Photos at the bottom 😊

12th September 2022

Crazy dreams last night, as well as a full moon, apparently there are multiple planets in retrograde, whatever that means it clearly had an effect.

We had pasta for breakfast… vermicelli, Ok! Delicious. v.v.v delicious. Our fruit man who works opposite our pad (and who has the an award winningly friendly and handsome face) has been supplying us with some high grade papaya, apples and some cool and very strange tiny pears which are apparently called knocks. Kimraj who doesn’t seem to sleep is a master fruit cutter and is only too happy to take on the messy task every time we collect a fruit haul. A truly delicious and nourishing start to the day.

We ended up staying at the breakfast table for about 2 hours chatting to Randhir from Bihar and Dominique from France who have an Indian travel company - www.chauffeureninde.com - another part of the nourishment we started the day off with. We chatted about how covid had affected them, their business and laughed about some of their more interesting client experiences.

After discussing some future trips which don’t feel suitable right now to Jhansi & Orchha (worth a google) we headed back to GreenR cafe in GK1 for some coffee and nibbles.

It’s just too hot to do anything outside so we went back to LifeTree for some R&R and some yoga.

We then headed to Lodhi gardens for an evening walk as both Kanta and Dominique had recommended it for its shade and evening bird song. Luckily I had some mozi spray with me as I could feel the little ba**ards sticking there pesky points into my arms and legs. Some dude came over and tried to sell meditation to us, which was a first. Not all that packageable. The most unusual part was when he demo’d his meditation and half way through slyly opened one eye to check we were still there.

We pleasantly bumped into Randhir and Dominique by pure chance and strolled with them for a little while before heading home for din dins.

You can hear the sound of the birds here.

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13th September 2022

When we went down for breakfast I immediately spotted that there was some (as my dad refers to it) ‘plastic’ bread being prepared. I made a dash for the packet before Kimraj could do anything too final and closely examined the ingredients. All vegan but an unrealistic amount of ingredients that I either couldn’t pronounce or that had too many E numbers so I asked if we could have something else (along with several apologies for the inconvenience caused - classic brit move), 5 minutes later, Aloo Paratha! Awesome!

A rickshaw to Khan Market for some coffee and book reading. We met a lovely Englishman called John who was travelling solo and was also hanging out in Delhi while the weather did its thing up north. We connected over our love for the country and the book shops we’d both discovered. John shared some invaluable memories of being in Mumbai back in 1992 when apparently there weren’t many cars on the road. We are both heading in the same direction eventually so I offered up my contact details in the hopes we can meet for coffee near a mountain in the coming weeks.

Back to LifeTree for a quick fresh-n-up before our driver arrived.

Enter ‘Suresh’ a Rajasthani driver with an excellent grasp of both the english language and the India roads. He turned out to be a huge Hanuman devotee and was thrilled we were heading to a Hanuman temple for the day.

Amy and I have both been hugely inspired by the teachings of Ram Dass for the last, possibly 7 years. Ram Dass’ guru Neem Karoli Baba has several temples scattered across the world and one happens to be just south of Delhi so we thought we’d go to his Ashram to pay our respects. An hours drive and we were greeted by a wonderful and peaceful temple sat under a deep blue sky. The temple at first appeared to be very simple and on entry we were showed around a few of the statues where we offered our attention and respect. The temple has a strict policy on offering prasad. No one should “get away” without receiving it. Prasad = a devotional offering made to a god, typically consisting of food that is later shared among devotees. So after communicating the concept of veganism - ”pure veg, no butter, no milk, no ghee, no egg, nothing from the animal” - this is something that we find ourselves repeating in most food situations, almost like our own unique mantra, we sat down with a paper bowl of chana and rice. It was delicious and we enjoyed it like it was the last meal before we had to sit on the toilet for hours.

After having some wonderful interactions with some of the gentle men inside the ashram and both getting some colourful cotton wrapped around our wrist we were expecting to head back to the car and return to our bnb.

Looking back at the arch above the entrance we attempted to decipher the Devanagari writing which we did surprisingly well at, all those hours on duolingo finally payed off. I beckoned over a lungi wearing devotee to help translate the last few words. As if our attempt to read the local language was our initiation we were kindly invited to see some of other areas of the ashram. Beyond belief we ushered into areas that seemed to be off limits to others. The whole experience was moreish and wholesome. The monkeys who lived on the grounds were terrifying, I’ve never felt more alive - the balance between peaceful ashram and mad monkeys. The people around us were kind and generous, welcoming and caring - they mainly showed this by carrying around big sticks to protect us from the Langurs.

