It was a very early start.
Knowing our bus was leaving from Dharamshala bus stop at 6 AM we made sure to ask our hotel to book a taxi for 5. 30 AM to make sure we had enough time to get there. So by 5 that morning we were awake, and by 5.25 we were waiting outside the front of the hostel, bags on backs ready to go. We waited, then we waited some more... then the guy from reception wandered out and informed us that he did indeed organise a taxi but the driver must still be asleep as he wasn't answering his phone. Just wonderful. We were then frantically trying to find any taxi service that could take us ASAP, he was ringing everyone he knew that could drive a car while occasionally asking us if we'd booked a taxi.... to which I replied "YES, through YOU!".
Eventually at 5.50 am a man came casually sauntering around the corner said he would take us. He picked up Bens' bag and walked us the 100 m to his car, his whole demeanor was a bit too relaxed for my liking but that's probably because I was stressing about being late. Even though he overcharged us he did manage to get us to the bus before it left, though i'm pretty sure it was just plain luck as the bus was running slightly late.
The bus cost us 300 Rs each for the 205 km we travelled, it took about 5 hours and at points in the journey there was hardly any space to be had but it was fairly comfortable (for those of us with seats) and you can't knock the value for money.
We were dropped off at the main bus station in Amritsar and compared to the sleepy towns of the north it was manic. Within seconds of stepping on solid ground people were trying to drag us to their tuk-tuks and no one seemed to care we needed a minute to get our bearings. Once we got our hostel address up on the phone no one seemed to know how to get there, despite us showing it to them on a map! Of course we did get there, we dropped off our bags and spent far too long failing to leave the bliss that is air conditioning. We got what we wanted, it definitely wasn't raining anymore, in fact it may have been a bit too hot at 35 degrees.
We spent two days in Amritsar and managed to fit quite a lot in, first on the agenda was breakfast. We wanted traditional, we wanted local, we wanted kulcha. Kulcha is a filled flatbread that when made in Amritsar is coated in butter, served with a knob of butter on top and accompanied with a spicy chickpea curry and some onion pickle. We went to "Bhai Kulwant Singh Kulchian Wale" a popular kulcha shop near the golden temple where they serve 5 variations on the dish and plain lassi; all at a very reasonable price. To be completely honest, I didn't enjoy it at all. Too burnt and too greasy and the curry hurt my tongue with the heat, the lassi was nice though. Ben enjoyed his, but while still suffering with a cold i'm not sure he could actually taste much.
After breakfast we visited the Jallianwala Bagh, a memorial garden to honour the 1000 killed and 1500 injured by the British in 1919 for congregating in that spot on the religious new year. The garden was under construction while we visited, half of the garden was closed off while they build a new museum. There are two impressive monuments inside the garden, a flame that is kept burning and a large monolith which looks like it will one day have a water feature surrounding it. They have kept some original walls in the garden which show where the bullets impacted on that day in 1919. They is also a large sheltered walkway with seats which seems to be a popular napping spot judging by the dozens of people asleep along it. On the way out there is currently a small exhibition detailing the history surrounding the Jallianwala Bagh showing the events importance to the Sikh community and to Indian independence.
Of course, while in Amritsar we had to spend time at the Golden Temple. The temple has another name "Sri Harmandir Sahib" meaning the temple of god and it is the most important temple in the Sikh relgion. The site of the Holy pool was once a small lake in a forest, a known spot for meditation. The temple was founded on that spot in 1547 by the fourth Sikh Guru, it was then completed by the fifth Sikh guru in 1604. In the following years the temple has been repeatedly vandalised and rebuilt with more intricate decoration each time, the temple wasn't even decorated in gold until 1830. The Sikhs believe in equality of all people, no matter race, religion or status. The temple feeds on average 40,000 people a day, locals pilgriums and tourists, insisting all sit together on the floor to eat. All visitors are allowed to stay in dorms surrounding the temple for 3 days at no charge, you are asked for a donation or to spend time helping in the kitchen.
When you arrive at any of the four entrances to the golden temple there are many shoe stores, pay attention to these. Me and Ben foolishly thought it would be okay to store our shoes in our bag while visiting. Its not! After taking off our shoes, walking the 50 meters on the rough hessian matting and braving the boiling hot marble, washing our hands and wading through the foot dip we were sent back to the beginning to put our shoes in the shoe storage. Its not a scam, you don't have to pay to use the storage, the Golden Temple is a shoe free zone.
It's a hard place to describe, it's beautiful and peaceful and it is always a bit surreal to visit places you've only ever seen on TV or in books. Of course the first thing we noticed was the golden temple itself, the smaller building in the middle of the holy tank that is covered in gold leaf. This is where the holy book lives from 4.30 am to 10 pm at night when it is put to bed. The second thing we noticed was that is was really hot... a place covered in white reflective marble isn't the easiest place to be when it's 36 degrees outside. As all of the covered walk ways around the edge were filled with people sleeping, we decided to sit in the shadiest side of the temple, put our feet in the water and do some people watching.
While relaxing by the water a couple with their baby came and sat next to us, the baby was quickly stripped off, dunked into the water then his mum made him to drink some of it. I'm sure this is a traditional but i wouldn't be brave enough to drink the water, especially after the resident carp came to see what was up. There was Sikh men stripping down to underwear for a dip into the waters, and there was enclosed buildings overhanging the pool for women to have a dip in privacy. Many people were happily sleeping or eating, they would also walk round to the ancient trees and shrines to pray and show their devotion, people kneeling down and kissing the floor was a regular sight.
