Elephanta Island, India

This morning we headed out again, back to the Gateway of India, to meet today’s guide for our boat ride across the Bombay Harbour to the Elephanta caves. We ended up having another family join us, from the States, a mom from Texas with her 2 kids, and her sister from California. The ride took about an hour; the boats move quite slowly! We passed an oil holding area. They ship the oil to this island, and then it is transferred to a refinery on the mainland. Once at the island, we took the miniature train along the pier (quite honestly, we could have walked, but our guide was a bit old and bought the tickets, so we went along). Then, we headed up the stairs to the caves. (They have chairs that men will carry if you can’t climb up the stairs). If I had known that there would be tons of vendors lining the walk, I would have bought my money! They are way cheaper than in town! (Which is actually surprising, given that this is a tourist site) The caves are actually quite interesting. We only went into the main one dedicated to Lord Shiva. I am having difficulty wrapping my brain around all the different gods and demons. I think I will just stick to one God!

Inside the caves, there are several tableaux, that have been damaged by the Portuguese colonialists. They used them as target practice while occupying the island. At any rate, the tableaux are still impressive. They depict scenes from Shiva’s life, along with 2 other very important gods: Brahma and Vishnu. Each are recognizable by their mode of transport, (the swan for Brahma). It also shows Ganesha, Shiva’s son. According to the legend, Shiva did not recognize his son after a long absence, and when Ganesha (who did not recognize Shiva neither) wouldn’t let Shiva into the house while his wife, Parvati was having a bath, Shiva cut off his head. When Parvati saw what happened, Shiva went out and found another living animal, the elephant, and placed the head on his son, thus reviving him. Ganesha is a jealous god, and you need to give tribute to him before any other god. Others depict the marriage of Shiva and Parvati. Parvati is a very voluptuous lady! They also, just like any other temple, have a phallic stone representation, for fertility.

We also saw monkeys! They are a bit scary though, and absolutely terrified a toddler by hissing at him. On the way back to Mumbai, we saw flamingos flying! It felt really nice to be on the water, as it is extremely hot now!

Back on the mainland, we stopped at Leopold’s diner for a delicious and filling lunch. The mango lassie was so tasty! (Along with the prawns, chicken, rice, okra etc! although I didn’t really care for the mutton though).

Next, they took us back to the same tourist shops we were at yesterday. Not a good move, as it put dad in a fowl mood. We finished our day by wandering through the Prince of Wales museum. There were some interesting archaeological exhibits and one on fables. I had difficulty understanding the meaning of the stories…

We had hoped to go in the pool at the hotel, to cool off after the day, but by the time we got back, there were mosquitoes, and the sun was going down. It felt too cold out to go in the pool. Later, we found out that Mumbai had an unusually cold evening, at 14C!

Tomorrow, we head out to Goa!

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