Mumbai Elephanta Island

The Taj Mahal hotel is a lovely oasis within the smog and rubbish filled city that is Mumbai. It is as if Star Trek has temporarily beamed us off to somewhere else.

Today though we ventured off on a tour to Elephanta Island.

Important information point #1 - there are no elephants there! 

It seems to be an extinct volcano in the bay where 1400 years ago the Indian population of the time carved well formed caves into the rock including many statues of Shiva (supreme god for Hindu religion).

As seems to be common around the world the next most powerful people to arrive ruined our vandalized the work (Portuguese then British).

Perhaps the new powers that arrived thought they were removing a threat or diluting the strength of the indigenous people but history is proving that they were simply uninformed, unintelligent or both.

Seagulls following the ferry hoping to be fed (everyone participates!)

The Mumbai skyline is behind the seagull.... Smog!

The 'Ocean Dream' 😂 that ferried us to the island, 90 minutes across the bay.

It seemed watertight but we still planned our escape channels just in case! 

Rubbish - an everywhere, all the time, all at once problem. Sad to see. 

Our lovely guide Danish (not a pastry! Sounds like Daneesh). We bought him dinner at Leopold Cafe (famous locally but also attacked in 2008 disturbance).

Room service once we returned to the oasis 😊🙏