Meeting Friends I Met in Thailand Three Years Ago

Three years ago, I went to Koh Samui in Thailand. I went for a boat trip to a national park and during the trip, I met a couple from India. Normally, these sorts of meetings result in maybe an email or two, if that, and then it just kind of slips off into oblivion. But Pooja and I became friends on Facebook, and Jagrat and I had contact through her. I heard about their wedding. They heard about my goings on as well.

When I came to India, I let them know and they wanted to make sure I visited if I happened to come to Mumbai. Mumbai has always been one of those places that has a bit of mystique for me. I wanted to visit the city, and that meant that I could also visit with Pooja and Jagrat.

We set a time to meet for dinner and I went off to find the meeting place. It was across from a mall. In a lot of these countries in the south of Asia, there are difficulties with violent factions creating trouble. This has resulted in some really nice places being behind fences and all kinds of security. This is also true in India, and the Phoenix Mall is a very nice looking place. It has some relaxing qualities as well as being a fairly upscale place to go shopping. But to enter takes going through metal detectors and it sits behind fences with spikes and other deterrents to anyone trying to get in. It is kind of sad really.

I decided to walk to the mall, which was about 6 or 7 kilometers from my hotel. It was a hot day and it took a while to get there. It took a while also because I decided to look around another part of town as well. I walked up to the top of a hill and found a park with a nice view out over the southern reaches (and the historical areas) of Mumbai.

Then it was on to the mall. It took a full walk around the whole block to find the entrance and while doing that I saw one of the least effective billboards that I have ever seen. Yeah, I'd go there. How about you?

I met Pooja and we went to a nearby restaurant and had some dinner. Initially it looked as though Jagrat wouldn't be able to join us. He was stuck late at work. But partway through dinner, he called and said that he was on his way. Great!! I was going to see both of them.

We had a nice dinner together. We chatted about lots of things. Then they drove me back to my hotel and it was time for some photos. And now I have a really good photo of me with an attractive woman from India. It's about time!

In Search Of... Bollywood

Bollywood, one of the icons of India. And like Hollywood, it more or less has a location. Here in Mumbai, the Bollywood stars live and work. Many is the time when people on the street can run across a movie being filmed in the street. While I have been in Mumbai, I thought it might be an idea to try and experience Bollywood.

I asked at the hotel and was told about a studio that could be a place to visit. But I forgot the name by the time I reached the train station from where to go to the studio, I had forgotten the name of the studio. I couldn't go. I checked on Wikitravel and found the name of the area where much of the filming of Bollywood takes place. I wasn't sure what I would find, but I figured it was worth a shot. So I hopped a bus and headed to Film City.

I reached Film City and there was a big gate. And there were guards in front of the gate. Well, no point in being shy. I went up and asked if there was any way to experience Bollywood. “Visitors, not allowed.” Hmmm... They called people and I did talk to someone who told me I should talk to the public relations department. He even offered to get them on the phone for me if I handed the phone back to the guard, but the guard either didn't understand or thought it was going to be done a bit differently. In any case, I talked to nobody else and I ended up being turned away empty-handed.

Bollywood remains unexperienced, by me at least.

And once again, I am left wondering why nobody seems to be exploiting a golden opportunity. First it was the lack of places to drink tea in places that produce tea. Now it's a lack of opportunity to experience the movie-making industry for visitors to the movie capital of India. It's a bit astonishing, really.

But someplace around here, the Bollywood industry lurks, producing entertainment for millions and millions of people and an increasing audience around the world.

Kanheri Caves in Sanjay Gandhi National Park

There is a national park in Mumbai as well. It is similar to the national park in Seoul, in that it provides a natural place for the people of the city of Mumbai to go and enjoy nature. However, where Bukhansan National Park in Seoul is a big mountain, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai is made up of jungle and low hills and is far more accessible for all people who visit.

There is also a set of Buddhist caves in the park. I have been mainly trying to go to and get into various places on my own lately, rather than having tour operators doing it for me. To that end, I bought a map of Mumbai when I got here and now I consulted it to figure out my best plan of attack to get to the national park. I had no exact idea of where I was headed but I chose what seemed to be the closest municipal train station and had a go.

The trip on the train was wild. I had been forewarned by my trusty Wikitravel page on Mumbai. It said that the trains are very well used and can get quite crowded. I was starting at the beginning point of the train lines, so I was able to just get in and get a seat. Then I didn't have to worry about what happened next.

After a few stops, the train filled up. It was so packed that not everyone was able to fully get on the train cars. In fact, people were at times hanging on to the hand holds inside the train while at least part of their bodies were hanging out of the train. The doors never got closed and so for long periods between stations, people could be hanging on, by the thinnest of margins, to safety and life itself. I would hate to try to ride a train if I were not at a station that was close to the beginning of its run.

