I still remember that fateful day when I first time landed in Delhi – it was 10th of June 1996. Straight from New Delhi station I told that auto guy to take me to India Gate as that was the first thing I wanted to see. I had no idea of size and public of Delhi at that time and had no clue whether it was on the way to my cousins home or off the way – who cared.
Last year when we landed in Mumbai – I mean the moment we came out of the Pune – Mumbai expressway – wifey turned down the window and asked the first person on the road “Which way to Gate way of India?”. I was not surprised as she is my wife after all.
Last week when my wife’s brother, friend and a cousin visited us. The little guy was just nine years old and the moment he stepped in my home – he came straight to me and asked “When will we go to see the Big Sea and Shah Rukh Khan?” and I was not surprised as I could see myself in him.
Saturday we went to Bandra Reclamation and I told him this is the Sea and once we finish off chilling here we will go to SRK’s home. Although he was not convinced as he cudnt see any waves coming and no fishes. The guy was rocking when we reached “Mannat”(SRK’s residence) he had guts to walk straight to security guard and ask him if SRK was in – he got a response from Guard “Humko nahin pata wo hain kee nahin” and he replied “Fir duty kis baat kee kar rahe ho, humko to unki car bhi nahin dikh rahi”. Even after taking a photo with the gate of fortress “Mannat” he made us wait there for at least an hour before I could convince him of a nice treat of Ice Cream and a remote controlled car made him move. By the time we reached Band Stand it was already dark and we couldn’t see the sea clearly hence he was again not impressed and convinced that the sea was big enough.
Next day I decided to really show him the “BigSea” and we decided to go to ElephantaCaves. As that requires going by ferry to the ElephantaIsland and that ferry has to be boarded from Gate way of India – another great place to visit for anybody coming to Mumbai for the first time.
He was not impressed by the architecture of either the Gate or those two 5 Star Hotels – refused to be photographed in front of them. We took the small ferry as I thought that it will go faster with less people inside. It was literally a lousy ride as the guy was going steady at a speed of 15 knots and I was not impressed. But the ride was scenic enough as it did cross that Navy Base in the mid sea with a couple of great guns and India flag flying high. Surprisingly there are no coast guards in the Mumbai sea – at least I could not locate them neither on our way back.
It takes about good 50 minutes to an hour to reach the Island. But it’s a great site to see so many ferries parked together. Since this is the off season there wasn’t much public either. The moment you get down from the ferry and walk out of that little bridge thing – they have a toy train which takes you another 500 Mtrs close to the hil. 10/- is all that you need to pay them for a to and fro ride. Train sucked big time as per me as the speed was hardly any faster than a brisk walk you take and people were jumping to get a seat as if it was the last train and they were escaping from sobibor. LOL. I preferred walking and wifey took the ride with Naina. On the way I enjoyed buying those 5/- of traditional India fruits – what we call them “bore” or something? Awesome. That reminded me of my school time as we used to get em on our way to school and back. Specially that spicey Imli was great. I am sure chintuji wud have loved eating a KG of the same.
Finally the climb to the hill started and all I could see was the local retailers on both sides of the walk and stairs selling those antique items – unfortunately hardly any tourists were interested in them. By the ways – the way these shops have sprinkled there is hardly any area where you stand for a while to rest as they don’t even have gaps of more than an inch between them and you cant let you’re a*ss rest on their part of the wall.
There are a couple of OK restaurants with decent price and good food. I specially loved the “Lassi” and the typical home made “Dal” they served in lunch.
I was not ready for another shock right at the entry point of the caves where you pay the entry fee – for us Indians it was 10/- per person and for Foreigners’ it was 250/- WOW man. That was great.
Seriously there is not much to see in the caves, the only thing which you like and get impressed is with the height of the caves – as it is around I guess more than 30 feets and those huge statues – almost of them are in pieces right now. But the caves from inside are cool enough and the water is damn crystal clear in some of the caves – dunno from where it comes and why is it stored their. As per the data available in the caves – they were found around 18th century and because of their huge size which is good enough for elephants to stay in – they are called Elephanta caves.
Except the first main cave which has the most of the statues there is not much security around. The only guards visible and whistling as and when you touch the statues are here only rest of the caves is let alone to be explored by the tourists. The only one thing which interested me much was the second cave’s small opening in the third one – it was although tough as the opening was way too small and the height was of about 6 feet – I managed to climb and crawl to the other side. It was great to see Naina started crying the moment I vanished from the cave – she stopped sobbing only after locating me in the next cave’s door waiting for her to come running to me.
The walk to all the available three odd caves is tiring enough as all one could see is the big huge caves, rooms and more rooms. Nothing more than that and a couple of monkeys waiting to loot whatever you have in your hand which attracts them.
The journey ends at top of the hill where they have that Big Gun on display – again no clue who fired it first and last but the view from the top of hill was great as all you could see is Sea – the big bad Sea and Mumbai from a distance. The little guy was ecstatic to reach this point – with a Sprite can in hand and that kind of a view to remember for a life time.
The ride back was great as I guess it was the low tide which made some real great waves to come our way, the ferry was rocking so hard at times that I regretted two things – one to miss my swimming classes when I was in school and two – to take this small ferry instead of the big one – which I guess would have been the safer bet. Twice the waves were so damn high that they indeed turned down the engine and waited for the ferry to get steady – it was indeed scary but entertaining too.
The last boat from the island leaves around 5.30 PM and if you leave it then you need to make your arrangements of stay in the island itself as there is no other way out of it.
Ratings and comments are more than welcome as always.