Brindavan Gardens

This morning I did school work with the girls while Nadim struggled through chemistry with the girl we were tutoring. There is a bit of a language issue so he found it a bit difficult this morning.

We had a late lunch in town and then headed to the city bus terminal to find a bus to Brindavan Gardens. We asked several people about buses and got several answers on where to wait and which one goes. One bus official told us where to wait but when Nadim asked him when we should expect the next bus, he smiled and said “It comes.” After waiting for about 45 minutes in the heat, we decided that maybe we could hire a car instead. Someone had mentioned that when taking the bus you had to walk quite a ways from the bus stop to get to the gardens. This, the sight of the crowded buses with no A/C, and the long wait in the sun, eventually helped us admit defeat and we found ourselves a taxi.

The gardens are only about 20 km away, but the poor state of the roads and the variety of vehicles on the road meant that it took almost 45 minutes to get there. We were glad we hadn’t opted for the bus because it would have been much longer with all the stops.

We made it to the gardens by late afternoon. The sun was still quite strong, but we walked along the side of the garden that was shaded by the dam that feeds the water fountains.


We started by visiting the north garden. It was very beautiful. There was a main water flow through the center of the garden and it fed many fountains both along the centre path as well as to the sides.

At the far end of the garden, up on a hill that was covered with flowers was a big hotel. We decided to stop there for some chai, but when we found out they had milk shakes the girls opted for that instead. Nadim had a cappuccino, the first in a very long time.

Small things make us happy these days. I went to the ladies room and when I reported back that they were western style toilets, and they were clean, and they even had toilet paper, and they had paper towel and soap, the girls were full of smiles and we all had to make a pit stop.

After sunset there was a dancing water fountain display. They had coloured lights and the fountains looked like they were moving to the music. It was fun to watch for fifteen minutes or so. They ushered in new groups of people every fifteen minutes, and the place was teeming with people. We were warned about pick pockets but didn’t have a problem.

We made it back to town and went to a restaurant for a late vegetarian dinner. We also got a couple of curries to bring home so we can heat them up for our dinner tomorrow.

CM & NM