Elephanta!

Yesterday was another fun day of Mumbai exploration. After a night of partying until 3am at a Mumbai dance club, we woke up late, shook the cobwebs from our heads, and headed down on the train to south Mumbai. Michael and I decided to spend the extra cash for first class tickets (78 rupees versus 7 rupees, a difference of about $1.50). We were told that the first class car was right next to the women's car, so we lined up right next to the girls and prepared to board. Unfortunately, when the train arrived, we found that we had been misinformed, and the first class car was nowhere to be found. After it became clear that we couldn't possibly find it in time, we jumped up into the 2nd class car, threw some elbows, and made it on safely. It ended up being as crowded, hot, and smelly as ever, and we basically ended up wasting our 71 rupees.

Nevertheless, we made it downtown, and we hopped a quick cab to the Gateway to India, where we caught the ferry across Mumbai Harbor to Elephanta Island, which is a really cool island that has a number of caves containing ancient Hindu carvings. The ferry ride was about 45 minutes long, and it was really peaceful and relaxed. When we arrived at the island, we walked for about 2km up a pathway on a hill lined with vendors selling souvenirs and a bunch of monkeys jumping around. I got a few great pics of the monkeys...the baby monkeys were the cutest ones, by far. At the top of the hill, the vendors disappeared, although there were still some weird Indian ladies that kept asking us to give them money to let us take their picture. Finally, though, once we paid our entry fee and entered the actual government park portion of the island, the vendors and annoying picture ladies couldn't talk to us anymore, and we had a pretty peaceful walk around the caves and the general area. The caves themselves were amazing. I always like the feeling of walking through places that are extremely ancient, especially those places that have some sort of religious significance, etc. I don't really know what these particular caves were used for, since a lot of the history of Elephanta isn't known, but there were all kinds of cool Hindu statues, etc. We also got to hike around the island for a while, which was really nice. Again, it was just great to get away from the craziness that is Mumbai.

More on this...as great as it is to be here in Mumbai, I think we're all kind of ready to get out of this city. The traffic, pollution, poverty, beggars/annoying people trying to sell you stuff on the street, and the basic rush and hassle of everything just kind of wears on you after a while. I really can't wait to get up to north India, especially the mountains, where it will be totally peaceful. This is not to say that I am not having a good experience here in Mumbai. It's a really cool experience, but like I said, the city just kind of wears you down, and it will be SOOOOO nice to have some peace and quiet.

On that note, we've been doing a bit of planning for the post-Mumbai portion of the trip, and we've come up with a tentative plan. Basically, we're going to spend a day in Delhi, a day in Agra (where the Taj Mahal is), 2 days in Jaipur (the capital of the state of Rajasthan, also known as the "Pink City"), and then we're going to take the Himalayan Queen train up to an old British hill station called Shimla. It's supposed to be beautiful, and we're planning on staying there for about a week to unwind. If the urge strikes us, we can also go from there to Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj, where the Dalai Lama lives. That would be a really cool experience, but we don't want to get too travel-crazy. I guess it will depend on how we feel.

As for the more immediate future, I think tonight we're going to find a theater and check out a Bollywood movie. I have no idea what to expect, but that's kind of the norm in this country! I'll be sure to include something on my next post on what it's like.