We landed here at 2am and found a room quite quickly. We were woken by a loud cock crow,  the day already hot. The pungent smell of joss-sticks, so soon, was slightly sickly. The best way to describe this place is in terms of striking contrasts; what it is and what it’s not, the overwhelming culture shock, the hustle and the bustle, the vibrancy of colour, shocking pink and saffron, the noise, the poor, an elephant and walls ornately painted, a two-ton truck, a blaring horn, blue fumes (I nearly fainted). The piles of marigolds outside the little temples, the clack of tractor engines, used as generators everytime the power goes off, the way the people stare at us as children crowd around us, the beauty of the gentle Brahman cows, the buzzing flies, the incense, the spices and the cedar wood, an assault upon the senses. And all of this is what we saw before we found our breakfast! (Where a chattering monkey stole my orange). All life is here. Deprived and yet abundant.