"Caves"

You know how sometimes when you go sightseeing you have this idea in your mind of what something will be like and sometimes it is completely different in a way that really disappoints; and other times it is completely different in a way that is amazingly better? Well Sunday I had both. The first thing I wanted to see was this mosque that is ‘on an island’. I put that in quotes because there is a walkway that goes out to the mosque. According to books the walkway gets covered up during high tide turning it into an island. Well, driving through the city by the water I saw a building and asked the driver if that was it…it was. Didn’t look at all mosque-like to me, just like a building, and apparently the walkway only gets covered up during high tide in monsoon season. So while I was imagining a magical floating mosque instead I got something that looked like, well, a building at the end of a walkway.
Onward to sight number two. This was Elephanta Island to see the Elephanta Caves. The caves were created in around 500-600 AD and are a Hindu temple with wall carvings of some of the gods. To get there you have to take a ferry ride which is a little over an hour each way. I was so excited for the ferry ride since I miss being near water and feeling the breeze off the water, the air in Delhi doesn’t really move. The ride there was so nice. It was really hot but the boat was covered and with the breeze you barely noticed the heat. After landing at the island you walk a little while past little stands with people selling fruits and veggies then you enter an area with a sign warning you about the monkeys saying they can be dangerous to which I thought “cool, monkeys!”.
So, you get to the bottom of this hill with some stairs. The stairs are lined with little stands selling elephant statues, T-shirts, purses, the usual tourist stuff; and you can rent a chair to sit in and be carried up the stairs. I thought that was a tad bit indulgent so I walked. Word of advice, if you are there and it is at all warm, take the chair…there are over 100 stairs and I was melting once I got to the top. (it was about 97 that day and humid). But when I got to the top there were the monkeys! There were even some baby monkeys, pictures to follow when I have time to upload them. They were cute but if you had food they would come and grab it from you so the warning was useful.
Anyway (I feel like I'm rambling, sorry), if you are like me and you hear the word ‘caves’ you think of something down and inside, so I thought that after going up all those steps I would have to go down more steps. Not true. The caves are more like temples built into a hill, but they are largely open and the sculptures are HUGE! I have no clue how high they went but there were probably about 10 or 12 different panels, each of which had a different sculpture of a god; maybe about 20 feet high. One of them was just of Shiva’s head. It is difficult to explain, seeing as I had read 3 different guide books and it wasn’t at all what I expected. If you are ever in Mumbai I highly recommend going because it is a unique place and really beautiful. Sometimes places of worship can lose their spirituality when they become a tourist destination but there was definitely a feeling of holiness to the place…maybe it was just the incense that was burning but it felt special to me.
The walk back down was much easier and after a yummy lunch I hopped back on the ferry. While on the ferry I had someone take my picture since I have no photos of myself here and well, after a morning of sightseeing in 97 degree heat I did not look at all attractive, as a matter of fact I looked decidedly uckey, so the picture has been deleted. I will get physical proof of my being here soon enough. I’ll just have to have a picture taken when I begin sightseeing, not when I finish.