Sunday in the city and early riser that I am, quickly sensed that at 6.30am the noise and bedlam level of the traffic was somewhat less than usual. Even the taxi drivers deserve one day a week to be tardy. Breakfast (omelet, three slices of toast with coffee), served on a tray delivered to my hotel room.quickly
consumed, I grabbed a taxi to the Archway to India ferry boat location..
Skies clear and sea calm, it took about an hour for our elderly ferry to cover the 9 kms out to Elephanta Island. So called, as an early Portuguese explorer felt the Island resembled a pachyderm lying on its side. Our ferry passed close to Indian Navy installations and oil tanker discharge points. Upon arrival & temperatures rising, I followed my fellow tourists along a half kilometre causeway to the island proper, where upto the seven caves and the tacky tourist stores commence, with the usual strong-arm selling techniques applied aggressively to this mixture of locals plus Chinese, US and European tourists.The tariff for admission to the UNESCO recognised cave site was 50 cents Indian, ten times more, $5.00, for foreign tourists. Apparently this10 to 1 entry price rule is the norm in India at cultural & religious sites. Fair or not, I won't judge. Witnessed my first overt act of corruption at the ticket booth. The rule is to hand back to the visitor part of the cancelled ticket--nothing was handed to me, so I asked--the visitor portion from another ticket was torn from another already cancelled ticket, so presumable my ticket could be returned at the end of the shift, as unsold and my $5 pocketed. Not bad if you can do this a 100 times a shift!
the steps
I duly climbed the steps and entered the caves duly photographing the rock carvings. my Google "Elephanta Island" for the full historical blurb. Warning everywhere alerted about the poorly behaved monkeys that inhabit the island. All that I saw were the very epitome of politeness to us tourists. .
readers will quickly gather that I am not strong on the details of ancient ruins--if interested to learn more, I suggest to my readers that they
Early to arrive, and after tea and a sandwich, boarded an early ferry back to the mainland. Just as well, as the lineups that I passed for outward tourists were now extensive. Never must I forget that this is a country of nearly a billion souls. Back to the hotel for a relaxing shower, some laundry and a siesta---not in that order.
Skies clear and sea calm, it took about an hour for our elderly ferry to cover the 9 kms out to Elephanta Island. So called, as an early Portuguese explorer felt the Island resembled a pachyderm lying on its side. Our ferry passed close to Indian Navy installations and oil tanker discharge points. Upon arrival & temperatures rising, I followed my fellow tourists along a half kilometre causeway to the island proper, where upto the seven caves and the tacky tourist stores commence, with the usual strong-arm selling techniques applied aggressively to this mixture of locals plus Chinese, US and European tourists.The tariff for admission to the UNESCO recognised cave site was 50 cents Indian, ten times more, $5.00, for foreign tourists. Apparently this10 to 1 entry price rule is the norm in India at cultural & religious sites. Fair or not, I won't judge. Witnessed my first overt act of corruption at the ticket booth. The rule is to hand back to the visitor part of the cancelled ticket--nothing was handed to me, so I asked--the visitor portion from another ticket was torn from another already cancelled ticket, so presumable my ticket could be returned at the end of the shift, as unsold and my $5 pocketed. Not bad if you can do this a 100 times a shift!
 |
| Polite monkeys..... |
I duly climbed the steps and entered the caves duly photographing the rock carvings. my Google "Elephanta Island" for the full historical blurb. Warning everywhere alerted about the poorly behaved monkeys that inhabit the island. All that I saw were the very epitome of politeness to us tourists. .
 |
| One of seven caves. |
Early to arrive, and after tea and a sandwich, boarded an early ferry back to the mainland. Just as well, as the lineups that I passed for outward tourists were now extensive. Never must I forget that this is a country of nearly a billion souls. Back to the hotel for a relaxing shower, some laundry and a siesta---not in that order.
No comments:
Post a Comment