Elephanta Caves

Hi Blog...
This post of mine will be dedicated to my voyage of the Elephanta Caves. I visited Elephanta caves on 13th of this month (Friday) along with my friend Amarpreet singh (AP).
It was an unexpected plan that led us to Elephanta caves. Our original plan was to visit Mumbai University Institute of Chemical technology (UICT) for the purpose of using library there. (Our Project co-coordinator insisted we must go there so we did to full fill his wish).

Prologue

We boarded the local train (horrible local) from Vashi station at 9. It was what I call the peak hours of journey via local. But I was happy to board the train comfortably, for a change, in peak hours. So I thought the train journey won’t be a big trouble. But I was soon proved wrong because as soon as the train halted at Mankhurd (1st stop after Vashi), a capacious crowd literally attacked the train without even allowing it halt properly. Soon the crowd was filling in and I knew the worse is about to come as I was standing near the entrance. And I was not wrong at all because as the space inside thinned, I started feeling the force. It was nothing like my previous experiences in local. Impact of the blows by crowd was unbearable and soon all the air was being knocked out of me. I was pinned against the compartment wall and journey after that went in hope that it would be over soon. At last, after a packed journey of 40 minutes Wadala station came, my destination. As I left the train I thought that I was lucky to sign off the train without a bone break. That was quite a journey. Easily the worst I ever had in local.
So from wadala we went to UICT by taxi. UICT looked like an empty building at start but soon we found some students and one of them led to the library and there we were told that the under graduate students are not allowed in the library. So much pain for nothing substantial….
It was at this moment that we decided to go to Elephanta caves…

Real Voyage Starts…

We went back to wadala station. Took a train to vikhroli station. Journey was comparatively better. At VT we had our breakfast and left for Gate way of India.
The gateway of India is a wonderful monument situated at the sea creek the cuts Mumbai. A fine breeze was blowing that countered the effect of heat. From gateway of India we took ferry for Elephata caves as caves are carved in a mountain situated on an island. The ride on ferry was of an hour or so. It was fun. We clicked some pics from my 6600. We reached the island at about 1:30. A toy train took us to the village from where the journey towards caves starts.

The shops on the way to hill top were loaded with amazing stuff of art. We went slowely towards the cave, exploring everything on the way. At last we reached the caves. Bought tickets. There were many caves carved out of stone. All of these were dedicated to lord Shiva. Different sculptures were there representing different shades and pictures of lord Shiva. One of them showing the three faces of lord Shiva was particularly amazing. We clicked a lot of pictures.
After the caves we left to explore the other attractions of the island. On the way we saw some monkeys accepting food from tourists. It was quite amazing the way they behaved. We clicked some more pics. Then we left for the Cannon hill. There were two cannons (old and filled with stones) situated at the top most point of the hill. The way to the top was a rough one but not rough enough to dampen our spirits. It was great to see those cannons having length of at least 25 feet. We clicked some more pics there.

After the cannon hill, we started our journey back to the shore where ferries were waiting to take the tourists back. On the way back we had our lunch. Journey back was great too especially the ferry ride…

At last we reached gateway of India and clicked a few more pics. Then we spent some time in park and left to explore the market near the area. The market was really good with a lot of hariyali. After that we took a bus for VT and then a train for Vashi. Journey via local was not fun again but still better. At long last we reached home around 9 after an eventful day.

PS:- For pictures thanks to my 6600 and for collage picasa rockzz again.