We went to the, BAPS Hindu temple in Neasden. In fact if you look up Neasden on Google it shows you a picture of this place. And if you want to know what BAPS means, it means, Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, you’re welcome.

Build from materials from all over, shipped to India for carving and constructed like some mad jigsaw in Neasden, I have been wanting to see this place for ages. In fact I have had two abortive attempts previously. The first because we went to IKEA first, and who wants to go to a temple after IKEA, and the second was when I passed and it looked like there was some event going on and I didn’t really think just popping along to check out the place when there were actual real believers going there for some reason, plus I could not find anywhere to park, because of the thing. But mainly it was because of the thing that was going on.

The place is impressive and I get the same sort of feeling I do every time I go to impressive religious sites. First I’m always impressed at the grandeur of these places in honour of whatever religion the site is dedicated to. Then I always spend my time trying to get out of the way of genuine believers. Still it’s an interesting place to go and not what I thought it would look like inside, and it’s worth a visit.

I would say the whole getting in there was a pain in the arse, and since I had a camera camera, I was only allowed to take a pic from a box that was about 6ft by 6 ft, though if you have a camera phone, that wasn’t a problem, just take pictures wherever. As for the metal detectors at the door that was a little bit of a confusing event, and as usual I had to go through several times.