Day 107: Elephanta Island

Elephanta Island was known as Gharapuri until the 17th century when the Portugese renamed it because of the huge elephant statue that stood at the base of the island. Unfortunately, the statue is no longer there (the Portugese dropped it in the sea, and now it’s in The Dr Bhau Daji lad Museum in Mumbai), but many caves full of ancient Hindu statues and reliefs still stand.

After an afternoon on the very touristy island, we had kebabs from Bademiya, a kebab stand/restaurant (Andrew would like me to tell you it’s a “Mumbai street food institution” in the heart of Colaba. The men making the flat bread let me hop in and help before we ate. (SO FUN!) But I wasn’t very good, so I didn’t stay long and instead we met up with our new friends, Robert and Maddie, from our camel safari for drinks and they coerced us into trying paan- an after dinner digestive that might not be my favorite thing to order from a street stand… But still, it was fun to try and even more fun to do with friends!

I tried to wait around to get a picture of this most famous three headed Shiva sculpture, but it proved impossible. I actually wasn’t really sure that I saw this sculpture because I tend to flee from mass amounts of tourists, which flooded the scene shortly after I took this picture. One little girl kept practicing her English, saying “EXCUSE ME!” over and over again. It was cute, and I think she wanted to be my friend, but she kept throwing me off because every time she would say it I kept moving around thinking she was right behind me and I was blocking her view!

Day 106: Colaba

Not quite finished with the book, Shantaram, I told Andrew I had to (even though I knew it would be touristy) have a coffee at Leopold’s while we were staying in Colaba. Colaba is a small part of Mumbai (or Bombay, whichever you prefer) and it’s become quite the tourist beat, or perhaps it has always been the tourist beat. The Gateway of India is here, the Causeway, The Taj Mahal Hotel, tourist boats to Elephanta Island… these main attractions sit in the middle of art museums, cricket pitches, and even old Art Deco Bollywood movie theaters. We stuck to the Causeway (basically the main street) for our first day, having breakfast at Leopold’s and then bumped into our German pal, Bastian and walked through the market, through a very non-touristy neighborhood, to the water and then back around again.

Being in Colaba felt a bit like being in Itaewon in Seoul. The streets were lined with restaurants and athletic stores and sidewalks that were covered with street stalls selling “antiques” and clothes and knock-off sunglasses on every block.

When we got to the end of the ‘tourist beat,’ we turned down a street that looked like it was a market, but a very sparse market. Perhaps it was the time of day we were walking through? Most of the food vendors had a small supply of fish or fruit left over, or perhaps it was just a slow day… Either way, we enjoyed chatting with the students who were on their way home from school demanding to know our names and requesting pictures. I teased them (but was hoping they would take me more seriously than I sounded) that I would only take ONE photo. They all agreed and for the first time dispersed after I took and showed the image on my screen to them.

Near the market area, on our way out, we stumbled upon a religious celebration of sorts. It was a god’s birthday, but it was so hard to hear and there was so much festivity going on, that it wasn’t the easiest to get details nailed down. It was fun and loud and I was a little bit jealous of all of the yellow tikka powder (or maybe even masala powder?) being dumped on each other. We were encouraged to take pictures, but didn’t stay long, as to not intrude any more than we already were.