This is what I was afraid of - I would get behind on my blogging because I was having too much fun doing the things that I didn't take the time to write about them! Anyway, sorry about the lapse - here we go with a weekend update.
Saturday morning I wanted to sleep in. Badly. Unfortunately with a service staff that comes to cook you breakfast and clean your apartment every day, it's hard to have the latitude to set your own schedule. They seem to operate on the schedule that works for them, and haven't quite figured out that our schedule differs on the weekends from how it is on weekdays. They rang the doorbell at the usual time, knocked on my door to tell me to get up for breakfast, and I tried to tell them through the door that I didn't want breakfast today. It took about 3 times of repeating this process for the message to get through. Then come the cleaning crew - again knocking on my door to clean my room. They still didn't seem to get the message, so I gave up and got dressed. Sigh - maybe next time.
Kevin and I decided to go to Elephanta Caves today. I'm realizing that this is one of my last weekends in Mumbai, since I'm planning to travel pretty much every weekend going forward. Elephanta is at least a half day trip, so I wanted to make sure to get there while I'm here. We take a cab down to India Gate, where the ferries leave from, and are told by the guy who sells ferry tickets that the seas are too rough and so the ferries aren't going out any more today. Booooooo. He then tries to sell us on doing a city tour instead, and spends a lot of time telling us about this Jain festival that is happening today - apparently it only takes place once every four years, and it lasts for 3 days and today is the last day of the festival. We are interested in what he's saying, but we don't want to pay the ridiculous price he's asking for the full city tour, so we decide to go find this festival on our own. We go up to the cab line and start asking people to take us to the Jain temple. Some people quote us exorbitantly high prices for what we know is going to be a relatively short cab ride (this is the problem with getting a cab outside one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city). Finally we find a guy who agrees to take us by the meter, but he doesn't seem to know exactly where he's going. The other cab drivers seem to give him directions, so off we go.
As we're driving along, I notice that the meter is going up much faster than it should. I notice that the kilometre measurement is off - it says we've gone 13 kilometres, when there's no way we've gone any more than 5. Clearly the guy has tampered with his meter, which is why he was ok with taking us by meter when all the other cabbies wanted us to pay a set fee. I mention this to Kevin, and he agrees that it's frustrating to be so obviously ripped off. My friend Isha had given me advice about what to do in this situation - she said that you should call the guy out on it and ask him to charge you something reasonable. If he disagrees, then you threaten to call the police and have them inspect his meter. She said that usually works. The driver pulls up to a temple, which doesn't at all resemble the photo that the tour guide had shown us of the temple with the festival. We decide that it's not worth it to argue with this guy about the destination, so we'll just get out here. The meter had gone up to about 300 rupees on a fare that should have cost less than 100, so I try Isha's tactic. The driver's English was pretty bad, so it's difficult to exactly tell him what we're unhappy about (although I'm sure he knows). Finally I enter the number for the police into my phone and show it to him with my finger on the call button. As Isha predicted, he backed down and agreed to accept 120 rupees for the fare (all the while grumbling under his breath in Hindi - most likely words that a lady would not want to hear). Kevin and I walk away happy - we may not have paid the most fair price, but at least we paid less than half of what his rigged meter would have charged us!
We enter the temple and are pretty sure that we're in the wrong place. When we heard the word festival, we were expecting crowds of people, possibly food stalls, maybe a parade? Instead this was a quiet affair - the temple had about 20 people in it total, and there was no fanfare aside from the religious proceedings inside the temple. We are greeted by a board upon entry to the temple grounds with explicit rules for tourists and how we should behave ourselves in the temple.
Kevin and I want to be completely respectful of the Jain religion while we're in the temple and of course abide by all the rules. Most of the rules have to do with cleanliness - you need to remove your shoes, can't bring food inside, and women on their periods are not allowed inside (!). The one that gave us the most difficulty was the requirement that we not turn our backs to the idols when we're inside the temple. There were statues on nearly all four walls of temple, so we were very confused about which ones were the idols and which ones we were allowed to turn our backs on, since we would have to have our backs to something! We take our cues from the people inside the temple, who are giving homage to a row of statues at the front of the temple.
