The Khumb Mela Experience

As my bus arrived in Allahabad and drove over the Ganges bridge and I got my first view of the Khumb Mela, my first impression was that every circus in the world has come and set up camp here all at the same time. The area is around 50 square kilometres covered in temporary tent camps, complete with temples and alters and of course chai shops.

The other amazing thing about the setup is that it was incredibly organised and clean, way beyond my expectations. It was so hard to capture the hugeness of this in a picture, so I think the best way to do it is to just show you a series of photos.

An example of the tent cities that stretched forever

The temporary pontoon bridges they have set up at regular intervals, as the camps span both sides of the river.

This boy worked at the sweet shop just outside my camp, he is deaf and dumb, but is amazing once you get him on the Tabla drums!

My new job as a sweet seller.

My home

The mass of boats headed to the Sangam

Coke gets a look in everywhere..

Communal dinner time at camp – leaf plates and AMAZING food

Baba rituals

The masses of people streaming in for the main bathing day

The music gets going in camp every night

The beautiful Radhebaba poses for us

Leaving camp for the main bathing

The Sadhus parade

There is just so much more, and I felt so inadequate capturing it with my camera, there was the night 6 Tibetan monks walked into the camp to join out singing, and no picture can capture the amazing sense of sharing and happiness everyone was walking around with.

It truly was a once in a lifetime experience.