Gentle wake up of phones and other guests ruckus-ing outside our door – one of the best sleeps we’ve had though!

Down for breakfast and what a treat

Back up to the room to get ready as well as booking our next leg of our journey through India

We go down to grab an Uber towards the Gate of India again

Apparently the air quality is better than usual today (though damaging still at long exposure)

Through the police barriers to the historical landmark and to the left is the ferry port

Two tickets and we board on one of the boats

Pay an extra 10 rupees each to go to the upper deck for a panoramic view (though difficult to see long distances)

On board is pretty chaotic – people are trying to feed the seagulls so we’re swarmed

The driver even has to toot the horn to get people to move out of his line of sight to drive the boat ????

Almost half way there, the boat stops and it seems they need to help the engine… reassuring ????

Fixed, we can manoeuvre onwards

There seems to be an endless bridge connected to an island opposite where the oil rigs doc, away from Mumbai

We land at Elephanta Island!

Up the pathway, we pass the toy train and loads of little tat shops and food stalls

We pop to Elephanta Port for some quick noms

Now fueled, we venture up the skinny, tat shop-lined path

Many birds of prey swoop above our heads

We reach the top – these caves are a UNESCO heritage site

Lots of nooks and crannies and guards with adventurous photo ideas for us

There’s stone carvings of a multitude of dieties though unfortunately damaged quite badly

According to some literature, it used to be quite colourful though, again, lost to time

So many monkeys and dogs living quite harmoniously

We reach the end of the walk and head back

It’s getting late and the boat back is quite long so we decide to make our way back

Smoothly grab a boat that’s just about to leave ????

This route back is a lot more peaceful than the initial as there’s much more of a breeze

Sun is setting so it feels like we’re chasing it!

Finally, we reach land again – time for some dinner

We go to a place we spotted on the way into this area: Bombay Brasserie

Chicken tikka butter masala (a Punjabi speciality) and “Bombay Lunch” (a spicy veg Mumbai-style curry served with coconut milk rice and poppadoms) with two mocktails with an Indian twist

Very yummy and the restaurant was fully booked – we just happened to catch a spot before all the reservations start

Still early in the evening so we grab a cab to do a little more sightseeing

So so much traffic, we’re basically just waiting for most the journey

We get dropped off in a new area of Mumbai, the western side

Strolling through an alley filled with a local market, we reach the water walkway to Haji Ali Dargah

The water is choppy around it and the building is lit up with green

After, we go back and wonder towards another religious building: Shree Mahalakshmi Temple

We opt not to take our shoes off and go up the steps to look just as it’s late/dark and seems not the brightest idea for two clearly foreign tourists

After all that, it is getting late so we get our final Uber of the day and go to bed