It seems our Hare Krishna-curious globetrotter Vladimir (from Italy) has gone AWOL from Mathura and instead embraced Shaivism. In these videos (which are pretty "niche") Vlad goes on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas. He does visit a Vishnu temple in Nepal, but otherwise it´s mostly Shiva temples both there and in India.
Some situations shown are rather funny, like when Vladimir and one of his friends complain about Indian pilgrims refusing to stand in line and waiting for their turn to enter a temple. Note also the chaos at the ice bath in Nepal, where people of both sexes are trying to "purify their karma". The Nepalese indiscreetely film the half-nude White stranger with their I-pods. In general, there´s a lot of ice bathing and other strongman feats in these videos, Vladimir often walking barefoot in the hills. At Kedernath, I got the impression that only Vladimir and his two "White" friends took an ice bath in the holy river, while all the local pilgrims quickly formed a long line outside the temple in fully dressed condition...
Since taking pictures is usually a no-no at Hindu holy places, we never get to see the actual interiors of the temples visited. The sole exception is a Bhairava "temple" that turns out to be a cliff! At another location, we get to see some puja to a statue of Nandi, Shiva´s sacred bull.
For various reasons, I actually found these videos quite interesting, but YMMV.
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