Day 112: Mumbai, India

Friday, 28 April 2017
At Sea — Arabian Sea

Stats @ Ship’s Time 7:30p (IST) … UTC 2:00p (28 April)
Temp: 82.6F (28.1C)
Position: 18.53.95N / 71.56.05E

The thing about Mumbai is you go five yards and all of human existence is revealed.
It’s an incredible cavalcade of life, and I love that.
~ Julian Sands ~

An excellent second day of touring in Mumbai, India.  The country is now solidly in the “return to see more” column of our ever-growing list for more extensive travels.

Our day started very early with the alarm going off at 5:30a.  But both Mui and I were already up and about.  By 6:00a we were ready for the room service breakfast that was delivered promptly at the appointed time.  Forty-five minutes later we were meeting our group at the gangway — the same people from yesterday.  The authorities had closed the port gates at 11:00p last night … not due to open until 7:00a.  That worked out perfectly with our 7:30a tour pick-up.

Soon after we re-embarked the ship yesterday, Insignia moved from its spot in front of the terminal to a spot a little ways down the dock to make room for a humongous cargo vessel to take our place.  Why it needed a terminal is beyond me.  Not that it mattered since we didn’t have to walk to the terminal to meet up with Husaina.  The authorities had re-arranged the fencing to create a passage into the dirt field across from the gangway.  Tour busses and guides were awaiting passengers there.

After showing our landing cards to the guards, we joined up with Husaina, who quickly worked out a shuttle arrangement to take us the short distance to the main port gate.  Going through the security check point here, and after once again showing our landing cards, we were on our way with the same driver from yesterday at the helm of the minibus.

Since ferries to Elephanta Island don’t start operating until 9:00a, we began our tour with a drive to the wholesale flower market in Dadar.  If we were looking for the ‘real” India we’d read and heard about — the poverty stricken slums where the poorest of the poor live and where local color abounds — we found it on this portion of our day.  It was quite the contrast to what we saw yesterday.

The market is where flowers are sold in bulk.  They are bought by the kilo and used to decorate, amongst other venues, temples and wedding halls.  Florists in town also come here to buy their daily stock, but I got the impression that was a secondary line of business.  When we arrived it was to find chaos everywhere.  At least that’s what it looked like to me, but there was a rhythm going … and woe be it if anyone got in its way.

Truck loads of flowers — mostly marigolds, but others as well — were being unloaded outside and carried inside where crates were stacked 5-6- and even 10-high.  On one side, a garbage truck was crushing and compacting marigolds … I’m guessing the rejects from yesterday.  Next to it was a pile of marigolds on the ground, crushed underfoot as heavily-laden porters rushed to carry their loads to the vendor stalls inside.  On the sidewalk — and spilling on to the road — vendors prepared street food that tempted passersby with aromas wafting up from grills and hot plates.  Inside, narrow aisles separated stalls filled with baskets and baskets of flowers — again, mostly marigolds.  There were flowers strewn about the floor — no one paid attention to them … they just walked or carted their goods right over the blooms.  Some of the stalls sold supplies for wrapping flowers and making garlands.  In stalls on the perimeter of the market men sat on raised platforms, busily stringing rose petals and other flowers together to make garlands.

The action at the seafood market next door was even more frenetic.  Some of us walked across the bouncy pile of sawdust strewn on the ground to sop up the water from the bins of fresh catch that were being unloaded … catfish still wiggling in a last ditch effort to survive.  The smell that assaulted my senses was overwhelming, so I didn't go inside to check out the market, but Mui did.  Instead, I stood and watched as one vendor weighed out the fish a buyer was waiting to cart away … it was a smelly and wet business … but it didn’t give the men pause.

What an experience to see these markets … but I’m not sure I care to repeat it.  The chaotic pace, with men running around, yelling to make way for them, the narrow aisles, the crowds, the cacophony … it was all a bit too much for me.

From the market, we made our way back into the city — to the Gateway of India … erected to commemorate the 1911 landing of King George V and Queen Mary in what was then Bombay.  We saw this monument from outside the perimeter fence yesterday.  Now it was time to see it from inside.  The Gateway stands at a spot that was once a crude jetty used by the fisherfolk in the city.  Later the area was converted for use as a landing spot for British governors and other dignitaries.  Thus, the monument — constructed in 1913 and inaugurated 11 years later — would have been the first thing seen by visitors arriving here by boat.  And it was through the Gateway of India that the last British troops symbolically walked through when they left the country in 1948.

