bombay tourist

So far I have mostly concentrated on work and have held off on doing touristy things in Bombay... I was waiting until Tristan, Mom and Batul got here so we could see things together.  Today we took an interesting trip to Elephanta Island, a little island with a series of caves and colossal ancient Hindu stone carvings and sculptures that are about 2,000 years old.  We took a 45-minute ferry ride to get there.  The ferry departed from the Gateway of India, a really famous piece of Bombay architecture which was built to commemorate King George and Queen Mary's trip to India in 1911.

 

When we got to the island, one of the more amusing things we saw were monkeys.  They were very bold.  A couple of monkeys started coming near us... at first, we thought it was kind of funny that they were so inquisitive, but they kept coming uncomfortably closer.  In the nick of time, Tristan realized what they wanted, shouted, "my banana!" and tossed the banana he was carrying.  A monkey immediately grabbed it, peeled it, and started eating it just like a person would.  Later on, we saw a man trying to feed another bunch of monkeys.  He was trying to open a bag of chips, and it looked like he was going to toss some chips at them.  But one of the bigger ones just sort of jumped up and grabbed the entire bag from him, opened the bag with this hands and started snacking.

 
The main attractions were probably the ancient sculptures and caves, not the monkeys.  Those were pretty interesting too.  The caves were full of ornate pillars and huge carvings of Hindu gods, especially Shiva and Ganesh.  The picture below is of Shiva's "mahanata," which means great dance, and its symbolizes the creation of the universe. 

 

We spent about half a day at the caves and then headed back.  Mom took this shot on the ferry on the ride back to the mainland:

 

In the afternoon, we decided to do some sari shopping- that was really fun too.  Batul and I both found very pretty saris for Asima's wedding.

 

 

Comments

[Younus]

The Elephanta caves seem to be very interesting. I don't know how extensive the caves are here but I believe everything has been built by carving into the mountain side.
A similar site that you may want to consider visiting, if you are still planning to go to Shahada, are the caves at Ajanta and Ellora. These are close to Aurangabad, which you may be able to include in your iterinary to, or back from Shahada and Ranala. The most fascinating site is the Kailasa temple at Ellora which is actually a huge temple built from the top down by carving into solid rock. You could also visit the "Bibi Ka Makbara", close by, a smaller and less glamorous replica of the Taj Mahal, which was built by Aurangzeb for his wife.

see:
http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/South%20India/Ajanta/Ajanta.htm

http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/South%20India/South2003/Ellora/Ellora.htm

http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/South%20India/South2003/Aurangabad/Daulatabad.htm

[Tasneem]

Happy Birthday Rameez!

Love
Tasneem

[Fatima]

I would definitely reccomend visiting both Ajanta Ellora even if it means taking a slight detour. The Elephana caves simply pale in comparision once you view the latter. The ajanta caves are display spectacular paintings while the Ellora caves are sculptural. We had a vey good guide with a lot of anecdotal info. Half of it did not seem to be true but it was fun nevertheless to listen to the lore about the possible inspirations which lead to art in these caves.

[Fatima]

I would definitely reccomend visiting both Ajanta Ellora even if it means taking a slight detour. The Elephana caves simply pale in comparision once you view the latter. The ajanta caves are display spectacular paintings while the Ellora caves are sculptural. We had a vey good guide with a lot of anecdotal info. Half of it did not seem to be true but it was fun nevertheless to listen to the lore about the possible inspirations which lead to art in these caves.

[Fatima]

I would definitely reccomend visiting both Ajanta Ellora even if it means taking a slight detour. The Elephana caves simply pale in comparision once you view the latter. The ajanta caves display spectacular paintings while the Ellora caves are sculptural. We had a vey good guide with a lot of anecdotal info. Half of it did not seem to be true but it was fun nevertheless to listen to the lore about the possible inspirations which lead to art in these caves.

[Younus]

Looks like 'Fattee Khala' really wants to make the point that you go to Ajanta. Three times is the charm, they say ;-)