Lions, Temples, Fresh Air: Mumbai - Mumbai, Dec. 12, 2009

[backdated]

Travel log:

After a few days of Mumbai's electric intensity, even a hardened city-dweller can us a few hours away.

For that, locals and tourists head north to Sanjay Gandhi National Park to clear their minds of congestion and their lungs of pollution.

Still, the part is helpless to stop the city's panhandlers, although in the park they come from the simian sort.

Aside from the mostly friendly and very photogenic rhesus monkeys, the park boasts three major tourist attractions: the Kanheri caves of hand-carved stone, the sparkling marble Trimurti Jain temple and a brief safari bus tour featuring white and yellow Bengal tigers, and of course, the lions.

The rest of the park are equipped with cricket grounds, gardens, jungle gyms and a boat pond better suited to the locals.

Begin the journey from city center at either Churchgate Station or the Chhatripati Shivaji Terminus (locals say: CST). The Rs. 9 train to Borivali should take just over one hour. [1 USD = 46 INR] Weekend trains are less crowded than the sardine-can rush hour trains, but even when seats are available, veteran riders (and adventurous tourists) still hang out of open train doors to catch the breeze.

From Borivali Station flag down an available autorickshaw for a short Rs. 15 ride to the main gate. Be mindful that the park is a tourist destination and drivers may try their best to take advantage of foreigners. English can be a difficult with the rickshaw drivers, but if he understood "Sanjay Gandhi National Park," he will under stand "turn on the meter."

After the buggy driver finishes darting through a fierce derby of cars, trucks and scooters, Rs. 20 per person gets you into the park where most of the attractions range from 2 km to 7 km away. Fight your instinct to shoo away the guides shouting offers for tours just beyond the main gate. These un-uniformed, but authorized tours cost Rs. 850 for a car and Rs. 350 for the guide; but a motorcycle tour costs Rs. 650 plus the same Rs. 350 for the guide. Helmets are available for sale at many motorcycle shops in Mumbai, but none of them happen to be in Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

Certainly for solo travelers and even a pair may find it worthwhile to try the park's winding roads on the back of a motorcycle. Bending around each curve stretched out the tension of fighting with the city's hellacious traffic where nearly every inch of street and sidewalk (where it exists) is hotly contested by pedestrians, shopkeepers and vehicles. With the help of the bike, the breeze clears out the oppressive dust and thick air of the city below. The ability to move so freely is completely reinvigorating.

The tour first sets out on the road leading up to the Trimurti Jain temple which sits close to where the slums begin to encroach on the park. The mixing of the two habitats has not been beneficial for either. The park has lost space to the slums and is obviously subject to the waste that its new residents produce. Still worse, in rare cases the park's leopards have been known to prey on children who have, in the evenings, stepped too far from their homes.

Even before the Bajaj Boxer kick-start cycle arrived at the temple, a crowd had gathered around the charming sight of the rhesus monkeys both playing and fighting on the side of the road. People are naturally drawn to their genetic cousins and offer them food, snap pictures and just marvel at their hypnotic "human-ness."

A little farther down the path, the stately marble temple stands proudly astride one of the slums on one side and a field cut for power lines on the other.

Do remove your shoes before walking up the find marble staircase to the first landing and stand beneath three nearly 50 foot tall idols of Lord Adinathh who holds his pose alongside his sons, Lord Bahubali and Lord Bharat.

Dozens more marble idols representing Jain deities ring the outer hall of the temple. Pilgrims who visit and pray often leave offerings of fruit, flowers, incense and rice on the pedestals where the idols sit, legs crossed.

After one loop of the temple and a kick of the ignition, the motorcycle tears on through the forest into a clearing where the forest hills give way just enough to see the road ahead that leads to the Buddhist's hilltop caves.

Before a steep set of switchbacks to the first level of caves, park officers as for another Rs. 100.

The imposing site was carved by hand nearly 2,000 years ago by Buddhist monks. Some were permanently quartered there, but it is believed that the complex was largely used by monks who traveled through the region from all over the Buddhist world.

At the lower level, it is already possible to look across a vast deciduous valley onto part of the skyline at the northern end of the city, about 20 miles away. Opposite the valley, deep within the rock is a towering sanctuary. It's columns and ornate figures are carved around a domed stature which represents, but does not depict Buddha. Many of the tour guides will do their best to recreate some of the morning chants of the monks. The chants may or may not be authentic, but the haunting sounds echo through the hall's acoustics and offer something to prod the imagination.

The climb through the monastery becomes steeper and slightly more difficult as the path continues past the facilities for the monks' basic needs. Living quarters were carved along with more meditation rooms or stalls.

On the opposite side of the dining hall there is a tiered row of one-foot deep laundry basins, which if filled, would drain down the rocks.

Icons are carved at nearly every doorpost and an ancient painting clings to existence on the ceiling of a meeting hall entranceway.

Above the caves, a clearing on one of the higher peaks in the park offers a cathartic panorama which is worth the extra climb.

After a moment of personal meditation head back down and hit the trail to the third attraction on the program, the big cats.

The motorcycle pulls into a field filled with locals and their children on playgrounds and cricket grounds. A park office stands to one side where visitors pay another Rs. 30 for a pass on the safari bus; the only way to see the stars of the show.

Similar to the train ride north, fight your way onto the bus and hope for a window seat near of the camera portholes cut through the protective bars on the windows. The cats remain in their own pens, but considering the damage caused by the leopard population, you never can be too careful.

As the bus makes its way through the forest, the white tiger appears first on the left side. A male struts back and forth while the bus erupts in excitement. The driver pauses for a moment, but soon moves on to a pair of yellow tigers. once sits in the sun while the other makes its own seemingly disinterested paces.

Lastly, the 15 minute ride finds the lions' pen. The popular wisdom is that the cats are most active in the morning, but already by 11 a.m. a lioness is barely visible sitting calmly in a thicket of tall grass. The male lion lounges opposite her, making a display of his teeth while lazily yawning in the midday sun.

Cameras click and the bus pulls away to drop its riders back at the ticket office where the next busload is ready to rush on board.

With the three major attractions filed in memory, the motorcycle makes its way past more forest as well as park housing where many, including my guide, pay around Rs. 1500 per month to live in small villas on the park grounds.

Before stepping back through the gate, which stands adjacent to a highway overpass, turn around back to the park and walk on your own just for a few minutes to the boat pond. Couples or families can rent a paddle boat for Rs. 15 for each person and enjoy a serene leg-powered cruise around the lake.

Up the path from the boat pond is the depot of the park's mini-train which tours a section of the park about every 30 minutes.

If waiting seems like too much trouble, do as the locals and just walk along the narrow-gauge track. The 20 minute ride will take closer to one hour on foot, but the peaceful trackside walk passes by spotted deer pens, more lakes and shadowy lanes away from most of the park's other visitors. Train tracks have a poetic quality which offer a bit of time to contemplate the day's events and what will follow.

Whether by foot or train, once the tracks make a complete loop it is probably apparent that the park's vendors only sell small snacks, fresh vegetables and bottled water. Find a rickshaw back to Borivali Station and into town for your well-earned meal and a cool drink.