At one station, I saw a bunch of people waiting to get on the train. I'm not exactly sure of the timing, whether the exiting people had finished leaving the train or not, but I heard one of the people on the platform say, “Go!” And then the people on the platform took a running go and launched themselves into the train car. I almost laughed. It was like a comedy movie, except it was real.

I arrived at my station and then walked towards where I thought I might find a way into the park area. I had chosen correctly and found the park entrance. The entrance fee was the same for me as for anyone else. Yea!!! And I didn't have to do much more than that to get to see the Khaneri Caves. A bus was running from the park gates to the caves, so I just had to wait for the bus to arrive and get on. I actually went with a more or less private van, but the cost was the same and it happened sooner.

I arrived at the Khaneri Caves area and bought my ticket to get in. These were Buddhist caves. The really spectacular caves were the first three caves.

The first cave was fairly simple, but was quite large. I seemed to be some kind of residential cave.

 The second cave was cut way back under an overhang. Again it wasn't overly elaborate, but there were some carved elements that were beautiful.

But the third cave was amazing. It was some sort of hall, at the end of which there was a large stupa. Even from the outside it looked magnificent.

The outside walls had all these amazing and well-preserved carvings of Buddha and others. It was hard to believe they were so well-preserved. And I hope that means that they weren't helped in their “preserved” state. But they didn't seem to be re-carved in any way.

The rest of the caves were just residences. They mostly had the same sort of design. There was a little water well at the front. There was an entrance area and then a living space. Off to the side of the living space was either one or two sleeping areas. Sometimes there was a bit of decoration in the form of carvings of Buddha, but most had the spartan sort of air that monks quarters would be expected to have.

Up above the whole living area there was a small water collection tank that was cut into the rock of the hill.

And there was a nice view of Mumbai over the tops of the hills surrounding the area.

There was one final spot that I found on the way down that was different from all the other caves. It seemed to be a meeting or prayer hall of some sort. There were pews inside and a number of cells along the sides.

After the caves, I headed back down to the entrance area of the national park. There were a couple of other things of interest I wanted to check out. One was a nature interpretation center. It was sponsored by HSBC. It presented a lot of things about how nature conservation is taking place in India and the initiatives that are in place to accomplish it. I was saddened that despite a fair number of people that I saw in the park, I was one of only a few people that I saw visit the center.

And in the center I saw this board with some interesting, and... I'm not sure what the third one qualifies as.

A final thing of interest in the national park, located in the city, was the tiger and lion safari. There are wild tigers, including white tigers, and lions that are in the park. And visitors can take a bus on a safari to go and see them. In view of the fact that there are people not that far away, I figured they couldn't be completely wild, with free completely roaming available to them. Otherwise someone would get hurt. But I took the chance to see them and went on the bus safari. We headed out of the ticketing place and into the tiger enclosure. As I suspected, there are large fences to keep the tigers where they are supposed to be. But it seemed to be quite a large enclosure. I was surprised how blasé they were about how they let the bus in. There were two gates through two fences, but both seemed to be open at the same time.

I figured out why later. The tigers in that enclosure were in smaller cages. Now I was a bit disappointed by the area. And then even that came clear. After the tigers in cages, I saw people doing some work in the enclosure. I suspect the tigers normally have the roam of the enclosure, but for whatever reason at that point there was some maintenance that needed doing. I hope they were sure all the tigers were in their cages though.

Then we passed to the lion enclosure. And there it seemed there were definitely lions out on the prowl. They made damn sure that the two gates were not open at the same time. And the guy opening the second gate was behind another fence, presumably in case a lion got into the small enclosed space between the two gates. Then he wouldn't become a meal. Alas, other than the two cages with tigers in them, I was once again out of luck in spotting big wild cats. They remained enigmatic, and possibly fictional.

I headed back to the center of Mumbai and got off the train before I planned. The train passed by the west coastal of the city and the sun was setting. It made quite a stunning sight as it set.

Elephanta Caves

There are a bunch of sets of caves in China that are significant Buddhist sites. There are also some sites here in India that are equally important to Hinduism. One of them is the Elephanta Island and Caves here in Mumbai.

Elephanta Island is an island that is out in the bay off the western side of the city of Mumbai. It is reached by ferry from the Gateway of India and sailing past the Indian Navy yards. This produced another couple of forbidden photos that, had the navy taken issue, could have resulted in the confiscation of my camera. That would have really, really sucked. Of course, the thought of having to protect military secrets didn't even occur to me. I'm from Canada for crying out loud. We barely have a military anymore, and certainly nowhere near where I live. (The government removed the last of anything military from Calgary many years ago.) Of course, having taken a couple of photos before being noticed and being told to desist by the ship's crew, I didn't erase them. So I have a photo of a submarine in motion, and of the navy shipyards. Then I put my camera away to keep it from being lost, this time to the authorities. And out of respect to the secrecy of the area, you will never see those photos. Sorry. Well, I'm not really, but...