To get inside the fence line we first went through a cursory security checkpoint — there were three terror attacks in the vicinity … twice in 2003 and again in 2008 when gunmen attacked the nearby Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel.  Today the only attack we saw was by pigeons vying for the tidbits being strewn about the square by people — locals and visitors alike.

Since we had a ferry to catch, we dallied just long enough to take photos of the monument before heading to the nearby boat pier.  As it turns out, the first ferry boat was too crowded.  So, we scrambled on to the second one.  We might have met our goal of getting ahead of the O tour group, except that another ferry tied up to ours and used it as a platform … the boat was the O charter!  But it worked out OK later because the tourgoers left to return to their boat soon after we got to the cave temple.

Elephanta — so named by the Portuguese for a large stone elephant that has since collapsed and been moved — is the Island of Shiva.   It’s original name — Gharapuri — literally means “the city of caves.”  The island is home to cave temples listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  What makes these caves worthy of the listing is the collection of rock art inside — by most accounts the most striking in all of India.  The age of the caves is still debated, but it is generally accepted that they are from sometime between 450-750 AD.

The Island is about 7 miles (11 km) offshore from Mumbai.  It took us a little over an hour to reach it — with the tide going our way.  That says something about the speed at which our boat traveled.  But there was a nice breeze and Husaina told us which side to sit on to be in the shade, so all was good.

Once we arrived at the island, we were hoping to take the small choo-choo train to the site entrance.  This, we figured, would save us many steps.  Unfortunately, as we later saw when we passed it, repairs were being made to the engine.  So we walked the length of the very long pier — no shade except for what protection our wide-brimmed hats provided.  At the gate, Husaina paid something called a passenger tax … INR 5/person (less than USD $.10) and in we went through the turnstile.

After a quick potty break and a few minutes to photograph the mischievous monkeys scampering about, we began to climb the 120 steps up to the caves.  It was not a particularly difficult walk.  Either side of the steps was lined with stalls filled with tourist gee-gaws that vendors were hawking by calling out to us as we walked by.  Blue tarps provided a shade canopy overhead — we were grateful for it, but the tarp also cut off any breeze we might have otherwise had along the way.  Every once in a while something would go thump above us — a monkey jumping down from a tree on its way to wherever it was going.

For those unable to walk up there were sedans carried by four men — for the price of USD $30-40 R/T.  Boris and Star took advantage of the service.  They were both held hostage to the sedan carriers on the way down, though.  The carriers asked for more than the agreed upon price.  One paid the difference; the other didn’t … they both got down safe and sound.

At the top — inside the gate to the site — Husaina paid the admission — INR 500/person (~ USD $7.75) for us foreign nationals.  We noted there was also a fee for video cameras.  Mui was set to pay it when the guard mentioned no videography was allowed inside the caves.  Photos OK, but no videos.  Makes no sense, but their site … their rules.  At least we found out about the restriction before he paid the fee.

In all, there are two sets of caves here — five dedicated to Hinduism and two dedicated to Buddhism.  We were here to visit the Hindu caves — and not all of them.  We simply didn’t have time to see them all.  So we focused on the main cave (#1) and the east court attached to it.  The cave used to be a Hindu place of worship until the Portuguese began to rule in India in 1534.  In later years, the cave was severely damaged.  In the 1970s it was renovated to what we saw today and came under the auspices of the Archaeological Survey of India.

When we arrived at the entrance to the cave, we found ourselves in a cavernous space held up by massive rock-cut pillars.  The columns looked like they were bulging under the weight of the rock above — perhaps purposefully so designed to give visitors a “weighty impression.”  We stood as a group in front of a niche featuring a statue of Mahayogi Shiva sitting in the lotus position and listened to Husaina, who gave us a synopsis of Hinduism.  She also told us a bit about the caves.  I took some notes and combined that information with what I read in the small booklet I bought from a guy on the boat to come up with much of the information that follows.

The temples at Elephanta Caves are dedicated to Shiva in his many forms and actions.  He is the supreme god of the Shaiva tradition, and his name means the “Auspicious One.”  He is considered to be both creator and destroyer.  In some forms he is gentle; in others he is fierce.  He bestows prosperity on those who worship him; but is austere as well.  He is both male and female.  Hence the reference to his many forms — described as manifest and representational (abstract/non-manifest) … the latter known as a lingam … a word that simply means symbolic.  Some texts say that the lingam represents the “infinite cosmic column of fire;” others say it is a phallic symbol.

