Caves and Islands

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Tuesday

Began by taking a short drive to the Aarey Colony where all the milk for Mumbai is produced. There are 30 "units" each housing about 1000 (yes, one thousand) cows (buffalo, actually) that produce milk which is transported to the processing plant, processed, and distributed throughout Mumbai. It's a large park area with playgrounds, jogging area, guest houses, living quarters for the workers, a pond with paddle boats, a dairy (processing the milk) on top of the hill. It's run by the Central Government of Mumbai. Not your Virginia Tech approved processing plant, that's for sure!

We then went on to Sanjay Gandhi National Park and the Kanheri Caves. Carved out of the caves, the temples are gorgeous feats of persistence, dedication, adoration--what to call them? They're carved out of the mountainside. Temples, cells (guest quarters--the higher up you climbed, the more rooms there seemed to be), statues, stairs, wells. Breathtaking. Very peaceful and was certainly quiet ages ago (we could hear the occasional airplane today but otherwise still fairly quiet).

Headed North and West "out" of the city to Madh Island, an island of beaches, fishing villages, resorts, villas used for shooting movies (when Susan first saw the signs "for shooting", she thought they meant birds or fox-type shooting...). Had a GREAT lunch at The Retreat, a hotel on the beach with beautiful suites (the doorman gave us a tour) and a lovely view.

After lunch, we drove down to a fishing village to see the fleet and the separation of fishes by the women. The dried fish that's not preserved to eat during monsoon season is gathered up and bagged for use as manure on fields. No one was bothered by us wandering around; the driver explained to us what was going on; they kept on with their work--even offered us some fresh prawns. We have no way to cook them so had to decline. Aksa Beach is the "best" beach of Mumbai area. Still shouldn't go in the water--in this case because the tide is so strong.

Last stop was Juhu Beach, back in Mumbai. We could have stayed for sunset but we were whipped so we opted to take a stroll and then head for home--went by the Marriott on the way (for Susan & Doug).

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Photos

Aarey Colony
These pictures are taken at Unit 1 of 30.

Living Quarters
for the workers

Shed of Dairy Buffalo
Not cows, buffalo

And still another cow
I sure hope Gary's seeing this, Bonnie!

Out in the yard
Washing dishes

Cow Patties drying
They're used for fuel

Making cow patties
They don't just lay themselves, you know!

Calf
They're not given much roaming room, judging by the ropes

Lucky
Five chilis and a lime on car, house, business to protect it.

Marble workers
These items are all carved from marble, intended to be small temples in Hindu homes.

Slums as we drove along the road
Land slide waiting to happen. They've built here illegally and then "blame the government" when the houses slide off the hillside.

School Kids in the Park
The families of the people who work in the Park live and go to school there. This group paused for us.

Comments

[Susan]

Brave Mike
Wow, Mike! Love the pink shirt! You're a brave guy!!:)