The New Vrindaban Palace of Gold is located in the rural mountains of Moundsville, West Virginia. The Palace of Gold is a Hare-Krishna Hindu temple. It was founded by Srila Prabhubada, leader of the ISKCON movement — the International Society for Krishna Consciousness — and opened in 1979. On a recent tour, a tour guide showed visitors how the Palace of Gold is currently undergoing renovations to restore the roof.

The very building is a work of art, every inch of it elaborately decorated and assembled from resources brought from every corner of the world. Every section of the marble and stone are from different countries, some of it from Italy; the crystals in the chandeliers from Austria; the vases from India and China; and the many peacock feathers dotting the artwork throughout the building were shedded from peacocks they keep on the grounds there.

The grounds, isolated in the mountains, are unbelievably quiet. There is no trace of any traffic sounds, just birds chirping pleasantly in the background, making it a very peaceful environment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are taking road trips to escape the sometimes chaotic events going on around us, not to mention to get away from computers for a little while while everything is virtual. The mountains of West Virginia and the Palace of Gold are a perfect destination for this.