Mumbai, India

Our tour today was a five-hour tour to Elephanta Caves on Elephanta Island requiring a one hour boat trip starting at the Chaitya Bhoomi pier.
Today was a public holiday to celebrate the life and accomplishments of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, affectionately known as Babasaheb, born on April 14, 1891. His life's work was dedicated to the pursuit of justice, equality, and the uplifting of the oppressed sections of society. The Mahaparinirvan Diwas holiday, marks the day when Dr. Ambedkar passed away in 1956, leaving behind a profound impact on the socio-political landscape of India. Babasaheb fought against caste-based discrimination, untouchability, and social inequalities. He advocated for the rights of the Dalits (formerly known as untouchables) and worked towards creating a society where every individual could live with dignity.

Well, did we ever get a glimpse of what Mumbai is really like today. The population of Mumbai is about 23 million people and I think we saw half of them today at the pier. The traffic for our bus ride was unreal just to get to the port. We made our way through masses of people towards The Gateway of India, an arch-monument completed in 1924 on the waterfront of Mumbai (Bombay), India. It was erected to commemorate the landing of George V for his coronation as the Emperor of India in December 1911. He was the first British monarch to visit India.
The process of getting on the boat was an adventure in itself as we had to walk through three or four bobbing and seesawing relics of boats to get to our relic of a boat, which was tied up on the outside. The noise of the people talking and shouting was deafening. The ride in our boat however was quite calm, which is fortunate because Lee forgot her wristbands. The air quality must have been about the worst that it could be, and the visibility was probably under a kilometer. It looked like fog, but it was pollution.

Once we reached Elephanta Island, the next part of the adventure began with a small steam driven trolley ride that took us to the start of the path to the caves. The pathway to the caves was a 10ft wide cobblestone path. Along the way, vendor stalls sold souvenirs, trinkets bracelets, shawls etc. There was a stall with a bicycle powered shredder ,selling sugar cane, beside which was a very contented and undisturbed cow. There were lots of monkeys ready to pilfer, with lightning speed, any food or water bottles they could grab from you and they were quite amusing. One pair was actually amusing themselves and they weren’t very discrete about it!
The island is known for enormous caves carved out of the rock island about the mid-5th to 6th centuries AD. They were named Elefante—which morphed to Elephanta—by the colonial Portuguese who found elephant statues on the caves. When the island was ceded to the Portuguese by the kings of Ahmadabad in the 16th century, it ceased to be a place of worship, and the caves and sculptures were damaged by Portuguese soldiers. The earliest attempts to prevent further damage to the caves were started by British India officials in 1909. The monuments were restored in the 1970s.
The largest cave measures 39 metres from the front entrance to the back, inside which there are 15 murals carved into the sides of the cave. They constitute one of the greatest examples of Indian art as well as one of the most significant collections for the cult of Shiva. Shiva is one of the most important of the many Hindu gods, 33 or more, depending on who is counting.
The 7-metre-high masterpiece “Sadashiva” dominates the entrance to Cave 1. The sculpture represents three aspects of Shiva: the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer.
We returned to mainland later in the afternoon and were happy to have a clean ship waiting for us after mingling with the masses of holidaying Indians.
That night we joined Bill and Marie, two doctors, who now live in Florida, for dinner, and then went to the show. This time the show was about the life and songs of the singer Queen ( Freddy Mercury). It was performed by one of the singers from the Regent entertainment group and he did a remarkable job.Read more