Mumbai Christmas

Christmas day is a national holiday here, so we made the most of it and Ben took boxing day off too and we headed for Mumbai.

It didn't start so well as our flight was delayed by 3 1/2 hours due to fog in Delhi at the start of the day. So, we eventually made it to our hotel at about 11.30pm and after checking in, our complimentary tea and a room service dinner we were pretty late to bed. It was a bit of a shame we had to get up at 6.30am to get across town for our tour of the Elephanta caves which started at 8.45! Not too much of a shame as it turned out, because it was a really excellent tour. 

The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

The Gateway of India

We met at the Gateway of India, which was built to commemorate the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary when they visited India. From here we caught the ferry to Elephanta Island, which took about an hour.

The Taj Mahal Palace and the Gateway of India from the ferry

The Elephanta caves are man-made caves cut to form a temple complex dedicated to Shiva and filled with carvings of his legends.

From the inside looking out

                       

Some of the carvings in the cave

After visiting the caves we headed back to our hotel. One of the poshest hotels I think I have ever stayed at! After a swim in the pool, we indulged in a champagne high tea as a Christmas dinner substitute!

An evening of indulgence

The following day we did a city tour. We started again at the Gateway of India and had a wander around the British Heritage Buildings around the Gateway of India. The High Court, Prince of Wales museum etc. Then we caught a bus to the Gandhi museum and had a bit of time wandering around there. A couple of stops for local snacks and to see a local market were followed by a brief train ride to see Dhobi Ghat, the city's open air laundry. We then took a taxi to finish the tour at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus). This was the first railway station in India and I have to say, the most beautiful station I've ever seen. A well deserved UNESCO world heritage site I think! 

One of the heritage buildings - I'm afraid I don't remember what it is!

The outside of the station

And the inside

 On our final day in Mumbai one of Ben's colleagues who is from Mumbai hired a car for us. At his suggestion, we headed for Kelwar Beach, which turned out to be a bit further than we anticipated, ~80km North of Mumbai! It was a nice beach, but it was a pretty long time to spend in the car for it. We had a good day though, and on the way back we went to the Kanheri caves. This time Buddhist caves in a national park on the outskirts of Mumbai. These were not particularly decorated like the ones at Elephanta, but there were loads of them. 109 to be exact! Again, cut out of the rock. Most were quite small and meant for the monks to live in, but some were bigger and looked like halls for eating and temples.

Not quite donkeys on the beach, but probably more fun to watch!

A statue in the entrance to one of the temple caves 

Kanheri caves

The view from the caves across the national park to the city in the distance

And that was Christmas - done!

A very soggy Hampi

Hi Everyone,

So this is the last post about Jane and Dennis' visit, and then I'm nearly up to date. And just in time for the next guests!

So, after a few days back at home recovering from a busy trip to Kerala (or working, poor Ben) we headed off to Hampi on an overnight bus. A sleeper coach, which was an experience! The bus of course, kept IST (Indian Standard Time), which is about an hour late. I'm not really sure what I was expecting from the bus, I knew it had flat beds, but I somehow wasn't expecting it to be quite like it was. If you look at the picture of Jane and Dennis on the left hand side there are double bunks, and on the right are single ones. I don't think I'd like to get a double bunk with someone I didn't know, even if there was a curtain you could pull across!

Ready for bed on the coach!

It was certainly a strange experience, and not the most comfortable night I've ever had. I think it actually would have been easier to sleep in a chair. The general bumpiness of Indian roads is a really strange feeling when lying down!

We arrived in Hospet at about 8am and had a quick chai and a much needed loo break and caught an auto to Hampi. Having agreed to a tour with the auto drivers in the afternoon, we sorted ourselves out at our hotel, had an excellent breakfast across the road, and then headed out for an explore!

Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara empire from the 14th to 17th Century and the ruins, spread over 25sqkm, include a huge number of temples, palaces etc. Made rather beautiful as it is surrounded by a landscape of hills and boulders.

A great view of the main temple - just before the rain

The tour with our auto drivers in the afternoon turned out to be a bit of a disaster really. It soon became quite apparent that they really didn't know anything about the ruins and when they hired a guide for us I was the only one who understood any of what he said. Added to that half way through the first sight it started raining, really raining! We waited a while and it pretty much stopped, so we pushed on. On the way to the next stop it started really pouring again and there was a good dose of thunder and lightening added to the mix. Ben and I ended up waiting for about 30mins, wondering where on earth Jane and Dennis' auto had got to.

It turned out their auto had broken down en route. After we had gone to rescue them we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. Which, of course, had no power!

                                                Goats in the rain, but where                        To the rescue! We pushed
                                                have Jane & Dennis got to?!                         them all the way home! 

The next day was much more successful! We joined a bicycle tour run but the government tourist office. The guide was much easier to understand and it was nice to have company. It was also much cheaper, we most certainly got ripped off the day before!

One of the temples from above

In the afternoon we used the auto rickshaw that Jane and Dennis had for the morning tour (they weren't so sure about the cycling) and headed to the Vittala temple complex which is a little far from the centre for cycling. This is where the musical pillars, which we had heard a lot about are, and the stone chariot which is the symbol of Karnataka tourism.

Dennis and the stone chariot

Apparently when you hit different pillars in the temple, each one makes the noise of a different musical instrument. Unfortunately, it seems they are no longer letting people hit the columns :-( they were also doing some work on the temple. Still, they looked quite impressive.

I think the nice thing about Hampi was that you could get some idea of how big it was. To be honest, you get a bit of temple fatigue after a while, but in between the temples there are lots of covered walkways that used to be bazaars and tanks (reservoirs). There were also a couple of palaces for good measure and (possibly the coolest thing!) some elephant stables. 

So then it was time to head back to the village for some dinner and then back into Hospet for the overnight bus back to Bangalore. Funnily enough, we had a fairly lazy day on Sunday when we got back. But we pulled ourselves together enough to go out for dinner in the evening. Ben and I had been looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint. We went to a small restaurant called Caperberry at UB (standing for United Breweries) City (it's the kind of Mall you never buy anything in, full of designer shops etc.). Anyway, the chef takes his inspiration from Heston Blumenthal and does a tasting menu with similar ideas such as sous vide cooking and use of liquid nitrogen. Needless to say, after a 6 course tasting menu and a matching flight of wine, we were very full and a touch squiffy! It was excellent though, and about a 10th of the price of the Fat Duck! 

Some very satisfied customers! 

An excellent send off for Jane and Dennis who left for Delhi the following afternoon and from there back home.