friends planned to attend but her travelling companions, being teachers, were only able to take a week off.  So last November my phone went.  She started, "Mum, you know you said you’d keep me company in India for a week next February?" (Guess where this is going). "Do you fancy joining me?" "Of course!" I said without hesitation.  After the call I realised what I’d signed up to.  A fleeting - and terribly bad on the carbon footprint - jaunt to Mumbai.  But exciting!  

So Friday 16 February saw me leave my Dad's, in Basingstoke, in a 0550 taxi.  Then it was a bus to Heathrow (Reading bus flightline is a steal at £4 government rate), Heathrow Express from T5 to T2, then a non stop flight to Mumbai courtesy Air Canada.  The flight was fine and I seized the opportunity to watch the Barbie Movie knowing it certainly wasn’t a JC choice.  Turns out it wasn’t really mine either!  My plane reading was spot on though.

We landed at 0130 and it was a slightly disorganised, but achievable, entry onto India.  I found my pre-booked taxi - there is nothing quite like spotting your name held up in a crowd of taxi drivers - and I eventually got to the hotel 0300.  I was too buzzed up to sleep immediately, and concerned about the resident mosquito, but I eventually slept like a log.

Saturday 17 February 2024 

I woke at 1030 and made my way to a coffee and omelette in the hotel’s breakfast area.  A guy invited me to join him and so I met Donesh, a pharma company manager.  He had a few hours to kill so suggested we share a taxi down to the Gate of India.  He then felt the need to tell me about his international girlfriends (there appeared to be one in Nepal, Azerbaijan etc) and that, although he had a wife, "what’s the harm?" Well if his wife doesn’t know or approve then "quite a bit" I responded!  Anyway, I did share a taxi with him and he was very keen to show me the museum and have lunch with him.  I didn’t warm to him at all and soon told him very clearly “goodbye” and walked off. 

I first saw the majestic Gate of India in the Mumbai haze due to the perpetual poor air quality.  It looked better from the harbour side.  The harbour looked pretty polluted with grey/sludge water.  Not even locals were swimming in it.

I walked, seemingly faster than everyone else (perhaps I’m too stupid to slow down in the heat?) to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum passing a few local signs.

There is a a foreigner's mark up of a 700 Rupee entrance ticket, compared to 200R for locals, but if you can fly into Mumbai you can certainly pay a £7 entrance fee!  It was away from the noisy, dusty, crowded hustle of the streets so a welcome retreat.  It's a really interesting museum.

I enjoyed the jewellery area.  Such massive earrings!  And the anklets look half like manacles.

And there are hundred of statues of various deities.  Jainist.  Buddhist.  Hindi.

This is Yajna Varaha, the boar incarnation of Vishnu, one of the main deities of Hinduism.  

There were also maps such as a map of Jain cosmology.  And on the right is a more (to me) conventional navigational chart of Bombay Harbour.    

The rest of my afternoon was spent wandering past architectural sights such as the university and the oval gardens where, naturally, most people were playing cricket (boys/men only though).

The architecture is fabulous in this area with colonial relics and some lovely Art Deco items.

I decided to walk back to the hotel.  It was only 3 or 4 km but I kept getting lost as my map was too generalised and I was trying not to have my phone out too much (in case someone swiped it).  I inadvertently walked into a government area and was interested by the spike covered things on the bonnets (daggers?).  I never got close enough to find out, but all the official cars had these.

I ended up walking around the rail terminus - mainly because Caitlin and I leave from there on Tuesday and I wanted to check it out.  But I hadn’t anticipated the vast numbers of slow moving locals weaving their way past the numerous pavement stalls which kept causing pedestrian traffic jams.  A lovely building though.

I did find an Indian post box.  They all looked like this.  Hand painted and complete with padlock at the base.

I was amused to see this historic canon on its pedestal totally now enveloped by Mumbai 21st century style (hard to spot I know).

I discovered that the bridge I was aiming for to cross the railway back to my hotel wasn’t just closed to traffic, it just wasn’t there.  So a bit of fretting in my head as I didn’t want to be out after dark, but I found an unmapped footbridge bridge and was back before sunset.  An evening to recover, reset and plan tomorrow.