We assume that those statues are the idols, and so we make sure not to turn our backs to them. We are not allowed inside the temple itself - instead we're only allowed to observe the proceedings from a porch surrounding the temple. There are quite a few things going on inside. As I mentioned, some people are going up to the statues and touching them. Anyone who approaches the idols has their mouths covered with a kerchief. I asked Ami why this is (she practices the Jain religion), and she told me that one of the main principles of Jainism is that people should not harm any living creatures, and since there are small insects and other small organisms that live in the air, it's proper to cover your mouth with cloth so that you don't breathe in any of these creatures and harm them. Similarly people who practice the Jain religion aren't supposed to walk on the grass because you might hurt the creatures that live in the grass. You have to be very very clean to approach the idols - the cleanest you could possibly be, which is why people cover their mouths when they're near the idols. These people who are touching the idols have bathed at the temple and put on white garments that are exclusively used when you are this fresh and clean and are only to be worn inside the temple.
Someone dressed appropriately to touch an idol
We also noticed a few of these red tables with rice on them that had been arranged in designs - you'll see two swastikas on the board here, and some other things which I don't know the names of. Apparently this is some kind of form of prayer - I'm not sure, honestly.
The temple itself was very ornate - lots of paintings, sculptures, and other adornments. There was a large bell hanging by one of the doors that people would ring as they exit the temple - again I'm not sure what the meaning is there.
Exterior of the temple
Even after we visited the temple, Kevin and I still weren't sure if this was the place where the "festival" was occurring. There definitely were people there doing some kind of ritual, but I don't know if it was a regular service or part of a festival. We tried asking the security guard, and he told us that we had "just missed" a crowd of over 100 people at the temple. I'm not sure if he was being sarcastic or not. Regardless, our internet browsers weren't working on our phones (stupid Indian cell phone networks), so we just decided to go see some other touristy sites in South Bombay and would try to figure out the Jain festival situation as we went along.
Next stop was Victoria Terminus, a beautiful old train station built by the British during the colonial times here. It's a beautiful building in Victorian Gothic style - it wouldn't look at all out of place in the middle of London. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The station is still operating as a main hub here - we were the only tourists that I saw - all other people were carrying suitcases and rushing to catch their trains. Inside the terminal reminded me of other British train stations I'd been in. In fact, if you kidnapped and blindfolded me, put me on a long plane ride, and took the blindfold off in the middle of the terminal here, I would believe you if you told me I was in Paddington station. I suppose all the Indian people would tip me off, though, now that I think about it...
After Victoria Terminus, we went to Colaba market. Colaba is a neighborhood I'd been hearing a lot about from people - it's the southernmost neighborhood in Mumbai, and is one of the oldest and most expat-friendly. South Bombay is indeed a beautiful part of the city - during the British era, South Bombay was the entirety of Bombay, and all other neighborhoods were suburbs, which have since been incorporated into the city as it grew. There's clearly a lot of old money around South Bombay - big mansions and whatnot. There was also quite a bit of international shops that we passed. We counted 3 Nike stores alone on a single road! I have no clue why this neighborhood needs so many Nike products, but apparently they do...
When we arrived in Colaba, the driver told us that he was dropping us at the market, but we couldn't see a proper market anywhere - it just looked like any other street. We were starving at this point, so we decided to look for a restaurant and figure things out from there. Not knowing where to go, we pick a direction and start walking, hoping that we'll run into a restaurant soon. We first come across a coffee shop, but it only has light snacks, and we're in the mood for a proper meal. It was REALLY hot out - it was in the 90's Fahrenheit, but with the humidity and the direct sunlight it felt like 105-110. I feel like I'm melting to the pavement, and am on the verge of having a classic Smith-girl "I'm hungry" meltdown (haha, I'm punny) when we finally see a restaurant. We walk inside - into the air conditioning - and it turns out to be more of a bar than a restaurant, but I don't care. We order some yummy Indian food, and honestly I don't think I've ever been happier to see a chickpea. Mmmmm chana masala. After eating, we ask the waiter for directions to the market - it turns out we had walked in the exact opposite direction of where we should have gone, so we retrace our steps and find the marketplace, now refreshed and reinvigorated by our meal.
On the way, we ran across a few Indian sweet shops - there are quite a few very delicious sweet treats that I've come across so far, and Kevin is particularly interested in learning more about the sweets here (apparently one of his friends is a big fan and wants him to bring back some of his favorites). Anyway, we stopped in to have a look - here's what the sweet counter looks like - they're all small sweets, about 1-3 bites each. Each are packed with sugar and butter and who knows what else - crack? Anyway, I limited myself to just one, even though Kevin wanted to get a variety box.