There was an understanding here, a feeling of being amongst family.

“If you know how to listen, everyone is your guru”.

Dinner = Afghan bread and a fruit plate highlighted with custard apples.

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16th September 2022

21:55 Our day started with checking out of LifeTree bnb. We had reserved an Uber to take us to Vrindavan, where Krisha was born. The car arrived at bang on 11:30 and once we’d loaded all our luggage and sat in the back seat ready to go, our driver turned around and asked us to cancel the booking so we could pay cash…ummmm…. and if we could pay upfront. Now, while I admire his Business acumen about how to make a few more rupees I was not entirely comfortable with the options he presented. We abandoned ship and unloaded the car. Back around the breakfast table I booked another Uber which was surprisingly cheaper and arrived within 2 minutes. 2 minutes!!!! A gentle and friendly man helped load out stuff into his car and delivered us safely 3 hours later (and about £30) at our new home. The journey was somewhat uneventful apart from getting a little lost along the way, my British “thank you, thank you, thank yous” were always met with a calm and gentle “it’s my duty sir”.

Our new home is beautiful, so much thought has gone into the design and the food… wow! I could have eaten myself into a coma. Daal, rice, chapati, okra and some veg. Yum…

We sat in the front room listening to a playlist curated by our host of Krishna inspired mantras and bhajans which sent us both into an afternoon nap.

The last of our really good coffee was pushed through our aeropress, we sat on our balcony watching a friendly dove offer us a some curious, welcoming affection.

Our host, Peeush organised an e-rickshaw to drive us around for an evenings temples tour.

We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere, apparently according to some hand gestures, down the road and round the corner from where we were headed.. but we’d forgotten the name of the temple we were visiting so we tucked ourselves into the front of a shop and scrolled through previous whatsapp messages from our host to find the name of where we might be headed. I asked a local with a terrible attempt at the pronunciation of said temple and he pointed in a vague direction so we tried our chances and walked that way. Faith!

Oh, we had to leave our ‘slippers’ in the rickshaw so this adventure was entirely barefoot. I didn’t know I was such a clean freak until I was walking down a lane barefoot, in the dark, in a strange town which is not particularly clean surrounded by people barging past with cows and monkeys popping out of narrow gaps, head down trying to avoid wet patches and poo.

We arrived at an extremely important temple where the vibe loud and intense. Devotees with their hands in the air, praising their god with a drunk like slur, pushing to get to the front of the crowd. A statue of Krishna was the focal point for all. In front of that statue the working attendants had to close a curtain every five minutes to break any eye contact between the crowd and the statue to break any trance anyone had fallen into. Incredible India!!! 100%

Exiting the temple in a completely different lane than we’d arrived from we found our way back to the driver. I really don’t know how people travelled without google maps, it’s always in my hand, I’m aware I need to kick that habit.

Next temple, the biggest ISKON temple in the world and it was AWEsome. Clean, bright and basically a hare krishna rave. There were people from all around the world, with both domestic and international tourists. The first place on this trip we were asked to join in on a selfie or two.

I mentioned to Amy that it was bizarre being around so many Hare Krishnas and that none of them were trying to push anything onto me and then as if by magic someone approach me with the Bhagavad Gita - much to his surprise I have already read it but that did not deter him from trying to convince me I needed to chant Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna over and over so my heart, mouth and ears could fill with love. He completely ignored Amy.

A magical day really and another day that was completely unexpected.

We’ve just agreed to get up at 5am and out the door at 5:30am for some more sightseeing, so I better kill the blue light, do my days meditation and fall into slumber. Night!

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17th September 2022

15:12 Even if you’ve tossed a coin 50 times and it landed on tails every time, the odds will always be 50/50 wether it’d land on heads or tails. What are the odds, if you wake up in the middle of the night to find a cockroach in your bed that you will find another one that night?

Radhe Radhe! (local tounge for a greeting).

Our accommodation as I’ve said is really wonderful… however the 2 rooms we get to choose from are 1. The yellow room, with a sewer smell coming from the en suite with the spill of a street light oscillating from on to off every second. Or 2. the blue room which has a damp wall - our host keeps describing as seepage which sounds so much worse than it is and may be bad for my asthma.

