Mumbai Part 2: Elephanta, Nat'l Museum, Gandhi and Thieves Market

Tuesday May 25

Today I was up early, and ready to head off to Elephanta Island on my own, as David was still getting over a bad cold. After getting on and off the train on my own, I taxied down to the Gateway of India to catch one of the boats over to the island, filled with Indian families who were on summer holiday with their kids. I was expecting to see other backpackers, as this is one of the most talked-about sights in Mumbai, but I was the lone whitey. Many pictures of me were taken with families.

An hour later, the boat tied up to what seemed like a pretty deserted island. You had to walk up a lengthy staircase, lined with stalls of people selling everything from binoculars to scarves to guidebooks and chochkas. At the ticket office, I encountered my first instance of India-pricing, in that, Indians and foreigners are charged different fees based on “what they can pay”. I paid about 250rp ($5 US) for entry, while Indians could pay about 25rp (50 cents).  While I felt a bit annoyed, I realized that this was ultimately a really smart move.  You give Indians of all classes the ability to see the wonders and gems that Indian history and culture has to offer, and make tourism a profitable venture, as we can easily pay the higher price. A real-world economics example of price discrimination – I immediately though of haircuts as not being the prime example anymore.

The island is a mountain, full of caves carved out almost a thousand years earlier by Hindus. The name, Elephanta, comes from the Portuguese who saw an elephant-like formation and named it after this, which then later collapsed and was moved to a museum.  I got to see five caves, the rest were not open to tourists, of which about 2.5 had something left in them.  There are some amazing carvings of religious figures, mostly Shiva, the destroyer (also major phallic symbol in Hindiusm), and beautiful pillars, carved out of the mountain.  But the other two caves literally had nothing in them, which was a bit disappointing.  Still though, it was definitely worth seeing, and an excellent way to spend half a day.

After returning to the mainland, I slowly headed back to Churchgate to catch a train out to the suburbs to an out-of-the-way Gandhi museum that had been recommended to me by the Canadians in Chengdu. After a while asking directions, and walking the wrong way, I arrived at this random residential street, where the museum stood unassumingly. This place, called he Mani Bhavan (the name of the house), was the location where Gandhi lived when traveling through Bombay (the name until 1995, when it reverted to Mumbai). Coming in, I really knew nothing about Gandhi – what he did, stood for and lived as. Going through this simply (and free!) museum was a real eye-opener, and really inspired me to want to learn more about this truly spectacular human. The museum functioned as a timeline of his life, his studies and his activism, all the way up through his assassination in 1948. Funny occurrence was in the museum, I heard some New York-ish accent of a woman behind me, exuberantly saying how much she loved the heat and humidity, as she grew up in NY and “could handle it”. I had to turn around. Turns out, she’s, you guessed it, an upper Westside Jewish mother, and we were able to play some Jewish Geography and nail down some common friends.  How small the world can be!

(Click to enlarge)

That night, after heading back to Anjali, the population of bakcpackers had exploded, as there were now about 5 people staying there, as opposed to just David and me before.  We all went out for a couple beers and dinner and enjoyed ourselves, watching Indian Idol as well – a hilarious, yet showing highlight of how much India has copied America, but also how independently they’ve done this.

Wednesday May 26

Today was to be a more relaxed sightseeing day, my last in Mumbai (for now). My first stop was the Prince Charles Museum.

This is a massive, humongous, palace-looking structure, that is full of Indian (and area) art, armory, money and pottery, and home to the famous “miniature paintings”.  Incredible.  Great audioguide full of information and I could even take pictures. The ticket was uber-reduced price for students (thank goodness I had my CUHK ID handy) and then expensive to bring in a camera, so I figure it all evened out.

Most amazing parts were the miniature paintings and the stone carvings as well as the full exhibits devoted to Tibetan art and Krishna (the blue god for lack of better description).

After a few hours moving slowly through the museum, I grabbed some street snacks and headed to my last stop, the Chok Bazaar (translation: thieves market).  This got its name after the Queen of England visited, had something stolen, which then eventually landed up in the Chok Bazaar. Basically, here, in one of the many Mumbai markets, you can find anything – literally.  From trumpets, to bicycle gears to airplane parts and movie posters. While I didn’t end up buying anything, just strolling through at the end of the day was a scene in itself, and well worth the funny looks and pictures taken – apparently, not many white people venture through here.

In my final hurrah, I headed back to the Anjali by train during rush hour to grab some dinner before heading back to the airport. On the taxi ride to the airport, I remembered to tip the car driver.  But then, the man who had met me at the airport, who just sat shotgun through the whole ride, had the audacity to ask for a tip.  I had handed a some rupee to the driver, and he looks at me and says “What about me?” I explained how he and I had done the exact same thing, sat in the car on the way to the airport, and so unless he was going to tip me the same, I can’t imagine why he deserved it. He laughed, and we shook hands and walked off.

On to Delhi!