Mumbai

We arrived in Bombay on the 23rd of February and were thrilled to find a haven in Colaba, the hip, accessible, appealing to tourists (laundry, internet, good and cheap food), middle-class section of town. After we had checked into our tiny hotel room and had a bite to eat, we were on a mission to find enticing used books. We spent hours ogling the titles and rummaging through piles in the stalls surrounding Flora Fountain. The final tally for me was 2 used books traded in, 1 used book received in trade, 1 used book purchased, 2 copy books (literally, photocopied from originals) purchased for a total cost of $8. Fantastic.

The next day was packed with mandatory sightseeing. First we visited Mani Bhavan, Ghandi's house while he was in Mumbai, where we found many dioramas and news clippings in a few tiny rooms valiantly attempting to summarize a monumental life. Then, after a short stroll and some experimentation with local foods (bhelpuri), we located Chowpatty Beach. The popular local hangout was pretty, but the smoggy haze hovering in the air dimmed its beauty and I wouldn't want to touch the water. Nonetheless, the beach view was pleasant and on our other side were the European-styled buildings left over from colonial days. Eventually, we hopped in a taxi to Crawford market, and wandered through the nearby streets for a while before finding out that the market was closed on Sundays. Oh well. Then we hopped another taxi (they're around 50 cents) to the Gateway of India, which was "Erected to Commemorate the Landing in India of Their Imperial Majesties King George V and Queen Mary on the Second of December MCMXI." It was intended to function as every visitor's entrance point to Mumbai. The gateway itself was being restored, but the Taj Palace Hotel was just as imposing and magnificent.

Afterwards, we realized we still had some time before sunset so we headed for walk up the grassy "maidans" near Bombay University where we witnessed dozens of pick-up cricket matches being played with the bowlers standing only a few yards apart. Matt and I both watched in amazement as a batter would smack a ball to the outfield (read: the middle of several other groups games) and immediately, an outfielder would materialize and fling the ball back towards the pitch. There were dozens of cricket balls in the air at any given second! How the players kept the ball, game and team straight, I have no idea. After gawking in amazement for quite some time, a periodically ducking to avoid decapitation, we continued north to see the sun setting on Victoria Terminus. The building was constructed in 1888 and it is a monument to Victorian Gothic (I had to look that up on Wiki) architecture.

The following morning, after breakfast and chores, Matt and I spent a couple of hours researching train times and cooking classes on the internet. After determining when train run to Goa and where we could take a recommended cooking class, we headed up to the station (waited in line forever) and booked our tickets. While grabbing a snack near the station, we recognized a pair of people from the ticket line and chatted together while we ate. We discovered that Moraud was from France and Tina from Australia and they had just met each other in the train station after realizing it was, coincidentally, the first day in India for both of them. The four of us decided to explore the bustling markets together, and we had fun finding our way there and exploring the dense, writhing mass of bargaining humanity. We four foreigners drew a considerable amount of attention when we decided to try sweet paan. The paan is a digestive/sweet/breath-freshener consisting of dried fruits, sweet pastes, and spices wrapped up in a betel leaf bundle which you place in your mouth in its entirety. The paanwalla made our bundles BIG and everyone got a good laugh of us foreigners trying to fit them into our mouths in one piece, drooling sugary goo everywhere, and generally getting ourselves sticky.

We walked until the sun started to set, then hopped a taxi to Colaba where we wandered more and grabbed a drink on the street. Matt and I have found many comfort foods as we've been traveling which make a convenient little treat whenever you're frustrated, lost, tired or bored. One of these is sweet lime soda (fresh lime juice, sugar water, and club soda, introduced to us by Mr. Ericson) which we all tasted before dinner. Matt and I ordered dinner for everyone; our favorite dishes from all over the country, including a savoury navratan korma, a comprehensive thali, and a massive, crispy paper dosa. After dinner, we bid a fond farewell to our new friends and headed home to bed.

The next day, Matt and I had to pack for a train ride later in the day before heading to Elephanta Island. When we boarded the ferry boat to the island, we were happy to find Tina, coincidentally, on our boat. The island is notable for its Hindu temple caves. The shrines were probably cut into the stone around 1000 AD although they were probably unknown to the Western world until the Portuguese discovered them in the 1800's. Although they have suffered a lot of damage, the intricacy of the carvings is still apparent, and the patience and effort that went into their construction is obvious. The best (from a humorous, not artistic standpoint) carving is of the God, Shiva, taking both male and female form simultaneously. So, while it's left half has masculine features, it's right half has delicate, ladylike features including a breast. One can only wonder what the bottom half of the carving looked like before it crumbled. After we returned from the island, Matt and I had to say goodbye to Tina and hurry to catch our overnight train to Aurangabad, from where we would leave to visit the Ajanta Caves.

We arrived in the Aurangabad train station at 5AM on the 27th, and sat down with our packs and some chai to gather our thoughts and figure out how to get to Ajanta. We were only sitting on the bench for a minute until a train pulled in on the track nearest to us, named the Ajanta Express. I knew it would leave in a matter of minutes, so I ran up to a door and asked a passenger if it was going to Ajanta. He said yes. I asked if I could buy a ticket on the train (since previously we had reserved our tickets ahead of time). He said yes. I ran to another door. There was no conductor, but I asked another passenger if the train was going to Ajanta. Yes. I ran back and told Matt we needed to get on the train, and we both grabbed our bags and jumped into the train as it was pulling away. I learned later that the people I asked only understood "englishwordsenglishwords Ajanta englishwordsenglishwords." And because the train WAS called the Ajanta Express, they answered me, "yes." I found out that we were now heading exactly the wrong direction from Ajanta, that the next stop which wasn't in a cornfield was two hours away, that a conductor might turn up any minute and fine me for being on the train without a ticket, and that there are not even train tracks leading to Ajanta.

I won't elaborate on my frustration, the looks I got from Matt, or how we paid dearly to get ourselves out of the situation, but by 1PM, we were climbing up the rock stairs to see the caves.

The site is on a horseshoe-shaped gorge, carved into the rock by the winding River Waghur and the caves are on the nearly-vertical outer wall of the gorge, cut into the stone, with facades and interiors like great stone buildings. They were constructed between 200 BC to 600 AD when they served as Buddhist temples and their obscure location as well as their design aided in their preservation for centuries until they were discovered by a party of foreigners hunting the area in the 1800's.

Matt and I found the paintings, carvings and statues to be absolutely extraordinary, with the colors of the paintings still intact and the intricacy of the carving readily visible. If you were unaware of the age of the site, it would be easy to believe that all the artworks there were created within the last hundred years. While we were there, there were several other groups of tourists as well, but not many foreigners like us. We met several groups of curious friends who either wanted to chat, shake hands or take pictures with us.

After spending several hours in awe, wandering around the caves with our jaws hanging, it was time to head back to Aurangabad for our next train. This time, we did it properly. We sat in the blazing sun on the dusty edge of the road until a packed local bus came by. Two hours later, we were in Aurangabad and after some dinner and some internet, we were on an overnight train again, back to Mumbai. We arrived there early in the morning and grabbed a room in a hostel where we both took a solid nap and a shower, before a brief wander around town, some dinner and another train, down towards Goa.

Pictures on this post are: a parallel-parked ox-cart in the city, multiple pick-up cricket matches in front of Bombay University, a taxi in front of Crawford Market, transgender Shiva, the River Waghur with caves in the cliff walls, my gorgeous new friends, resplendent Buddha in a cave (please note the ceiling artwork, many-Buddha wall carvings, and stone pillars which are not and addition to the cave, but a part of the rock), and one of the surprisingly-old paintings on the cave walls.