The curse of the Golden Temple

Bombay to Amritsar, Punjab 32hours

Surprisingly it went pretty fast, we were in a sleeper carriage, so there were compartments for 6 to sleep in, so if we were not sleeping we read, or ate the yummy food at all the stations or just looked at the scenery. We sat with a Tupperware saleslady and her drunk/sick, husband/brother, we werent sure, they didnt speak English, but their drama was very entertaining. And some Hare Krishnas, who when they werent humming or singing Krishna songs, which were actually pretty nice to listen too, were trying to give Jon literature to read. Lucky their English and our Hindi is no good, otherwise we would have been in trouble, judging them from watching them talk to all the Indian passengers.

When we got to Amritsar, the first thing we noticed was the dust, it was all invading, throat itching, snot blackening, eye crustifyingly bad. Our thonged and Croced feet were black.

We got an awesomely apartment sized room though for a bargain price with AC. Which we were pretty chuffed about, until that night when we had a mosquito invasion. We dont know where they were getting in, but we spent half the night squashing and smashing them with the brick like India Lp and our shoes.. and then when we we had finally won against the blood suckers and the wall was covered in their little squashed bodies, the power cut off and we were stuck in a sauna, unable to open a window for mortal fear, more mozzies would get in.....So when after finally we got to sleep and woke up we were itchy, all blocked up from the dust and soaking wet, we were less then happy...should have stayed on the train.

After brekky we got a deathdefying cyclerickshaw to the Golden Temple, Holy shine of the Sikhs, the guys that wear the turbans. Everyone must have their hair covered and remove their shoes and wash their feet. We walked around the outside of the Golden Temple with hundreds of other pilgrims, and around the gardens and communal dining halls. The temple feeds and houses hundreds of pilgrims and travellers for free everyday and its very open and friendly, regardless of religion or nationality. Maybe we should have stayed there instead of being gleeful about our supercheap AC room. Maybe the temple was getting back at us..........maybe....ofcourse it could just be a simple case of you get what you pay for.

We also visited the Sikh history museum, and learnt about their very proud fighting past. They suffered and fought some very nasty battles in the past, with some pretty gory pictures to illustrate.

After soaking up the the temple we decided in the afternoon to organise an autorickshaw to the border with Pakistan to see the closing of the gate at the border crossing. We thought it would be a pretty somber affair..but it was more like a some kind of sports match with hundreds of India cheerleaders, waving and screaming and dancing on the border crossing to Indian pop, while the Pakistan side stayed true to our preconceptions.

The pop was loud, and Indians all estatic, there was an MC, getting everyone more riled up, running around, blowing kisses and being mock angry if he didnt think one part of the crowd was partying hard enough. The set up was a semi circle arena with a road running through it so the arena was in quarters, Indian guards stood to attention infront of the crowds and in the midst of dancing Indian women, to the left in the picture, who were dancing and gesturing at the Pakistan side who were sitting quitely in their half arena waving the green and white Pakistan flag, all in white in contrast with the colorful rowdy Indians. We sat in the mixed section with the families but there were all male and all female sections and a tourist section, which we didnt know about but are glad we didnt, because we got to cheer and be crazy with everyone else, and we taken in by a Rajastani family wed met earlier that day in a park in Amritsar, picure below. The little boy was adorable and did not burst in to tears when he saw our pale faces like some other babies we had met did. We had to sit down on the super hot sunbaked concrete for the closing ceremony which was pretty much unbearable by the end. The ceremony involved guards goosestepping to the gate while someone let out an ear peircing call contiously, shaking hands with the Pakistan guards and pulling down the flag for the day, all while the Indians went crazy screaming and shouting in nationalistic pride some chant that we have no idea what it means.

It was very entertaining, and not something we had planned on doing so it was a nice surprise to see.

That night we went out for dinner and had a typical Punjabi meal, tandoori chicken. We learnt that what most people think of as typically Indian food is actaully Punjabi cuisine. And this is because so many Punjabis emigrate overseas. And indeed we met alot of locals who wanted to emigrate for work and study...one even wanted our business card?! so he could catch up with us in Oz.

We only spent one full day in Amritsar. With less then a week to go in India we were keen to get up to the mountains and the cool refreshing air of Himcal Pradesh..........

Colorfulness in the womens section.