I’m not sure if it’s accurate to say I woke up at 5am when I’m not sure if I actually slept. However we were on the sofa scrolling on our phones, waiting patiently for our e-rickshaw to ring the bell. As we set off down the road I experienced a mini-massive migraine with every speed bump and pot hole. Those e-rickshaws may be better for the planet but are awful for my spine as they have zero suspension.

We weren’t entirely sure where we were headed and later on that morning I said to Amy that maybe I do need to engage my brain a little more with where we’re going and what we’re doing. Letting everything just appear is great but when you arrive and by that I mean when the rickshaw driver stops down a narrow alley at 6am surrounded by monkeys and mosquitoes it’s probably beneficial to know why we’re there and what we’re about to see.

So we deciphered the name of the temple, tapped it into google maps and followed the blue dot towards another famous Krishna temple, this was apparently where he ruled from according to folk-lore. A beautiful heritage exterior with a sea of Krishna devotees with their hands in the air chanting at the top of their lungs. The overwhelming noises from the crowd, the sound of the horns from the imposing traffic who had illegally hacked their horns to volume 11, the cheeky & mischievous monkeys and the swarm of mozi’s was enough to tip both of us over the edge of rational. Jaw dropped to the floor, gormless and speechless we both stood there in disbelief. “Let’s crack on, this is too much”.

Next stop - not sure I could say but we were ushered out of the rickshaw.

Along a pedestrian only road we evaluated the sense in putting our bags, belts, phones, supplies and camera into the cloak room to visit another temple. Nope. Too early. Too risky. Amongst the lurking monkeys we both lacked the clear headspace needed to think properly. “Let’s crack on, this is too much”.

We spent the afternoon chilling, chatting, reading, napping, watching and writing. The last of the sourdough we’d picked up in Delhi with some almond butter from planet organic would have been an amazing lunch time snack but I couldn’t find a knife so I had to text the host and wait an hour before I could appease my hungry, needy tummy.

Dinner at 6pm; Paratha, daal, rice, tiny fried potatoes wedges that weren’t potatoes but neither of us could decipher exactly what they were and a potato and spinach curry. The chef who our host refers to as ‘mommy’ must have been cooking and perfecting her craft for a very long time. Because the food was yet again, delicious.

Just before we set out for the evenings temple run we had a wholesome conversation about where we were both at mentally. Travelling can be tough and it’s good to check in with each other. I feel like at the end of our chat we’d both made some extra room for a peaceful pace moving forward, I came to know this wonderful sense of peace because our next e-rickshaw driver quickly obliterated it.

Our host couldn’t get the same calm driver from the evening before, Danesh had been hailed from the streets and sent to find our address.

I had no idea these e-rickshaws could travel at such a pace. Amy and I clung on to each other.

Weaving in and out of traffic, sharp turns and narrow misses of pedestrians by mere millimetres. Stressful, very. “Everything happens as it’s supposed to” - that’s what we tell ourselves. Maybe the reason for his speed and willingness to risk all our lives unbeknownst to the driver was to get us to Neem Karoli Baba’s temple before it shut.

We arrived at our destination with our dinner firmly back up in our esophagus.

The temple was really special. The peculiarity of this temple is that it merges the architecture of all, a temple, a mosque, church, Gurudwara and Pagoda. Neem Karoli baba saw us all as one and didn’t like to separate us, what a smart man and thoughtful man!

You can hear the sounds of people chanting at the temple here.

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18th September 22

A strange day. A day of headaches and tummy aches, aircon and netflix.

At about 3pm, the room started shaking and filled with bass. 2 vehicles went past our front room playing super loud music followed by people dancing and throwing bright holi colours at each other. We leapt out of our seats and headed outside to observe the commotion, me with my camera in my hand and Amy with her remaining chat. I snapped away for 10 minutes at the bright smiles, colourful dancing and children partying on the back of a tractor only to realise as we headed home that I hadn’t loaded my camera with a memory card.

We’ve decided to leave Vrindavan a day earlier than we’d planned, for various reasons. The weather in the north is apparently a lot better, the smell of sulphur in the air here is getting to us and there’s something we can’t quite put our finger on but we know it’s the right decision to move on.

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