So Sunday was the first opportunity to do some sightseeing in India. I started the morning with my own little personal Sacrament Meeting held in my hotel room. (There is a branch about an hour and half away that I'm going to try to hit next Sunday). I went with another Novell employee named Nitesh and we headed down to the
Gateway of India right in downtown Mumbai (a.k.a. Bombay). It was a pretty warm day, but the ocean breeze kept me from looking like I had just gotten out of the shower. Little did I know that would change later on in the day. The gateway was built in 1911. It is where we boarded the ferry that would take us to Elephanta Island where the
Elephanta Caves are located. Here are a few pictures of the gateway from land as well as the ferry. Click
HERE for a satellite view of the gateway and then zoom out to see where in the world I was.
The ferry ride took a lot longer than expected. About an hour. You can't expect much when you're only going 8-10 mph (I had my GPS with me. Click
HERE to see the proximity of the gateway and the island. It is the largest island shown in the upper right quadrant of the screen) Upon arriving, the sea breeze once again kept me dry, but I had no idea there was a good climb up a stone corridor to get to the caves themselves. You can see that the corridor was full of little vendors trying to get you to buy little trinkets and charms just itching for me to stop and buy something. By the time I got to the entrance, I was pretty much a wet mess. Luckily I had a handkercheif I had carried with me to dry myself off. Seemed like I was using it every 30 seconds or so.
At the entrance to the caves, there as an Indian woman there that immediately ran up to me asking if I would take her picture. I though it was a cool photo opportunity. There were about 5 others that saw me taking her picture and suddenly ran over to me. I thought it was a little odd, but then it clicked when my Indian companion paid the first woman and pulled me away from the crowd. What a clever ploy. . . Get these foreigners to think they're getting a cultural photo and then take their money. I made the mistake only once but got at least an interesting photo.
The caves themselves were fascinating. Carved right out of the side of the mountain. The many pillars positioned both along the outside facade and all through the interior were very interesting. A lot of work went into carving these. There were a total of 4 different caves, some interconnected but most did not. It reminded me of the cliffs at
Petra in Jordan, but not nearly as ornate.
For those of you who don't know, I love geocaching and of course I looked up the Mumbai area to see if there were any around. Fortunately there is only one in the area and it happens to be on Elephanta Island. It was actually a good thing that I had planned on finding it because there was a path that I would have never seen nor taken if I didn't know there was a cache on the other end. The path took us up about a 1/4 mile to the top of the second largest hill on the island with an incredible view of the entire bay. Once at the top, it was just a short 200 foot trek through the thick of the jungle to find the 35 mm cannister hidden under a small outcropping of rocks. I was pretty stoked that I found it. This picture is the kind of folliage I was going through. Surprisingly I didn't receive a single insect bite while on the adventure.
Monkeys are also considered sacred on the island so I had to catch a quick shot of one of them running around.
It was time to leave the island in order to catch the last boat and seeing that I had no intentions of spending the night on the island, we hurried down the mountain and jumped back on the ferry and in about an hour we pulled back into the port by the gateway. At that point I felt so sticky and dirty that I just wanted to get home. Luckily the car waiting for us had a very nice air conditioner and I was able to somewhat dry out. However, the sun was just setting and so I was able to jump out of the car and grab this beautiful shot of the sun setting on the Arabian Sea, a view not many people have the chance to see with their own eyes. India may be a little dirty and rough around the edges, but if you look passed that it really is a beautiful part of the world.
We happened to snap this little impromptu family picture there at the fountain near the temple entrance. It's been awhile since we've done professional family pictures. We'll need to do some soon.
And of course we have our little "best friends" picture of the kids. Our little blonde-haired twins.
As Stephanie and Ben came out of the temple, we had the kids walk up and congratulate them. Isaac was a little shy, but I included this one more so that those who haven't seen a picture of Ben yet could get an idea of what he looks like (and the height difference between Steph and him. They have a few more between them than Tami and I.)
And of course we can't forget the reception. It was done at a pavilion at a park in Sandy. Actually a nice little place. Always good to get away from church cultural halls sometimes. Adele made Brooklyn's dress and bought Isaac's stylin' 3-piece suit. He looked pretty darn handsome. We tried to keep the hoards of girls away, but they just couldn't resist!
Another cute picture of Brooklyn and Isaac together. Tami tied Brooklyn's hair in rags again the night before, which helped give her bodyless hair some density to it.
And of course the whole family was done up pretty nicely. Boy were we ready for bed at the end of that night. 3 down . . . two to go. Come on, Brian and Kaley! What's the hold up? :)
I believe I mentioned that the only thing that separates the poor from the rich is a wall. Hopefully you can see that from this next picture. This area on the other side of the hotel wall is actually one of the nicer little neighborhoods.
My normal day consists of getting up and heading down to the hotel buffet, the only chance I have of eating somewhat familiar food. The driver then picks me up out front of the hotel and thank goodness the cars are air conditioned to compensate for the 95 degree/90% average humidity outside. There's a constant dust cloud that hovers over the roads due to the lack of paved roads on many of the side streets. Pedestrians, bicycles, cars, busses, and motorized rickshaws all have an equal right of way on the main roads. I'm amazed that the cars all have their side view mirrors still. I wouldn't be at all surprised if people were wearing secret body armour underneath their clothes for the occasional side swipe by vehicles. It still amazes me that I get to the office without hitting anyone. Here's some pictures of the thousands of rickshaws on the road including some other forms of transportation. 
Here's a shot of a typically dressed Indian woman walking down the street on the way to the office. These potholes are pretty mild compared to some of the roads I travel on. This road already has something going for it . . . it's mostly paved!
The Indians at work claim that the roads are bad here because there's a lot of construction going on. Uh . . . nice excuse. Here's a typical street corner that doesn't look too bad.
Coming back to the hotel is actually very refreshing. However as the car comes through the gates the security guards stop and take one of those convex mirrors at the end of a long pole and walk around the car looking for bombs. I like to think they're looking for people clutched to the underside of the car hanging on for dear life just to get into the gates of the hotel. That's one thing that everyone has around here . . . their own personal security guards. It's comforting, but sometimes I wonder how much security they really provide. Back in the hotel room I turn on the TV and am bombarded with the World Cup on almost all channels. Don't forget the Cricket 24 hour channel. Someday I may actually look up the rules and try to figure out this strange sport. I have gotten pretty good at understanding the heavily accented English that the Indians speak here. Just a final tid bit . . . thanks to Brett, my colleague at work for giving me a copy of Angels & Demons (the prequel book to the Da Vinci Code). I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning finishing it. By the way, very very good book. I just started the Da Vinci Code this afternoon. I've been ordered by Brett to read the book before seeing the movie, which is fine. I like Dan Brown's style.
