Matura, Vrindavan & Gwalior.

Mathura and Vrindavan 30th Sept : Visited the nearby town of Vrindavan. Temperature scorching today so having to take things slow. First up was the Gita temple on the road between Mathura and Vrindavan. The temple is set off the main road in peaceful and quiet gardens, a stark contrast to the bustling Mathura. See pic below.

Gita Temple .

After the the calm... we next visited the ancient Govind Dev Temple with its hordes of ever mischievous monkeys, anything not bolted down appeared to be fair game. I think the SAS could learn a few tricks from this lot.. The Temple is another dedicated to Krishna.

Govind Dev Temple Vrindavan.


After the chaos of the Govind Dev temple we visited a few more local temples and a rather cool looking white marble temple, the Pagal Baba . The hugely impressive Pagal Baba has puppets and dioramas depicting the lives of Rama and Krishna, although hugely entertaining they gave us an insight to the awe that Rama and Krishna command.

Pagal Baba and a tourist.

1st October : Early morning train to Gwalior just 3 hours away. The Fortress town of Gwalior was a bit of a dump to be honest, dirty noisy and nothing going for it. The next morning we headed for the hills ( one hill actually ) and the hill top Gwalior fort... wow what a contrast, absolutely fantastic. Being up on a hill it was cooler and with a pleasant breeze it made walking about quite easy. The fort is some 3 km in length running along the top of a hilltop escarpment and houses many other features as well as the fort itself. The Man Singh Temple is what you first see when climbing up towards the East Gate of the fort. It comprises of towers and many whimsical tiling effects ( yellow ducks ) .

Gwalior Fort and the Man Sing Temple.

Look Carefully and you can see those Yellow Ducks.

View of the ramparts from one of the temple terraces

After spending a couple of hours wandering around the fort top we came across the Sasbahu Temple. It was here that Linda was pestered by a young lad trying to sell bits of chopped up onion, after repeated polite "no thank you's" Linda was advised by another local lad to "Please beat him madam" that way he will go away... well as if... so we threw him over the ramparts instead !!

Sasbahu Temple.

From the ramparts we could see this impressive white temple and wondered if we would be allowed to have a look around.. well this is what happened. Walking towards the White Temple we stumbled across a Mayan looking temple and discovered that it does indeed have Mayan influences !! Teli -Ka - Mandir it is called.

Teli - Ka - Mandir

We were now getting close to the Temple we had been aiming at. There was even a welcome sign wishing people to enter and look around. When we got to the temple ( Sikh Gurdwara ) we were greeted by a turbaned old man who offered to show us around, he mentioned that he was devoting 12 years of his life to service in the temple and was now in his 10th year. After 30 minutes he said that his guide was over and it would be his honour to provide us with food and drink. A bit shocked we agreed and were lead to a simple temple dining hall where we were offered chapatis, rice and dahl. Really tasty, the hardest part was to eat cross legged on the floor. After our meal we were given a refreshing cup of masala tea. After our meal we were shown to a simple granite sink where we washed our trays and cups. We were really humbled by this generous display and offered to make a donation which was politely refused. So I asked if I could take a picture of him and Linda as a memory of a fantastic afternoon .

Linda and our most gracious host.

Sikh Gurdwara through the ramparts.

Sikh Gurdwara avenue of trees.

Upon leaving the Sihk Gurdwara Temple we headed towards the forts West gate, ahead was a 1km down hill walk past many rock carvings before we came to the city limits and a rickshaw back to our digs, a truly fantastic day.

Rock Carvings beyond the West Gate

More Rock Carvings.

Tomorrow an early bus to Agra, we tried to book a train but al seats were taken.