After Husaina’s brief lecture, we wandered around as a group for a while.  She pointed out another niche in which Shiva is represented as the Lord of the Dancers.  In yet another, Shiva was portrayed with a half-woman body … this one I knew had bothered a fellow-passenger considerably, so I took particular note of it.  The half man/half woman depiction — known as Ardhanarishwar Shiva — is meant to represent “Divine Unity.”   Viewing it as art, I didn’t find anything particularly wrong with this depiction.

The most striking image of Shiva was the one in the center back of the cave.  The colossal face of the god looked out at me from a dark niche.  And at first I didn’t notice that there were actually three heads — one facing out towards me, and one on either side of it.  This depiction, Husaina told us, is known as Mahesh Murti — the Great Lord.  She pointed out that the calm central face represents the Tapursha or Mahadeva.  It has thick lips and a chest decorated with necklaces.  The hair is piled high on the head and is encircled with a big tiara.  To the left is the face of Shiva as the destroyer — Aghora or Bhairava.  It is appropriately in the shadows.  Symbols of death — a skull and serpents — decorate the hair.  The head to the right is the beautiful god — Vamadeva or Uma.  It is the female depiction and has more delicate features and exudes a sense of creation and solicitude.  Pearls and fresh flowers and leaves decorate the hair.

As the group continued to study these figures, I headed to the East Court.  In the center back I found the Shiva Shrine, but there were several people already inside, so I wandered over to the dark chamber on my right.  Here a dancer was posing for photographs, replicating the poses of the dancers in the panels decorating the wall.  I watched her graceful poses for a while before going in to find more rock carvings, including one of Ganesh, the elephant god.

I wasn’t quite ready to leave when Mui came to tell me the group was already heading down.  Admittedly, I was sweating buckets and drained from the heat and humidity, but the art was fascinating.  Slowly we made our way back down the 120 steps, dodging vendors calling out for us to stop and check out their goods.  We said no thanks and kept going.

Turns out that the train engine had been fixed, so we waited about 10 minutes for it to return to our end of the tracks.  We probably could have walked back to the pier in that time, but none of us were in the mood to make the long walk under the mid-day sun — the temp was 91F (33C) with high humidity again.  I think it was INR 10/person (~ USD $.15) for the ride — included, as were the admissions, in the INR 3,750/person (~ USD $58) price for today’s tour.  The wait was worth it.

We were on the boat by 12:15p, but we waited 30 minutes for it to fill up.  Husaina again told us which side would be in the shade — mostly.  With the breeze adding to our comfort once we got going, it wasn’t a bad ride … but it was a long one … or at least felt like it because we waited so long for the boat to fill up.  Something to keep in mind for independent travelers.

The boat arrived back at the pier near the Gateway of India around 2:00p.  We had hoped to stop at a shop Husaina knew of to check out some Indian style clothing — she had some beautiful outfits that we thought would be perfect for our visit to the Emirates and other Middle Eastern countries.  But we had to forego that due to our time constraints.  We had just enough time to stop at a pharmacy to pick up some antibiotics to supplement Mui’s stash for sinus infections — three boxes for INR 1200 (under USD $20) … what a bargain.

It was nearing 3:00p when Husaina returned us to the port.  Bidding her and our driver farewell, we headed inside after one last check of our landing cards, hopped on the shuttle and returned to the ship.  Another landing card check by the authorities and soon we were scanning our ship’s IDs.  Dropping off our last landing card for India in the box provided for the collection of the cards, we headed to the cabin.
Although we were drained from the heat and humidity, we went up to the Terrace Café for a quick bite to eat before returning to the cabin and basically crashing.  A cool shower went a long ways towards reviving me, but I wanted to do nothing but chill.  No reading; no writing.  Luckily the veranda was in the shade and I was able to sit outside and enjoy the cool breeze once Insignia got underway shortly after 4:00p.

India — it surprised us … pleasantly so.  I honestly thought I would not be able to handle the crowds … the smells … the chaos.  But I did.  I was told that I would either love India or hate it.  I can’t say that I fell in love with it.  But I am intrigued by it.  And now that I have a better sense of India, I wouldn’t mind returning to see more of the country.  But definitely at another time of the year when it isn’t quite as hot and humid as it was the two days we were here this time.

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