Mumbai

Lunch at the Taj between trips to Elephanta Caves and the Prince of Wales Museum.

A look back at our hotel, the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, as we leave on the ferry to Elephanta Island.

Elephanta Island & Caves

There are about 120 steps up to the caves. They are lined with stalls selling all sorts of souvenirs. In monsoon, the ubiquitous blue tarps keep off most of the rain. In the dry season, they provide welcome shade -- and give an odd color cast to the scene!

The entrance to the main cave.

Looking into the cave.

Elephanta is notable for it's exquisite scuptures. This one shows the wedding of Shiva and Parvati.

The main sculpture of Shiva.

Prince of Wales Museum

After lunch, we visited the Prince of Wales Museum, which now has a very long name that no one ever uses. This was probably the most "professional" of the museums we have visited in India, although a number of our group remarked that you had to pay extra for a camera pass, but no one kept you from actually touching most of the artifacts.

The exterior and grounds of the Prince of Wales Museum.

A small terra-cotta tiger. The finding of these terra-cotta figures reset the date of "civilization" in India back to about 3500 BCE -- much earlier that had been previously known.

Vishnu lying atop a cobra.