Without a doubt the most amazing thing to happen to me thus far in life was my trip to India back in 2005. It wasn't planned. It wasn't even a thought. I hadn't really ever traveled before aside from a week long bachelors party in Cancun and numerous trips to Montreal Canada but I grew up 15 minutes from the border so that was like a trip to the next county. We used to go to see the Expo's play and I was a Jehovah's Witness at the time and they had religious conventions up there as well.
Regardles India is one of those places where you going in look like this.
And you come out looking like this.
Oddly enough the whole thing happened because I got fed up with "society" sold all my belongings and went to live on the street with the homeless of Venice Beach California. A few weeks after making that life alter decision I wandered into a Hare Krishna Temple and 4 months later I was in India. Synchronicity played such an amazing role that I have been a believer ever since. It's certainly choosy about when it decides to bless me but it really did go above and beyond this one one time and couple other times after as well. Looking back I could have done a much much better job taking advantage of the gits the universe bestowed upon me. Nonetheless I was smart enough to stay over there once I got there.
I had enough money to stay for 3 months and when it ran out I decided to stay anyway at first getting room and board at one of the guesthouses in exchange for entertaining/hosting foreigners passing through the lovely little village of Laxman Jhulla,
just up the road from Rishikesh, famous for Yoga and even more famous for the Beatles spending time there. For the locals it's famous because the Ganga river passes through it and like so many places in India, every place in India really it's chock full of holy temples, statues, caves, waterfalls, animals, streets, holy everything. Rishikesh especially so though due to it's proximity to the source of the Ganga and it's Himalayan foothill local in general. It's one of the most beautiful places on earth for a multitude of reasons and I spent a good 5 months all together in that place alone.
My first month however I spent to the south. I flew in to Delhi, spent a night in Paharghanj and then we caught a taxi several hours south to Mathura
Where friendly guys in boats will give you a ride across the Yamuna
to temples like this one
and if you're interested they'll sell you some pot as well.
Mathura like most urban areas of India is chaos. Traffic laws are really just vague suggestions that no one adheres to even when the police are around.
But as you wander the streets within
you are met with amazing temple
after amazing temple
All of them in one way or another related to the god Krishna as Mathura is believed to be his place of birth.
And every temple has it Baba's ready to bless you and cleanse you of your bad Karma for only a few rupees. ;)
In part 2 we continue the first month, next stop, the Holy City of Vrindavan
All photo's were taken with a 2.5mp camera that a friend loaned to me while I was there, with the exception of those photos I appear in which were sent to me by the friends who took them.