Some of you may have seen in my previous posts that I have a habit of sending postcards to myself whenever I go for a trip. These postcards were sent from Mumbai Airport. I got them though from New Delhi.
Swaminarayan Akshardham is a spiritual and cultural complex. It was placed at the Guinness World Record as the World's Largest Comprehensive Hindu Temple in 2007.
Swaminarayan Akshardham is a spiritual and cultural complex. It was placed at the Guinness World Record as the World's Largest Comprehensive Hindu Temple in 2007.
Akshardham means the divine abode of God. Information about the place says that the mandir in the middle is the most visited structure within the complex. I was totally in awe of the statues decorating the mandir. The gajsthar (plinth of elephants) was my favorite. Our visit became all about walking around the mandir to examine and understand the story depicted by all 148 full sized elephants.
We had a great view of the entire temple complex from the elevated express way leading to the entrance of the place. We were brokenhearted at first as we thought the queue was so long and we only had 2 hours left. Good thing, we realized it was the queue for the cloak room and not for the entrance! A lot of items are prohibited inside, such as cameras and mobile phones. Visitors need to deposit the prohibited items prior to entering the place. Needless to say, the security was very tight and we had to queue for at least 15 minutes to pass through the x-ray machine and body frisking.
We're almost left by our flight from New Delhi to Mumbai. I wanted to run into the Post Office inside the New Delhi Airport but we won't just make it on time. In the end, I had quite an adventure to get the stamps in Mumbai but gladly, I was able to send the postcards from Mumbai Airport before eventually boarding my flight back to Singapore.
These are my postcards for this weekend for our theme "anything you wish" . Sending myself postcards during my business trips gives me interesting memories from the place, and not just the endless meetings and usual stuff about work -- which leaves the travel experience too dry sometimes.
Hope we're all having a good break this weekend! I'm glad to finally get a real weekend after a continuous 16 days of work!
Signing off this post from a place surrounded by pepper farms in the province of Kampot, Cambodia.
~maria
P.S. My apologies for the late posting as internet here wasn't working last night. I wish for those who came here to my page prior to getting the linky up will be back to link up their postcards for this weekend. If not, please help me get the word out -- thanks!!
Lovely cards! I've never sent myself postcards from a trip, but I still send many to my friends and family. I might have to start doing it!
ReplyDeleteStunning, love the lotus like entrance. I am rarely separated from my camera so might have twitched a bit if I had been visiting but it would have been a great excuse just to buy more postcards.
ReplyDeleteHi Maria, These are some neat cards from India. Wow, that part of the world is just so different from what I'm accustomed to ... I hope to see it in person one of these days. Another fine post here and thank you for hosting. Hope you have a relaxing weekend as you have been so busy the last couple of weeks. Take care and be well!
ReplyDeleteThat's a nice idea, sending postcards to yourself. I don't travel now but when I did often used to buy postcards but I did not send them to myself by post (just brought them home with me or sent them to friends)
ReplyDeleteSuch an amazing and impressive complex! Similar to you, I love the 'mural', the elephant statues. Thank you for sharing these postcards of a building I've never knewn before!
ReplyDeleteI think it a nice habit to send postcards to yourself. It will be a great kind of diary, making you feel the joy again, once being home again.
Sometimes it surprises me deeply that so many people don't get the joy of real postcards. Fortunately - also thanks to your blog - we all can share our enthusiasm via the internet (and hopefully can spread the word, so that all our non-snailmailing colleagues and families and friends will get the joy of postcards sooner or later, too!).
These postcards are very beautiful. It is a good idea to send you postcards when travelling (I've never done so), and specially if it is a work trip. It is like travelling twice!
ReplyDeleteI am am pressed with the sheer scale of this place, and the elephants!
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