Elephanta Caves and the Taj!

Vinaya and I had been on a trip to Elephanta Caves on Thursday, the 14th of Dec. We took one of those fast trains from Andheri to Churchgate and then a taxi to Gateway of India. From there, we had to take a ferry to Elephanta Caves. The ferry journey was really good. I met a friendly retired German sailor on board who told me a lot of things about tankers, containers, their tonnage, power, etc. In about an hour, we reached the Elephanta Caves. These caves look like they are man-made and have some great carvings, but almost every second carving has been plundered.

We still had about 2 hours left before the return journey. So we decided to trek up the Cannon Hill. We never knew what we would find up there, but we wanted to explore.
In about 15minutes, we could see a wall with holes in between….yes, you are right – these holes were of the size of the mouth of a cannon. We quickly went up and found that from the other side of this wall, we could directly see the foothills of the Elephanta Caves. In just about 100 metres from this wall, we found a black beauty; yuppie –an old cannon! It really felt good that the decision to trek the unknown route showed us something fantastic. The cannon was locked onto a metal shaft and routed to the ground below. There were steps next to this cannon that went underground. We went down and found two rooms, one of which had some old rusty machinery. It looked like these rooms were used to store ammunition. There was a passage that led straight out to the far end outside – something like an underground escape route! All this was beautifully camouflaged by land and grass. The experience was like flipping through an adventure novel!

Later, on ferrying back to Gateway of India, we were very hungry. So we decided to dine at the Taj! We freshened up and decided to go for the buffet. The food was excellent – we tried out almost everything that looked new and inviting. We just enjoyed every bite, every gulp, every slurp! I really am not sure if I can call it an 8-course meal as I lost count of the number of desserts I had. The ambience was also classy!

All in All, a fabulous weekend!