Where was I? Oh yes well it turned out we did need to just buy a ticket from a tout but we waited til we were practically on board before parting with cash. The trip over was quite relaxing lots of butterflies but they refused to stay in one place long enough to be photographed! We arrived at Elephanta island (oops- that's where we were going by the way-see pic of island) and hadn't quite got it figured out in terms of our free guide and ended up being 'ripped off' paying Rs650 to a local-oh no so tragic and such an impact on our budget-ahem! The caves although few were quite gorgeous with Hindu carvings out of the basalt rock. The main Shiva dedicated cave was the best and the bats had the right idea hanging out by the 6m tall statue of Sadhashiva, showing the 3faced Shiva as the destroyer,creator and protector of the universe. This was the only carving fully in tact as it had been hidden and survived the portugese attacks. It was also monkeys all round on the island and our list of wildlife is increasing. Mumbai is definitely not wildlife mecca.
We walked past chhatrapati shiraj maharaj vastu sangrahalaya then went to the national gallery of modern art which had a photographic exhibition called ' the journey of a moment in time' which was a collection of images by Rahu Rai of some of the most dramatic moments in India's recent history. Sweeet! Trundling through the oval maiden we took pictures of the buildings peeking over the trees, no cricket but instead some workers cutting the grass with their hands. Don't even get me started on indigo the restaurant we stopped at! Grr...
As if we didn't stick out enough already, yesterday we hired a car and driver through the hotel and ended up with a chauffeur driven mercedes to take us to visit sanjay ghandi national park and kanheri caves (see non islandy looking pic)! The park was a pleasant escape from the city there are still quite a lot of people living in shanty villages inside there. However we foolishly took the lion and tiger safari figuring the animals would be roaming the park. Sadly the tigers were fenced off begging the question 'why was the bus so secure?' and the 2 lions we saw looked so sad as if asking us to take them back to Africa. I am hoping Periyar will be a lot more what we are hoping for altho I doubt we will spot any tigers. Supposedly there were lots of other species in the park like various species of wild cat and the 'elusive leopard'. We saw: more monkeys, crows oh and some chickens!
The caves were a lot more relaxing with beautiful views and a peaceful atmosphere. The caves were used by buddhist monks as viharas and chaityas between 2nd and 9th centuries. Only a few had carvings, although these were fantastic, but the plain caves, we assume living quarters, got a bit samey after a while. We are definitely caved out now and although we have run out of things in Mumbai glad we gave Ellora a miss! We had tried to book a rafting trip on the Ullas river near Karjat (88km SE of Mumbai) but it was all booked up. On the drive out we saw Haji Ali's mosque and on the way back we stopped at the Mahalaxmi dhobi ghat which wasn't as I had expected (something akin to banganga tank) but there were lots of basin like structures and washing lines with drying clothes. I have written far too much so I wll let Jonny tell you about today. Speak to you again in Kochi!
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