We queued to visit the holy book, the central temple was completely packed but as you were ushered through you could see the Granthi (the Sikh holy men whose job it is to look after the book) and selected devotees sitting in a roped off area praying. Another man sat with a band of musicians and sung holy songs that are played throughout the whole of the golden temple. The music continues from the time the book is placed in the temple till it has been put to bed. In the surrounding area there were plenty of people sat waiting for their time to pray with the book and a few were having a sip of the water from the holy tank. After a little bit more wandering we decided to head on our way.
That afternoon I dragged Ben to Gobindargh fort. If you're ever in Amritsar do not go there, it's rubbish. At first it seemed quite impressive, a clean paved drive way leads up to it, with busts and plaques lining the paths. Thinking back, it could just look impressive compared to the slums that line all the roads on the route from central Amritsar to the fort. Inside it's just a bad amusement park with some museums... all of which were closed when we visited. There is a dance/sword performance every 30 minutes in the centre with some very unenthusiastic and not very well coordinated performers. There is a horse you can ride for Rs 300 but will get shouted at if you try and touch it (even if you ask permission first). There was a camel ride, with the camel and owner has seemingly wandered off and a coconut shy. We spent about 30 minutes here tops. I feel like i could have had a much better amusement experience at Yarmouth or Blackpool, but that's not what we were looking for. We were supposed to be visiting a historic fort... but maybe i should read reviews before I visit places in the future.
As one of the most bizarre organised events I have ever attended, the Wagah-Attari border closing ceremony is one activity from Amritsar that i wholly recommend! I don't know where to start.
We were approached by a tout just outside the golden temple, at first we were wary to hand over money to anyone who wears an all pale yellow matching outfit but he did have the best price we'd heard all day. So we reluctantly handed over the 100 Rs deposit, hoping that come 3 pm he would be true to his word. He was! After some confusion where a guy who claimed to be the brother of our driver tried to get us to wait somewhere else, our friendly driver in the all yellow outfit found us. Then we just had to wait for the rest of the group.
Luckily, we got along well with the two others we shared very close quarters in the back of the car with, we spent the hour drive learning all about their lives and adventures so far. One a German architect who is volunteering building schools in Nepal and the other a keen Spanish trekker whose brother once cycled the silk road.
When arriving at the Wagah border our very helpful driver informed us that bags were not allowed at the event. This was news to all of us! Only water bottles, money, phones and cameras were allowed, but not to worry as we could leave our stuff at this very dodgy looking stall at the side of the road for 40 Rs each. When we questioned why we couldn't just leave in the back of the car, his grasp of the English language seemed disappear; so we left our bags there and hoped they would still contain our things when we returned.
It would of also been useful if our very helpful driver had informed us that an ID would be needed to enter the event, luckily Ben had his provisional licence in the wallet and me, being a woman didn't need to show one as Ben had. I think the security guards in the foreigner line (sorry, "VIP" line) were slightly bored as they stopped me for a quick chat about marriage, my lack of children and my life in England before i was allowed to pass through the security check. As a foreign tourist we were sat in a reserved "VIP" section of the stadium next to the India / Pakistan border, this meant we could clearly see not only the ceremony but all the one-up-man-ship that happened in the warm ups.
So first off India kicked off the show with a bit of patriotism, Indian women from the audience ran up and down a short section of road waving Indian flags, this was matched on the Pakistan side by a man in what could only be described as a floaty dress with the Pakistan flag on it spinning around, oh and he only had one leg. Unfortunately he was a bit too far away for a picture but the Pakistan audience seemed to approve.
Once we tired of the flag running, the solider who was acting as MC for the event called even more women down to dance and sing to favourite tracks. Mean while across the border the one-legged man continued to spin but was joined by some friends in the same dashing outfit who waved some flags around. Then if you could believe it things got weirder... I'm not sure if i'm missing some cultural significance but they then took turns seeing how long they could go "Harroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! HA!" for into a microphone. This part of the ceremony seemed to last about 20 minutes and I couldn't stop laughing; something about two grown men "haroo"-ing into microphones followed by enthusiastic cheering really gets to me. This built into a shouting crescendo, the MC was shouting and pumping his arm into the air, the audience was yelling back and cheering wildly, I have no idea what was said but everyone was really getting into it.
The actual ceremony seemed a bit tame after the build up. On both sides of the border a coordinated routine was happened, with synchronised stomping, fist shaking, hat re-arranging and a surprising amount of kicking themselves in the head. You have to give it to them, they sure are flexible but i feel like the hat re-arranging aspect of the show could be reduced if they kicked themselves less often. After a lot of back and forth, a few more "harroo's" and an insane amount of cheering and hollering from the Indian spectators the flags were lowered and it was time to leave. It's hard to believe that this ceremony has happened daily since 1959, although I think the dancing to pop music part may have been a later addition. We followed the crowd back to the parking area, stopping occasionally for people demanding selfies along the way.
The car ride back seemed to take forever. The evening air was extremely humid and everyone in the car seemed to be creating swimming pools worth of sweat. This wasn't helped by being kept stationary at a railway crossing for 10 minutes waiting for the train to pass, then crawling along slowly for another 10 as the mess of traffic slowly sorted itself out. We finally made it back to Amritsar, not to where we were picked up from but what seemed to be where the driver lived. We were pointed in the vague direction of the Golden Temple and he promptly disappeared. After a 10 minute walk through narrow market stall lined streets we made it back to the centre of town. We said our goodbyes to our new friends and headed off for a quick bite to eat before heading to sleep.
We had a fairly early start the next day for our first Indian train journey; next stop Haridwar.
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