To Vrindavan

We spent three days in Delhi; which is not enough time to see everything.  I had to seriously prioritize our "to do" list and just accept the fact we couldn't do everything.  In hindsight we should have arrived at least two days before the wedding, not one, and planned to spend at least one more day, if not two, in Delhi before heading to Vrindavan.

It took about three hours to drive from Delhi south to Vrindavan. 

The drive was quite interesting.  We started to see a lot more free roaming cows and we spotted our first camel.  The road was four lanes wide (two for each direction), but occasionally we were in the oncoming lane of traffic to go around all sorts of slower moving traffic.  As I said before, the painted lines to divide the lanes doesn't mean much.  And just as it was in the city, there was still lots of horn blowing.

We stopped at a very busy roadside rest stop.  There were a lot of tourists here on their way to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is.  Here we saw our first snake charmer.  One of the things Chris' dad kept telling us to be aware of - and stay away from - were the snake charmers.  So we of course had to take a picture!

Next to the snake charmers were men with monkeys.  

When we turned off the main road to head into Vrindavan the road became dirt and it was quite a bumpy ride to our lodging.  When we pulled up to Ananda Krishna Van Chris and I looked at each other with nervous expressions of "you have got to be kidding me... there is no way this is where we are staying."

 

Welcome to Vrindavan!

Also known as Vrindaban, Brindavan, and Vraj.  The village is home to hundreds of temples.

The religious heritage of Vrindavan, as told by Wikipedia:  "Vrindavan is considered to be a holy place by all traditions of Hinduisim. The major tradition followed in the area is Vaisnavism, and it is a center of learning with many Vrindavan Ashrams operating."

Vrindavan is nicknamed "City of Widows" because of the large population of widows who come to live here.  Wikipedia explains why:  "According to some Hindu traditions, upper caste widows may not remarry, so many of those abandoned by their families on the death of their husband make their way here. There are an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 widows living on the streets, many of whom have spent over 30 years there. In exchange for singing bhajan hymns for 7–8 hours in bhajanashrams, women are given a cup of rice and a pittance of money (around Rs.10) which they try to supplement by begging on the streets."  I have to add that I didn't see many widows begging - most were at least trying to sell something, no matter how small it was.  I'm not saying there weren't any, because while shopping on the street across from the ISKCON Temple I did have an elderly lady and a young girl follow me for a few minutes asking for money; but I didn't get the impression there were hundreds of widows begging on the streets like Wikipedia sort of eludes to.