Upon arrival at Elephanta Island, it was a long walk along the wharf to the little tourist area at the base of the hill where the caves were located. If a person didn't want to walk, there was a little train that went to the tourist area's entrance as well.

Then I was confronted with something that was even more infuriating than camera fees. At least they are part of getting into a site, annoying as they are. The caves are located within the limits of one of the villages on the island. In order to reach them and the entry gate, visitors have to pass through the tourist area at the town. And in order to enter the town's tourist area, an entrance fee is assessed. This is completely unreasonable to me. Past the village's entrance gate is a stair up to the entrance gate to the Elephanta Caves, and there are lines of tourist crap selling kiosks on either side of the stairs. And yet, they seem to think that getting whatever revenue that is pulled from those tourist crap selling kiosks is not enough, and they need to add an extra fee for just entering the area where a visitor is confronted with the tourist crap selling kiosks. And I didn't think there was any way to be more annoyed by an extra charge than I get at the silly camera fees. It makes absolutely no difference to me that it was only 5 rupees (about 10 cents). That is just a dumb thing to do when you want people to buy tourist crap from the tourist crap selling kiosks.

But at the time, the dumbness of the move hadn't yet incensed me and I made my way up to the entrance to the Elephanta Caves. And there, I discovered that Mumbai isn't quite so money-hungry as other places in India. There was no camera fee. It was simply a 15 or 20 times increase in the fee an Indian pays to get in. But at 250 rupees, it wasn't so bad.

The first thing I saw inside the gate was a museum that contained a bunch of explanations about the caves and their significance. And they had plenty of photos of the carvings inside the caves. Most were of Shiva, in his various poses and guises, saviour, destroyer, and all the rest. After going through the museum, I was hoping that the reality would equal the photos inside the museum.

I needn't have worried. I saw amazing statues and carvings all through the main cave. The artistry was amazing.

The main cave was the most spectacular. The other four or five caves had little remaining that was of significance, but still were a little interesting.

Then it was back down and past some mean-looking monkeys. They looked like they might pull knives and threaten visitors for their goodies.

This one was eyeing the man's bottle of water. I had watched another monkey get hold of a water bottle and then get it open. These monkeys were smart!

Back at the entrance of the area, there was a short hike to the top of a nearby hill for a panoramic view of the whole island and area. The hill was called Cannon Hill. At the top there were actually a couple of cannons. They also looked taken care of. I'm not sure if they could fire now, but they looked pretty good.

Unfortunately the panoramic view was blocked by the trees growing all over. But at least they weren't cut down to give the promised view. It took a bit of effort to find the view, but I did find one.

And despite the tone of this post, I was mightily impressed by the caves and the carvings and statues inside.

A Day of Catching up on Errands

Things have been building up in my pack for a while. I keep going into shops with no particular intention of buying anything. And then I do. It has been making things fill up in my pack. In addition, I have been getting a book here and there. I have had no way to get rid of them because I keep finding guest houses that only take books in and don't exchange them. I won't leave them with anyone who doesn't keep the exchange going on. So I have been keeping them.

First up was to send stuff to people. So I headed to the post office early and then spent a few minutes getting three packages trussed up for sending. There was a guy sitting on the street. When I went in to the post office, they called him in and had me go out with him to his station just outside the gate. We sat under a tree and I filled out customs paperwork while he first wrapped my packages in newspaper and then wrapped them in some kind of cloth, which he stitched closed. It was amazingly intricate work and he did it all in a few minutes. Then for the half hour or so of work that he put into it, he charged me only about 3 and half dollars.

I headed back into the post office and sent my packages, one to Canada, one to New Zealand and one to Korea. The three cost me about 35 dollars. A far cry from when I sent one package in Australia for about the same.

Last night I found a few used book places on the street near where I am staying. And they are literally on the street. The are sitting on the sidewalk near one of the fountains in the tourist area. They are covered by tarps against any rain or other such weather. I assume they get battened down every night against theft.

After sending my packages, I went to my hotel and picked up my books and headed to the used book shops on the street. I found one that had some books that I thought to be interesting. I was able to trade four books straight across for two. Much better than the predators in Thailand who would have wanted the four books and still would have charged more for one book in return.

Next I headed to a photo printing shop and printed out a bunch of photos of the temple celebrations in Assam, so that I could send them to the family as some kind of a thank you.

Having completed all of that, I went out for a walk and saw the Gate of India in daylight.

Another building across from the Gate is quite impressive for its colonial architecture.

And on the way back to the hotel the museum is located in a very impressive building with a huge dome. It looks like a planetarium, but I doubt that it is.