Harbour cruise

After sleeping off the beer from last night, we had some toast for breakfast and decided to go to Elephanta Island. We walked down to the docks near the India Gate and got on a wooden ferry with about 60 others, 20 more than the maximum occupancy as stated right on the boat. It took about an hour to reach the island and we passed mainly military vessels, oil rigs and huge shipping boats. Mumbai Harbour is less than picturesque, which didn't help pass the time at all. Things were made worse for me as the woman near me wasn't so much as seated next to me as sitting ON me. I could go on about her, but I wouldn't want to offend anyone, so I won't.

Elephanta Island is one of the largest tourist attractions for the city, as proven by the many boats full of people arriving there (mostly Indian tourists). There are cave temples cut out of the rock, many of which have carvings inside. The main cave has carvings related to Shiva. I can't really say much more than this, because we didn't quite make it inside the caves. We got off of the ferry, passed by the many souvenier stalls as hiked up the hill, and when we arrived at the ticket booth, we decided that we really couldn't bother to see any more. Besides, it cost 10 rupees for Indians, and 250 rupees for foreigners. Since we were less than excited about the place, we turned around and headed back to the boats. We had to wait about 30 minutes for the next boat to leave, and had to pay an extra 40 rupees since this was a 'luxury' boat (we had arrived on the 'economy' boat), but well worth it to get out of there. I guess our quick agreement that we couldn't be bothered to see the place, even after being right there at the ticket booth, is one of the many reasons we make such a great couple.

It was nearly 3:30 by the time we returned to the city. We had a quick lunch, bought a few beers, and went back to the hotel to relax and do some laundry. We got a surprise phone call from Donna (Nigel's cousin) and my parents, which made our day. When it came time to think about dinner, it didn't take long for us to remember the delicious pizza we had last night, so it was an easy decision. Nige headed out for more beer, and it was a deja vu evening for us from the night before.