The Mumbai Cave Trail

Sometime last month... The exact date is lost due to the late consistency of my blogging, we embarked on the Mumbai Cave trail. Elephanta was done and dusted... It was time for the other two.

One right in the heart of the suburbs of maximum city, right in the middle of the urban jungle, easily accessible through bus routes, infact it acts as a bus stop but so non descript, so un-marketed that you have to see it twice to confirm the actual existence. I am talking about Mahakali Caves. The place everyone seems to know and pass but hardly anyone actually visits. Well we did, for a moment because there is little to see - uncared for, without proper space for parking a car and taking a good view. I actually did not even get out of the car. You can see from the pic that the caves are actually their. Do go and visit, take some pictures, exclaim a little... Maybe the Mumbai authorities will do something about it. Its a cave! for God's sake...maybe they could lease the same out to a restaurant chain for some fancy cave food? Yum!

The other, less famous but more visited and equally badly marketed are the Kanheri Caves...where are they located? Right in the middle of Sanjay Gandhi national park... Where is Sanjay Gandhi National Park? Its a bit off Borivali and completely worth a days visit. Only please do go there during the monsoons or winter as the place would seem quite brilliant. The caves are quite a bit inside the forest, around a 20 minute drive and are in one word breathtaking. Easily one of the most awe inspiring sights I have seen and completely unbelievable when you think of the fact that it is completely within Mumbai. Too bad that the place is hardly talked about. Kanheri Caves actually count 108 distinct caves, though we visited only 3, as it was very very hot. The caves have various Buddhist carvings and it is actually quite stunning to think of the effort that must have gone into the construction. I am sure that if Mumbai could market Elephanta and Kanheri to South East Asia better, you would have the MNS bringing out processions against speaking in Mandarin :)

400 Km drive on a single day! Silvassa and Nargol!

We were supposed to leave at 6.30 AM on Saturday morning. True to form and expectation however we ended up waking up at 7.30 and after a whirlwind 60 minutes we had managed to pick Dripto up from his house at Powai and were on our way to Silvassa and Nargol. I was slightly nervous and excited as this would be my first single day drive of around 400 Kms - I had previously driven around 300 Km on a day trip to Bordi but that was with my brother - in - law who did not actually drive much but provided the mental relief of there being a reserve driver if required. This was different as my younger brother and wife do not drive and I was all geared up. The route was pretty straight forward. Hit the Western Express highway and keep driving towards Gujarat, we had seen exits towards Silvassa on our way to Vapi and were reasonably confident of locating the same.

We made good time (hitting average speeds of eighty kmph) till just before Manor and stopped at a roadside resort for some Chai and breakfast at around 10.30 . Refreshed and happy (having seen South Africa at 6 for 2), we hit the road again after thirty minutes. We were then however reduced to travelling at snails pace as work on one side of the highway had caused single lane traffic for a good five odd kilometers. With oversized trucks and aggressive Toyota Innova tourist cars we landed up spending a good hour and a half just which made the 5 km seem like 50.

The traffic was however a lot better post the stretch of road repair and we took a right from Bhilad. There is apparently an exit for Silvassa before Bhilad from Talaseri but we missed that as the signages are not too great. Around 12 kms after taking the right from the highway we were in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Dadra and Nagar Haveli is built around the two settlements at Silvassa - the capital and Dadra. The road from the highway takes you to Silvassa first. Road in DNH are neat and well maintained, lined with trees on either side. The Daman Ganga river flowing through the UT seems to be the focal point for tourism with a number of resorts offering water sports facilities. I am sure that the place would be quite beautiful during the monsoons with the rived gushing through but unfortunately we were in the wrong season and the Daman Ganga was completely parched and reduced to a brook.

We stopped at one of Silvassas better known attractions, the our lady of piety church and after stopping to take the mandatory snap proceeded to Dadra and the Vanganga lake which offers options for some boating and is clearly Damans most popular picnic spot. We then drove back to Silvassa and had a pretty decent chicken and roti lunch at Hotel Greenwood. It was now time for the highlight of the trip - Nargol beach - the spot where the Parsees first landed.

To drive to Nargol we first retraced our path to Bhilad and drive the other side exactly opposite to Silvassa on the road that acts as a short cut. The road is narrow but is in a decent condition, although the problem is the lack of sign posts which makes one stop regularly and ask if one is going in the correct direction. The main approach to Nargol is from Vapi and that is where the short cut finally leads to after a thirty minute (15 km drive). One then proceeds to Nargol village and then onto the beach. One can either park the car in the village and walk to the beach. We however crossed the village and took the one pitch road on the right which seemed to lead to the see. At the end of the road was the largest tract of virgin beach I have seen in Western India and the place is a veritable paradise lined with pine trees on one side.

We spent some thirty minutes on the beach and then proceeded to drive back to Mumbai - almost missing the left and going towards Vapi in the process. We left Nargol at around 5 PM and managed to reach Powai by 8.30 PM, happy, tired and with plans of going back to Nargol one day with time to kill and a large picnic basket.

Elephanta Caves!

Am back after a break. Have been reasonably busy in office and there have been holidays in between, both of which are good things, anyway we are back and it has been quite an eventful action - packed week in which we have travelled big time to Elephanta and Saurashtra (Rajkot, Junagadh, Gir and Somnath)!

The In - Laws arrived in the evening on the 13th, landed with loads of Biriyani and Mithai (notun gurer shondesh)! We had an early dinner and hit the bed early as we were going to Elephanta Island the next day and wanted to be slightly early.

We were NOT early on the 14th and left our Powai residence at around 10:00. Ritwika, my parents in law, Ritwika's Chhoto Mashi and myself, we made good time and reached Apollo Bunder at around 11:00. We bought tickets from the MTDC counter - deluxe launches cost Rs 120 per person for a return trip. Boats leave every 10 Minutes and the last boat leaves Elephanta at 5.00 PM. We boarded the first "Deluxe Launch" we got at around 1:15 PM and found out that the journey would last an hour.

The launch was pretty decent and comfortable, they have a scam running that they let you go on to the top deck if you pay a measly 10 bucks, throughout the journey we found out that you need quite a few 10 bucks as you will find out. My Father in Law and myself went up and clicked some pretty neat snaps of the Mumbai skyline.

The journey though it starts of well (with the spectacular view of the Gateway and the Taj) gets pretty boring, one is pretty much reduced to
a. Looking at ships
b. Sleeping
c. Trying to guess which of the many islands is Elephanta and how much more time it would take (it takes pretty much 1 hour so the readers of this blog can do without the guessing)

We reached Elephanta at around 2:15, and it was very hot, we decided to take the facility of a toy train costing us 10 bucks a head for a return journey (if anybody is going in Summer, one is advised to leave at 6 in the morning so you are back by 10). The train took us to a place where the steps leading up to Elephanta caves start, you can start climbing the steps after paying another Rs 10 which we did.

Once you reach the steps, you can either climb on foot, which is what we did, or you can take the option of going up to the caves on a chair bound by two sticks. Four strong Marathi youth can carry you to the mouth of the caves and back for Rs 500 a head. High price point but in the mid afternoon summer heat, that is an option people with high disposable incomes can well exercise.

We trudged along on foot. The path is flanked by hawkers on both sides selling t-shirts, beads and food items primarily. The path is covered by tarpaulin sheets and is pretty much infested by monkeys all around. The monkeys can get pretty aggressive and one is advised to keep ones bags very close by, bright colored bottles (fanta etc) seem to be a particular favorite. The climb to the mouth of the cave took about 25 minutes,15 - if you do it without breaks and window shopping and the same is well worth it for two reasons.

1. The view which we took in over some cold drinks at a cafe near the gate. Its remarkable and covers the Island, the jetty and the toy train track. Tourism India can do some rocking business by creating a high quality resort but I am sure there would be some very good reasons why that is not happening
2. The caves itself for the history and the architecture.

The sculpture of the three moods of Shiva is pretty awesome as is the Nataraja sculpture. You have to buy tickets to get into the cave (for Rs 10 again!), the same covers a trip to a museum which disappointingly contains nothing but pictures.

We then retraced our steps which was a lot quicker. We boarded the ferry back to Mumbai and left around 4, reaching Mumbai at 5 totally famished as we had not had lunch. It was Pongal, and we needed to have some sort of proper food which made us select Madras Cafe as our high tea destination.

The Bisibele rice, Pongal and Butter Poodi Idli at Madras Cafe, nicely rounded off a tiring but very worthwhile day.