Hindu Temple: Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

This was the first trip in my HOTG class. It was certainly the most interesting trip. We visited a Hindu Temple somewhere near Downtown Houston I think. It was a huge hand carved temple made up of various stones. The floor was made up of marble and the outside a mixture of ash and concrete.
The whole temple was mostly white except for a few gold toned poles on the dome. You could definitely tell you were in a holy place whenever you first walk in.
Here are some figures the guide told us:
Over 33,000 pieces of stone
1,500 angel statues
3,000 human figures
1,500 horses
1,000 elephants
To carve one pillar it took 9 months over 3 people carving it at once.
When we got there we just happened to get there at a time whenever they do there prayer session. We had to go to the center, sit cross-legged, the women sat behind the men. During that time they would light a candle at a gold statue of one of their gods and pray. They had music you could sing to whenever you were praying.
I thought the temple was very cool and I would love go back. That trip was definitely the most culturally diverse so far.