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.
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 Elephanta caves are man-made caves cut to form a temple complex dedicated to Shiva and filled with carvings of his legends.
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.
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| The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel |
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| The Gateway of India |
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| The Taj Mahal Palace and the Gateway of India from the ferry |
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| 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!
That's a good photo of you at Taj Mahal.
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