Warning: This is a blog that lacks intellectuality. My levels of IQ stand as lofty as that of Paris Hilton's pet pomeranian and my knowledge of current affairs is as deep as Mandira Bedi's of cricket. I mostly ramble about the trivialities of my everyday life, F.R.I.E.N.D.S, friends n family, movies, cricket; basically thoughts that would enter the mind of any Sita, Gita or Rita.

Note: I was busy drooling over the pages of Playboy during my English classes in school. So please bare with any grammatical blunders or the obvious lack of classic literary writing. (I was a little confused between the selection of 'bear' and 'bare' in the sentence above so I resorted to my favorite inky-pinky-ponky routine)

If you happen to pass by, feel free to register your presence. coz yeh duniya bahot chhoti hai aur yeh zindagi bahot lambi. Kya pata, someday somewhere, you and I might end up discussing about it over a cup of garam garam masala tea.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Elephanta island, Elephanta caves

During my last trip home/Mumbai, I visited Elephanta caves. The trip started from the Gateway of India, from where we took a ferry.

















Parde mein rehne do, parda na uthao...


One can see curtain like things hanging down on the right side of the Gateway of India. Thats coz renovation work was going on.

















The 3rd from right was our ferry


















Parking lot! There were other lots of ferries awaiting their turns


















There were other cool n fancy James Bond-type boats too


















October 12, 1492 was when Columbus discovered Amrica. This is the photo of the ship he sailed on. Yes, I am serious. See, it even has the name Columbus written on it(enlarge the pic). What more proof do you want :D


















We came across this really huge ship. It had a No Smoking sign on the deck. Dunno why..


















The side view of the huge ship


It took us about 30-40 minutes to reach the Elephanta island. A drop-point has been made for the ferry. Its a 10 min walk from the drop-point to the main island area. Or if someone is too lazy or acting too sissy like me coz of the sun, one can take the toy-train.

















This toy train was also used in the Bollywood flick 'One Two Three' (Advisable not to watch the movie if you have not heard of it. Somethings are better left unseen :) )


















This is where the main island area starts. Quite a few stalls for snacks, cold drinks were there.






















This is the photo with appropriate explanations. Enlarge the pic for better understanding.


We had to climb a lot of steep steps to reach the caves. On the way, we saw some of these creatures:

















I don't know what these birds are


















A chweet lil baby monkey wrapped by her not-so-chweet mother monkey


















A few more monkeys


















Another monkey doing some monkeygiri


















Inside the Elephanta caves


















Phoreigner taking photus


















Carvings inside the caves. Quite a few were broken


















More carvings

















A grand sculpture


















A pic with mom-dad in front of the sculpture. Pretty huge.


There are about 5 caves on the island. Following are pics of other caves

















The mouth of the cave


















Inside the cave.


















Me, posing in front of one of the caves


















Find me if you can!


We were really exhausted after all the cave-seeing in the scorching heat. We decided to eat at the MTDC restaurant on the island. The food was very ok-types. Dosas seemed the safest bet. Mom was a little disappointed that I had to eat dosa-idlis there too. coz I eat it almost everyday in namma Bengaluru.

















The view from the hotel was lovely.


On our way back, we saw boats lined in a row.

















Notice the different flags on the boats.


















That was one huge ship!


















The Gateway and the Taj hotel


















Me, the Gateway and the Taj hotel

















Back to safer lands. Thats the Tendulkar's on the right side in the pic. Gotta dine there the next time I go to Mumbai.

PS: Formatting this post was real irritating.

23 comments:

Kanan said...

AWESOME! you literally made me relive my visit there a couple of months back. I loved the place so much. Thanks for sharing your set of pics. :)

Urv said...

~kanan
:) Most welcome. The heat did take its toll on me though :( There was this Cannon Hill up there, but had no courage to go there :(

Stupidosaur said...

Ruk 3 din.
Mein busy hai thoda.
Proper comment 3 din ke baad maarna hoon.

Plus I have a suggestion
"I was a little confused between the selection of 'bear' and 'bare'"

could be made into

"I was a little confused between the selection of 'beer' and 'bare'" ;)

Kanan said...

Awww sorry to hear that, Urv. We had my 10-month old nephew and a 4-yr old niece with us and the heat was as usual. My cousin stayed back with the little one and 4-yd old actually climbed with four of us adults up to the cannon hill. The view from up there is fabulous and so is the cannon. I will share my photos with you soon. :)

Keshi said...

great pics wow!

Keshi.

Urv said...

~stupidosaur
rukta hai apun...

aur woh header likhte waqt main actual mein 'bear' likha tha.. isliye aise hi rehne diya :)

~kanan
Aah! kiddos definitely are more energetic than grown ups :)
I was planning to climb up to the Cannon Hill but on the way met a phoreigner who was panting and had turned all red. And he told me he had come back halfway only.. I gave it up then :)

Waiting for the pics :D

~keshi
:D Thank you. Had been planning to upload since a long time.

Sanchit said...

me remember gng here when i was 6 :)

Urv said...

~sanchit
arre sahi.. :)

ceedy said...

Where are you from?

Thanks for sharing the pics of mumbai...

loved the one with detailed explanations....

Keshi said...

cool :)

Keshi.

Urv said...

~ceedy
jo, aam to hun born n brought up in Gujarat chhu..

Right now am living in Bengaluru

aur mom dad Mumbai mein hi.. to mumbai gaya tha tab ki pics hai.. am going to upload few more pics of mumbai later :)

~keshi
How did you know that I use Dermi cool!! Thanda thanda cool cool :D

ceedy said...

Cool....

Me also from mumbai...but rt now in US

You shld make some friends on the blog so when you visit you can have fun...

will wait for your pics?

and which area do your parents live in mumbai?

Urv said...

~ceedy
Cool.. From today onwards, 'can we frandssss' :)

Parents currently living in East.. Andheri East :D

ceedy said...

pharands as in gujjuland or friends as in angrez land :P

cool....and(e) is nice area - me from town...tardeo...

Urv said...

alya, Orkut waale frandsss :)

Aah tardeo.. dad's office was in tardeo only.. beside crossroads.. shifted to andheri recently..

any plans of visiting India in the near future?

Solitaire said...

Oy!! I didn't know you were a gujjubhai!

:)

What is "tendulkars"?

Nice pics. Nice formatting too. ;)

ceedy said...

was busy..I have a profile on orkut but hardly use it...

send me an invite to chintandesai@gmail.com

ok...chalo ave tya pan malaye

Urv said...

~solitaire
Thank you :)

Yes gujjuben, I am a gujjubhai :D

'Tendulkars' is the chain of restaurants opened by apna Tendulkar. Sachin Tendulkar :)

Urv said...

~ceedy
Ya me too cant do much orkutting from office. Have send you the invite bhai :)

Kanan said...

Der se aaye durust aaye... your post finally did it. I'd have never created this post if it weren't for yours.

I also think your photos are much better than mine, specially the cave ones. :)

My Elephanta visit photos

Anonymous said...

Well written article.

Dimpy Roy said...

Very nice collection of Elephanta Caves. The cave is also famous for the exquisite and vibrant sculptures. Check out all details, timings, entry fee, best time to visit of Elephanta Caves.

Unknown said...

The Elephanta Caves (otherwise called Caves of Gharapuri) are arranged on Gharapuri Island, which was renamed Elephanta Island by the Portuguese and which is situated in Mumbai.
Car rental hire services in andaman
Andaman holiday tour packages

 
CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS