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Editor's note: This excerpt first appeared in photographer and author Harold Davis' recent Focal Press book, Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Photography with Harold Davis.
The closer you...
Mumbai proper offers little for the tourist interested in culture and history.
However, if you can stop for even 24 hours on your way to or from India, it is
possible to see one of the great World Heritage sites within India: the Elephanta
Caves.
Carved into the rocks of a Bombay Harbor island six miles offshore, the caves
bear witness to a lot of painful excavation effort and subsequent exquisite
artistry.
Elephanta was a Hindu fortress named Gharapuri in the 7th and 8th centuries.
The Portugese eventually stumbled upon the island and found a stone elephant (now
in Victoria Gardens), hence the modern name.
You visit Elephanta Island by
taking a ferry from the Gateway to India arch. In theory there are "luxury boats"
that include guides but you may have to hunt to find one. Boats leave between
9:00 am and 2:15 pm. After a one-hour boat ride, you arrive at a little fishing
port. You can take a little train instead of walking 10 minutes along the flat
wharf. Unfortunately, the train stops just as the going gets tough. The caves are
up, up, up a series of staircases.
Souvenir vendors clog the sides of the narrow stairs. You can allegedly find
porters to carry you to the top in a palanquin but we didn't see any.
Now you're ready to go home. There are a bunch of smaller caves on Elephanta
but they're not worthwhile for the tourist. If you want to see more caves, visit
Kanheri Caves, 42 km from Mumbai in Borivali National Park. The Maharashtra
Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) and the Government of India tourist office
both run tours to Kanheri (and around the city, for that matter, if you're
interested in the sights of Mumbai).
Hotels
Guests at the Taj Mahal or Taj Mahal Intercontinental, adjacent to the Gateway
of India, can walk from their rooms to the Elephanta Cave ferries in about 5
minutes.
http://www.tajhotels.com claims
that the rooms are equipped with "Internet connectivity", which in India usually
does mean a proper 10baseT DHCP connection for a laptop's network card.
Why is the article on Bombay almost only about Elephanta? There's infinite possibility for great street photography and other sights with much more charm. The Jain temple is great (and active), the Red Light district is a must visit (like go through, not visit, but from what I hear, maybe visit as euphemism also applies) there's a massive ghat in Malabar Hill-ish where all you can see is guys doing laundry as far as you can see, and much more. Just is sad to see the Bombay article focus on something so dull.
If you want to see cave temples take the trip to Ellora/Ajanta.
