Elephanta Caves
Today we wanted to visit Elephanta Caves, a collection of historic temples housed in caves on an island in the harbour. We were a little tired so got going a little late, after a simple breakfast of toast in the room.
We reached the Gateway of India around 0920 and bought a ticket on the deluxe boat to Elephanta Island. This entitled us to a guide but more importantly flexibility on the return trip without having to decide now.
The ride took an hour through calm brown waters and a fortified island. When we arrived and realised the pier was quite long, we took a little train to get to the caves.
The caves are thought to have been built in the 5th and 6th Century. They have been cut from the rock, retaining pillars as support. They are adorned with carvings which reflect Hindu and Buddhist elements.
An elephant-shaped rock once located here gave the caves its name. The British tried to shift to England. But when it broke, they reassembled it and placed it at a museum in Mumbai.
A couple of young university students, probably around 18-19 years old, hung with us. We chatted with them as we wandered through the sites. They live outside Mumbai and wake at 0400 to take the 90 min train ride into the city for university. For university students, they don’t seem to be too intelligent. One was full of shit, saying that the caves were built by the British. The other was very ditzy. And they think that Nokia is a Filipino brand!
They had a cuppa tea with us and at the wharf while waiting for the boat, beer and peanuts. We paid because it wasn’t much money.
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- Outside our hotel.
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- On our street.
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- Looking back at Mumbai as we leave for Elephanta Island.
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- Cave temples at Elephanta Island.
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- Cave temples at Elephanta Island.
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- Long pier at Elephanta Island.
Learning experience
Back in Mumbai we wanted to grab lunch on the walk back to the hotel. They wanted to join us but we missed the restaurant somehow and ended up at the hotel.
The ditzy guy asked if we had any New Zealand money as he had never seen it. I was starting to get a bad feel. Kim didn’t think too much of it and took them up to our room and showed him some New Zealand dollars which he then asked for. When Kim declined, he asked for INR50 (about NZD1.70) which wasn’t a lot of money to us. Kim declined again and they left.
Wow, that could have gone badly wrong with a knife-point incident or accusations of molestation etc. I never take people take to my room especially in countries where there is a large disparity in income levels. I was so surprised Kim was so easy and it was a learning experience for him.
With that behind us we grabbed lunch at Food Inn on Shahid Bhagat Singh Marg Street. The chicken tikka pulao, chicken Szechwan, garlic naan plus two kulfis cost about NZD7.
After a rest we went to the internet café. An African man was typing out a Nigerian-style scam letter. He wasn’t clever enough to copy and paste?
We took a late-ish dinner at the Leopold Bar. We had a little less this time with only a chicken tikka, paratha and beer. We sat next to an English family living in Saudi who were here for the cricket. Must have been big fans.
I returned to the internet café, solo, to do a bit of writing until 2300.
Laundry observation
An observation today was that sheets and restaurant napkins here are a little powdery and clayey. For example, if you hit it, dust comes up.
I had noticed at Dhobi Ghat that the water looked clayey and there wasn’t any frothing or foaming from detergent. Could it be that they use clay as a detergent, to emulsify away the body fats, in dirty laundry?