Janis and I struck up a conservation with a man on the boat. He is a vendor on the island and was returning to his home. Of course he pulled out his necklaces and bracelets for us to see. The red beaded necklaces were red coral, the blue were lapis. For $5 we could own one of those treasures. While they were pretty, they were not coral or lapis. We did buy a few pieces. He said to come to his booth on the island and he would give us a gift for buying from him. Janis and I had met over a year ago on the Cruise Critic Roll Call for our cruise. While Mel and I were driving to Alaska, she was busy planning shore excursions. I signed up for whatever she offered, I had no time or Internet at the time to do any planning myself. She has been on all of our tours so far whether she planned them or someone else did. I keep tagging her on Facebook so her friends and family can see where she has been also. While she has a loud voice and at times talks a lot, she is not a complainer. More on that shortly.
After about a 40 minute ride we arrived at the long pier on Elephanta. They had an old train about the size of Casy Jr at Disneyland to take you to the end of the pier. Good to save our strength for the long climb up to the caves. It was getting hotter by the minute. There were about 100 steps up to the caves, some of them about 10' apart until you reached a steep part toward the top. There were vendors on both sides as you walked with tarps strung overhead to shade the way. We had been told to meet at the top, we could have time to shop on the way down. All the vendors held up items for us to look at as we climbed. It was hard not to stop. There were a lot of monkeys along the way also. We had been told to not wear earrings and to keep our bags closed. Pockets were not safe either. I didn't see any of the monkeys bothering anyone.
Our guide bought our tickets and we went in. The caves were carved into the mountain hundreds of years ago. At one time only priests lived on the island. The Portugese took it over when they ruled India and used the caves to store weapons and unfortunately used the carvings as target practice. There was enough left of them to see what they had once been like, such a shame that they were not intact. The caves were dedicated to Shiva, one of the manifestations of God. Our guide pointed out the various stories the carvings depicted. It was fascinating. Our nice lady from the day before continued to act as if her pictures were more important than anyone else's asking everyone to get out of her way. Janis was finally tired of it as well as of having that lady in most of her pictures and finally snapped. She told her to quit bitching, all she had done for the last 2 days was bitch. The lady immediately ran to the woman who had arranged the tour and told her that Janis had called her a bitch. I said she had not, that saying someone bitched a lot and that they were a bitch were very different. If she wanted to be called a bitch, I would be happy to do so. Our poor guide just looked on in amazement. The ladies husband told Janis it was like calling the kettle black. I gave him an unkind gesture. We continued on as though nothing had happened, doing a good job of ignoring each other. Unfortunately they will be on another tour in the future arranged by the same woman. One in every crowd. It was a dramatic morning. It amazes me when someone acts so entitled, like her pictures are more important than anyone else's. We are all on the same cruise.
At the first booth on the way down I found a beautifully carved elephant. They make the body lacy looking with lots of small holes. Inside is another elephant, also with holes and another elephant inside of that one. Not sure how they make those things, they are really beautiful. I especially liked the one I bought because his head was turned with his trunk up. I never saw another one that looked anywhere but straight ahead. Going down was actually more difficult than up. We were trying to look at the goods while keeping an eye out for the steps as well. I only almost tripped once. Janis was not as lucky and fell. Fortunately she caught herself so didn't tumble down a lot of stairs. I bought a lemon soda on the way down. At the bottom our group was waiting around for everyone to arrive, some with cold beers. Janis reminded me of the gift from our vendor friend. I had not found him. Our guide said I had a bit of time to go back up a bit. I was walking along and all of a sudden there were 4 monkeys right on the fence beside the stairs, 2 with babies clinging to their bellies. An old man came running up to me and told me to put my soda away, that is what the monkeys wanted. That was close! I found the vendor, received a small camel bone necklace and went back to join the group. We took the train back down the pier and the ferry back to Mumbai, it was a nice morning in spite of the drama.
Across from the Gates of India is the Taj Mahal Hotel. We were there in 2009 shortly after the terrorist attack and fire at the hotel. They had quickly put up barriers in front of the hotel and a metal detector. Now there was a fence around the entrance as well as barricades around the square in front of the Gates. Sad that we have to take these precautions in the world these days. We had a 15 minute potty break in the hotel. We went into one of the jewelry stores that had amazing things, old and new. Too bad we didn't have more time.
Our next stop was lunch. We ended up going to a tea house so our end of the table ordered tea along with our meal. I had a Masala Chai with milk. It was the best I had ever had, served in a small ceramic pot. I asked our guide to order something for me. I got chicken biryani (I think that is what it is called!). It was like a fancy rice-a-roni with pieces of chicken in it. I shared some with others at the table then took the rest back to the ship for our table to try. It was a delicious lunch but took 2 hours! It was cutting into our shopping time.
I have bought Starbucks travel mugs from all over the world, each shaped the same but different colors and with images of the country they are from. I have them from New Zealand, the Philippines and China as well as Japan which I picked up earlier on our trip. Our guide took me to the Starbucks near where we were shopping, no travel mug. That was disappointing. They only had a ceramic mug that said India on it. We went back to the crowded street to shop. There were vendors by the curb and tiny stores opposite them. Here we encountered beggars also, young women with tiny babies asking for money. They kept touching us which we didn't like. One woman had an older girl with her, maybe 8 years old. She had bracelets of flowers which she would put on your wrist saying they were free, then ask for money. Fortunately we were able to avoid them. We bought a few things then went to the meeting place to get on the bus. We were the first ones back even though we had the reputation as shoppers already. We headed back to the ship and were onboard by 4:30 with enough time to shower and make it to dinner at 5:30.
The ship didn't leave port until 9. We were on the back deck as we sailed away. The lights of the skyline were pretty but too dim to get a good picture. We could make out the Gates of India, lit up bright pink and blue with the dome of the Taj Hotel nearby. Mumbai had been a wonderful stop. If it weren't such a long way away by air I would love to spend a week there with time to go to all the museum's and some restaurants. I have a very different opinion of India after this stop than I did before.
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