We had a terrific day today with a boat trip to Elephanta Island, located 9 klm out into Mumbai Harbour. There are a number of temples cut into the rock of the Island. These take the form of caves with many pillars, halls and shrines dedicated to Shiva. They are thought to have been constructed between 450 and 750 AD. The boat trip to the Island takes a bit over an hour and as you leave the jetty you get great views of the Gateway Of India, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and parts of the Mumbai skyline. Immediately to the left of the jetty is a very large Naval Base and you are warned not to take any photos at that point - an instruction that was ignored by some of the Indian passengers who, I note, tend to have a healthy disrespect for authority - possibly because they have to put up with so much of it. Still, after the terrible shootings here in 2008, security has been increased with many Police and soldiers in evidence. We didn't want to attract their attention so limited our picture taking to the usual tourist stuff. The Island itself has three separate villages located on it together with seven different caves. The caves are one of fifteen World Heritage Sites in India and quite rightly so as the quality of the carvings (despite the effetcts of time) is magnificent. There is a large troop of monkeys on the Island and in their incessant quest for free food they can become aggressive. We have had trouble with monkeys in India and Nepal previously so gave them a wide berth - particulary as we were not carrying a 'monkey-whacking stick' as we had learnt to do previously! I did take a small amount of video inside the caves and this lead to Cultural &/or Political faux pas # 2 where a Policeman told me there was either no filming allowed at all or no filming in the caves unless I had a separate ticket - I wasn't sure I understood him correctly so that was the end of filming for me.