Elephanta Island

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The visit to Elephanta Island was a relaxing way to start the visit to Mumbai. The boats to the island leave from the gateway to India. This is next door to the Taj Palace hotel. This is the hotel that was bombed and has been rebuilt. There was a very pleasant breeze on the boat, but it was very smoggy so there was no view of the coastline. The air pollution was a news item. It has been made worse by a fire at a rubbish dump.

On the way to the Island we passed an oil tanker, a huge beast, and an old fashioned fishing boat, small fry. Elephanta island was named by the Portuguese because they saw an elephant sculpture on the island. The island still has a thin belt of mangroves. Generally Mumbai is not a green city so it was pleasant to see the trees and the monkeys. Some of the. Onkeys were playing on the souvenir stalls, probably trying to find the lunch boxes.

Some of the sculptures in the cave were damaged by Portuguese soldiers who may have used them as target practise. I had our guide to myself because unfortunately Ginnie was unwell. She was very good at telling the Hindu myth stories and the morals that underlie them. One sculpture is undamaged. It has three faces representing different forms of Shiva. The caves are a similar age to the Badami caves and the Hindu caves at Ellora.



On the boat on the way back I chatted to a couple from north London who are staying at the Taj Palace. Their trip is very different with lots of service and they haven't had Indian food.

Ginnie was well enough for a short walk in the late afternoon. We saw some of the colonial buildings, particularly art deco buildings. Many of them reminded me of English town hall architecture. I found a large English language bookshop and had fun browsing.

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[Golden Hills Resort]

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