Ferry rides from Gateway of India Mumbai go either to Mandwa/Alibaug (Read about my Alibaug travelogue) or Elephanta Island. Each roundabout ticket for Lower Deck costs 190 INR each, with access to upper deck at 10 INR extra, spanning the journey of over 1 hour to and fro each. I managed to catch the Mumbai skyline pretty well due to clear sky, other than that sit back and chill…

As we landed on the jetty running across the beach, we were greeted by hoard of aggressive cows and plenty of dogs. Highly recommended not to carry food in this stretch as there are plenty of options up ahead at reasonable rate. The beach looks rocky and does not look fit for swimming.

Up ahead we had to climb up over 100 steps flanked by series of stalls selling nearly everything you can think of. There are plenty of eateries as well amidst these shops. On reaching the gateway on top, we had to buy tickets of 5INR each to enter the UNESCO world heritage site.

History cannot pinpoint the origin of the cave exactly as the island houses five Hindu caves and two Buddhist caves. However the cave has been considerably damaged during Portuguese invasion of 15th century, a lot of which has been restored. They had spared the central 20 feet Trimurti of Shiva, which forms the major pinnacle of tourist attraction.

The rest of the caves were in too much broken state to really unearth what was there but sharing couple of artifacts to give an idea.

We finally managed to catch the last ferry at 7 PM that took us back to homeland. The night sky and view is amazing as we sailed across the ocean. Being 26th November, Gateway and Taj were illuminated in memory of the martyrs.

Tip Offs

• Avoid carrying food and water bottles. The land borne animals chase you for food while the monkeys are equipped enough to use water bottle.
• You can buy hats/caps at 100 INR on reaching there. If sun makes you sad, buy one.
• 100 steps isn’t difficult but isn’t very easy either. Be prepared to walk a lot.
• Not a place to enjoy with friends. Stay away if you want to have a fun time.

My Recommendation

Buy items you might want to take as souvenir from the flank across stairways. The variety is immense. On parting note, here is a monkey who partially figured out how to drink water from bottle.

Am getting super infrequent with this.

Until Next Time.

Sayantan

Update (2020)

The font becomes smaller because that is the new style of blog posts.

My second visit was all about ensuring four senior citizens can reach the top. This time I explored nearly all the major caves, just because I did not the time before. There is really nothing special to add here.