The market was pretty quiet at this time of day - probably due to the heat. We wander around for a while, enjoying the sights and smells. There are quite a few fruit and vegetable vendors with some interesting offerings. I took a lot of photos so you can get a feel of what we were seeing...
We stopped at one of these vendors to get some mangoes. I've mentioned the alphonso mangoes before, but this guy had four different types. He told me the names of each, but I've already forgotten them. Anyway, I bought one of each and will be taste testing my different mango types this week. Yum yum :) The guy weighed my mangoes together to determine a price, and I'm still not sure how it worked. He put a weight marked 1 kg in with the mangoes on the scale, and then told me a price. I pointed to the weight - asking if he could take it out, since I thought he was trying to charge me for more (even though I couldn't read the scale in the first place, and he hadn't advertised a price per kg), and so he takes the weight off, and then takes off the biggest mango and replaces it with an even bigger mango of the same variety. I'm still not sure how the weighing process worked, but it was only about $1.40 for 4 mangoes, so I'm pretty sure I got a good deal (at least by my standards).
In addition to the fruit and veg stalls, there were some permanent shops in the marketplace too - most of them were jewelry shops, interestingly enough. However, they all looked to be mostly gold jewelry and without a lot of variation in style, so I didn't end up going into any of the shops. I did go into a fabric store and buy two saris, though! Jen - we should skype so you can pick which one you want. In addition to the stores, the market offered some sights that are becoming commonplace to me, but which I realize you may see as being very unique and foreign. I snapped photos along the way so that you could see the streets of Mumbai through my eyes...
Women carrying heavy loads from the market
Someone's pet goats munching on grass outside of a woodworking shop
A gated religious area - not quite a temple, but it has a statue or idol of some kind, and people will offer gifts to it as they pass by
An apartment building with people's laundry hanging out to dry
Houses piled on top of each other, some in better conditions than others
An average alleyway...actually above average in terms of cleanliness
An entryway and tent that had been erected in an alley for some kind of party or event
Flower garlands decorating the entry to a home
After Colaba Market, Kevin and I decided to track down the Jain festival we had heard about. I had been able to access Google on my phone (finally), and we had contacted Ami, who asked her aunt and uncle to give us directions to the temple. They gave us the name and neighborhood of a temple, explaining that it was celebrating its 200-year anniversary this month. That didn't sound exactly like what the tour guy at India Gate had told us, but we figured it was worth a shot.
As we're driving, we see in the distance what looks like the temple that the tour guide had shown us in the photos. Hooray - we're going to the right place! Except...wait a minute, the cab driver just turned down a side street. Maybe there are traffic issues he's trying to avoid? Nope, we just keep driving further away from the temple we saw. We try to ask him to turn around, but he keeps saying "just five minutes more, we're almost there. Traffic is bad." Or something to that effect. Finally he stops and points down the street, saying the temple is that way. We start to question him, saying that the place we wanted to go to was back in the direction we came from. He doesn't understand, and stops a pedestrian to corroborate his story that the temple he has brought us to was in fact the one we had asked to go to. It turns out he's right, and that Ami's family had steered us to yet another Jain temple. This one, as it turns out, celebrated its 200th year last year, so there was nothing going on there today. In fact they wouldn't let anyone in. The temple itself was quite beautiful with elaborate marble carvings on the facade, so we snapped some pics and then set off to find the elusive temple from the photos at India Gate.
Kevin and I still don't know the name of the temple we seek, and so we decide to try to retrace the route that the cab took. We're walking down the street in the stifling heat, stepping over cow poop, trash, and stray dogs. After a few blocks we are confused about which way to turn, so we take our best guess (as a rule, I take the direction that I would choose and then go the opposite way). We turn a corner, and there it is! I'm pretty sure that a "hallelujah!" escaped my lips - I was that excited to have found this temple that we had been searching for all day. It turns out to be much smaller than it had looked from a distance and is basically on top of a median in the middle of the street. Once we reached the temple, it didn't look like it had hosted any kind of festival today. No one else was around, and there were hardly any donations of flowers or rice or anything around there. Plus it was locked. I'm pretty sure that this Jain festival was either a fictional creation of the tour guide to sell tickets, or it was so small and took place at the first temple we went to. Regardless, we still did get to see some other temples, so it wasn't a wasted day :)
The elusive temple from the photos (at least we think so...)
With that, we were both dehydrated and exhausted from an afternoon of running around South Bombay, so it was time to go home and regroup. Yay for Bombay!
