Cheeky monkeys and holy cows
Today I had a bit of a lie in, and woke up to a bit of the first India v England One Day International. England had made a promising start, but in the end, as you will know if you have been following it, England choked when batting and lost. Needless to say the Indians here are rather pleased.
I took one of the little ferry boats over to Elephanta Island - named after one of the carvings of an elephant which is located on the island. The Island is famous for its caves which are carved out of the mountain. They date back to the 6th century and are in fairly good shape considering the time and the apparent lack of any barriers or anything to stop the tourists (or locals) going up and touching the carvings.
I seemed to get the slowest boat over - taking closer to 2 hours than the advertised 1 hour crossing, but it was alright. It's about a 2km walk from the jetty up the hill to the main cave. The way is lined with fruit, food, drink, and trinket vendors who try to ply you their wares as you hike up the hill.
They were actually fairly laid back and not being to agressive with their selling - in fact from what my mum says, it has got a lot better recently with less people descending on the tourists as soon as they appear.
Got back and then Shash's cousin Karan came by the hotel and then took me on a drive around the city. We went bowling and had a couple of games. In what I hope is a reflection of how the cricket will be, I made a good start in the first game, and then choked at the end, and in the second game I made a solid start and triumphed. Since I'm going to the second ODI in Faridabad on the 31st, I'm hoping it will be a good match (ie England winning!).
One thing I noticed today that I hadn't noticed before is that the vast majority of scaffolding here in Mumbai is actually made of uneven bits of wood or bamboo. It's pretty frightening seeing people clamber up even a few feet on the scaffolding as it seems to completely defy gravity, but I saw scaffolding made of the wonky pieces of wood held together with hemp string going up 30 or 40 stories high.
Pictures of stuff below:
Baby monkey
Coke fiend
Holy cow!
Spot the unusual McDonalds foods..
Family of monkeys
Same...
Grooming
Moo
Inside the caves
Same...
And again...
Some idea of perspective...
More carvings
Outside a cave
Some fishing boats
Dog meets monkey
I took one of the little ferry boats over to Elephanta Island - named after one of the carvings of an elephant which is located on the island. The Island is famous for its caves which are carved out of the mountain. They date back to the 6th century and are in fairly good shape considering the time and the apparent lack of any barriers or anything to stop the tourists (or locals) going up and touching the carvings.
I seemed to get the slowest boat over - taking closer to 2 hours than the advertised 1 hour crossing, but it was alright. It's about a 2km walk from the jetty up the hill to the main cave. The way is lined with fruit, food, drink, and trinket vendors who try to ply you their wares as you hike up the hill.
They were actually fairly laid back and not being to agressive with their selling - in fact from what my mum says, it has got a lot better recently with less people descending on the tourists as soon as they appear.
Got back and then Shash's cousin Karan came by the hotel and then took me on a drive around the city. We went bowling and had a couple of games. In what I hope is a reflection of how the cricket will be, I made a good start in the first game, and then choked at the end, and in the second game I made a solid start and triumphed. Since I'm going to the second ODI in Faridabad on the 31st, I'm hoping it will be a good match (ie England winning!).
One thing I noticed today that I hadn't noticed before is that the vast majority of scaffolding here in Mumbai is actually made of uneven bits of wood or bamboo. It's pretty frightening seeing people clamber up even a few feet on the scaffolding as it seems to completely defy gravity, but I saw scaffolding made of the wonky pieces of wood held together with hemp string going up 30 or 40 stories high.
Pictures of stuff below:
Baby monkey
Coke fiend
Holy cow!
Spot the unusual McDonalds foods..
Family of monkeys
Same...
Grooming
Moo
Inside the caves
Same...
And again...
Some idea of perspective...
More carvings
Outside a cave
Some fishing boats
Dog meets monkey
posted by Ken at 4:10 pm
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