Day 28: The Mumbai sights
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2008
1
28
32
Trip End
Ongoing
Mumbai (Bombay), India
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Our day started with an hour long boat ride to Elephanta island. From the sea we could look back on the Gateway of India and the famous Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel which is worth a digressive anecdote. The millionaire Parsi industrialist J.N. Tata is said to have build the Taj hotel as an act of revenge after he was refused entry to what was then the best hotel in town, the 'whites only' Watson's. It was the perfect revenge as Watson's soon sank while the Taj still rules the roost.
The island of Elephanta is home to a unique 8th century cave temple dedicated to Shiva
Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and Gateway of India
. The sculptures were carved by hand from solid rock and depict stories of creation from the Hindu epics. When the Portuguese found the temple in the 16th century, they did their best to destroy it, hacking off the hands and feet of the statues in the interests of spreading Christianity. There is still sufficient detail remaining to understand the stories and the massive Trimurti, a three faced Shiva sculpture, is particularly impressive. You reach the caves by climbing 120 steps and Cameron was on fine form, treating the ascent as a 'warrior challenge' to be conquered. We were looked after by Francina, our first female guide, who immediately tried to mother Cameron in the classic Asian style. She nagged him constantly to stop sucking his thumb (the expression "cheee" was used fairly regularly) and tried to bully him into walking by telling him that everyone would laugh at him if he was carried. Unsurprisingly, he reacted by hanging round his parents rather more than usual but it was all fairly good natured and they soon became mates.
Unfortunately on the return boat ride, Cameron woke from a brief nap in a most distressed state and seemed hotter than normal - though it can be hard to spot a high temperature in this climate. When the boat docked he was still feeling hot and rather tearful so we headed for the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in an attempt to cool down
Entrance to the Elephanta caves
. The first Calpol of the trip was administered which provided some relief but when Cameron turned down ice-cream for lunch we realised that it was time to get him back to the hotel. He slept all afternoon but recovered in time to order room service.There was no point in us all stopping the planned tour of the city so while Rob stayed to administer to Cameron, Vernee continued seeing the Mumbai sights with Francina. First stop, an Indian 'fast food' restaurant called Bombay Blue. In some ways it has all the trappings of MacDonalds and the like - plastic furniture, paper place mats and fixed priced menus but the big difference is that the food is, you know, nice. For about 4 quid there's an all you can eat buffet (so the supersize option is built in!) which includes freshly made bhel puri, plus a soft drink and, for dessert, gulab jamon and ice cream.
Suitably replete, we then whirled round Mumbai with Francina pointing out the important landmarks and Vernee attempting to take pictures of the dabawallahs (tiffin box carriers) as they whizzed past on their bicycles. Vernee's personal highlights of the tour were the municipal dhobi ghats where Mumbai literally washes its dirty laundry in public; the Mahatma Gandhi Museum (Mani Ghavan) with its vivid tableaux of Gandhi's life and finally the Hanging Gardens with its oddly charming topiary animals.
