Elephanta Island

There were were. Mumbai, one day after the wedding and almost a whole day before we had to go back to Pune.

One thing that I find fascinating are those cars that you sometimes see somewhwere in the middle of the city. The whole life is hectic and people are busy, just one car seems to have been forgotten by its owner at the side of the street and likely has silently watched the history of the street for the last 10 years, without ever being touched by someone. ... I like it. :)


Do you remember those buildings? On the left the Taj Hotel and in front of it the Gateway of India. Both are famous sights in the touristy Colaba neighbourhood in Mumbai and also the point from where the boat trip to Elephanta Island starts.


The trip took about an hour an sometimes made the impression to me of driving through an industrial area ...

We arrived on Elephanta Island, it is a small and calm island, that is about 10 km away from Mumbai. Not many people live there and it is not possible to stay overnight. Mostly tourists go there to visit the popular caves.


The Elephanta Caves are of unknown date but the carvings have been estimated by historians in the range of late 5th to late 8th century.



Included in the fee for the boat trip and the entrance to the caves was this guide, who told us about the details of the carvings, which all have to tell some interesting stories about the life of gods.


In this carving for example you can see the Hindu God Shiva and his wife Goddess Parvati. I think they are dancing, if I remember it correctly.



I'm actually not the biggest fan of monkeys, but as long as there are no Elephants around to take pictures of, what can I do?
It was way too hot and humid, so this guy is doing the only right thing.




On the way down from the caves we could hardly escape all the souvenirs and things that people wanted to sell to us. Trying not to make eye contact is always a good idea, but we ended up buying a few things nevertheless.


Going to Elephanta Island is a nice trip for half a day, if you stay in Mumbai and want to get out of the city for a bit.

Wedding

I know I need to catch up, so let's start with the wedding.

We were invited by one of our colleagues to his sister's wedding in Mumbai. So we went there on Thursday night to be ready early on Friday morning for a new experience.

The entire wedding lastet five days, but we only joined for half a day. Since the bride and the groom are both US citizens, one family originated in the south of India and one originated in Maharashtra, it was a mixture of people and also the customs were from different parts of India.
As you can see there were quite a few people.


We were prepared! I was wearing a Kurta and even had the perfect shoes for it. Luckily I only had to wear them for a few hours, they were horribly uncomfortable. Some of the girls got sarees before, so we perfectly blended in. (... almost)


We started with breakfast, served on a banana leaf.


The girls got dressed in their sarees with the help of some Indian women.


The nice colleague (and his mom) who invited us and made sure that we didn't get lost in Mumbai's suburb.


And the bride and the groom.



You can hardly tell where the Europeans are, can you? ;-)


This was our lunch.


And the whole group of interns:

Parvati Temple

Sometimes you see a rikshaw with estimated 50 kids in it. But for us, four people in one rikshaw was new. It works, that's the proof. But it is not comfortable...


Anyway, here are some more pictures from Pune.
Next weekend we will be back in Mumbai, therefore we decided to stay here this weekend. There are still a few things that we didn't get to see yet. One of them is the Parvati Temple.

We were told that it is impossible for smokers to get up the steep hill. Luckily none of us smokes, so we were pretty optimistic and noticed that it is not bad at all. At least in the morning as long as the heat is still bearable.


The beautiful temples were definitely worth to climb up the stairs.





You have a good view over the city ...






... and might see some small animals in the trees.


At the bottom of the hill the contrast between poor and rich is, once more, very visible.



We went to a small park and tried to get out of the sun.




New country, old game: Anyone any idea what exactly those bat-like animals are? There is something like an Indian Flying Fox (Indischer Riesenflughund) and they looked pretty huge, up there in the top of the tree. So maybe that's it? But honestly, I have not the slightest idea.




Finally we decided to go to the Pataleshwar Caves as a last destination for the day. We took 2 rikshaws, and one rikshaw arrived. I was in the one that ended up at the wrong place, because the driver simply didn't know where the caves are. However, at least we were closer than when we started. So we thought about walking, but since we had no clue ourselves where to go, we took another rikshaw.

Of course this time we were more careful and asked the driver to assure us that he really knows where the caves are. We ended up at this temple:


Not quite the caves and we don't know what temple it was (maybe you can read it?), but probably our driver thought it was a nicer place anyway and therefore better to take us there than to the caves.

But THIS time we could walk and actually found the place we wanted to go to.

Matheran

Last Saturday we went to Matheran. Being 90 km away from Mumbai and 120 km from Pune, it is a popular weekend destination that is relatively easy to reach from both cities. (Especially when your company organizes a car that picks you up in the morning to take you there and that brings you back in the evening, ... even if you suddenly find yourself in another village and have no idea where you are.)

Matheran means “forest on top”, and that’s pretty much what it is. We were welcomed by a few monkeys who immediately took a bag that one of us had dropped for a second and brought it high into the trees.



Since all vehicles are banned in Matheran we had to leave our car and got the offer to see the place on horseback. The alternative would have been to walk, and after some struggles all of us happened to sit on a horse.
I was lucky to get a horse that was tall enough to carry me without making me look too ridiculous... ;-)


The forest is pretty nice. Unfortunately we arrived there too late (for my taste) and we only got a last glimpse of the beautiful morning atmosphere. (Since we had to leave before dawn, we also didn't get to see any nice birds. So if you ever go there, make sure to arrive in the morning or for dawn, I am sure it is worth it)



Our horses (and the guys who made sure we stay on the horses) brought us to some viewing points to look down to the surrounding mountains. There are quite many of them in Matheran.


While it got warmer and warmer outside, we really enjoyed the cool feeling under the trees. Compared to the heat of Pune, where it is hard to find a green spot nearby, it was a nice and fresh alternative.



We had delicious breakfast/lunch in front of Charlotte Lake (That's enough of the lake to show you ;-) I am too spoiled lately when it comes to beautiful lakes) ...


... and went back to our horses to continue the sightseeing.


It is a pretty touristy place. Therefore we always had the opportunity to buy drinks or to play more or less interesting games.


The village of Matheran itself sometimes reminds of a city in a wild west movie. There are horses everywhere and the moment you leave your horse behind, you can be sure to get asked right away how you feel about seeing Matheran on horseback.




Oh and of course there is an alternative to horses. You can get a rickshaw, which is pulled and pushed by 3 man, to take you around.


When it was time to go back, we went on the famous toy train (they call it like that) that goes down the mountains and connects Matheran to the next village.


ok ok :) not like that. ... like that:



I am sure it is nice and cool to stand outside on the side of the train, but would you want to do that looking down the steep mountains right next to you? We prefered to sit inside. Boring Europeans.







So we finally reached the last stop of the train, a village called Neral. We were told before that it was close to the place where our driver had dropped us of. Well, it wasn't, and we also couldn't reach him on his cell phone for a while. But finally he called us back, picked us up, and everything was surprisingly easy.

As a conclusion: I think that Matheran is a pretty nice place when you want to escape from Pune or Mumbai and don't have much time to go to a place farther away. However next time I would definitely try to be there in the morning or evening, to see more of the wildlife (maybe stay a night) and to enjoy the atmosphere in the foggy forest. Plus I would walk and not go on horseback. It was nice since we didn't have much time, but it I think it would have been a better experience to be independent and to explore it on our own feet.