After bussing it from Agra, via Dehli we arrived in Amritsar, the Golden City, the home of the Golden Temple.
The bus journey itself from Agra was fairly uneventful although we had a few hour stop off in Dehli so we hopped in a TukTuk get to the other bus stop ready for the next bus to Amristar. A young driver accepted our bartered down fee and rushed out onto the main road…straight into the back of a car! Within seconds his fellow TukTuk drivers were surrounding us as the young lad faced off with the driver and passengers of the car, a few times he tried to jump into the TukTuk and speed off again, presumably because he didn’t have a licence…after a few false starts and a lot of shouting (and us threatening to get out a few times because we didn’t know what implications there may be of being passengers in a vehicle involved in a crash -it wasn’t a major crash by any means – don’t worry mum!) we head off once more at an equally white knuckle ride speed. We made it, the driver knocked the bump out of the front of his TukTuk and we went for a bit of an explore near the bus station. Just around the corner was a strange little electronics bazaar, literally row upon row of what appeared to be second-hand (or third or fourth!) TVs, computers and anything else remotely electronic. We were on the hunt for something to eat (as usual) and as we didn’t fancy eating a deep fried goodness knows what from one of the street stalls we wandered further and found ourselves at Chandi Chowk (little did we know that this would actually be the only time we managed to see this part of town as we were struck down by food poisoning on our proper visit to Dehli – more on that in another post!). We settled on a restaurant called Wah Ji Wah (mainly because it had the brightest lights outside) great food which set us up nicely for the journey ahead.
We enjoyed/endured our first proper sleeper bus from Delhi, it was a bit of a squish but I quite enjoyed it and slept pretty well, Matt however didn’t quite fit (especially with our bags piled up at the bottom of the bed, I say bed – the whole bunk was more like a luggage rack with a padded base and sliding doors to close us in! As I said, I quite enjoyed it until I woke up realising we’d obviously missed the toilet stop and I was desperate for a wee!! I was starting to feel ill and was seriously considering just weeing myself but Matt wasn’t having that so he went to try and explain to the driver/conductor and luckily they pulled over at a petrol station (in 5 minutes – India time yet again!) - ah, the relief!
We arrived in Amritsar in our usual sleepy form not really prepared to be bombarded by TukTuk and taxi drivers wanting to give us a ride. We got to the Golden Temple area (after Matt won the TukTuk scam battle as the driver ‘forgot’ that no traffic was allowed to the temple so didn’t take us more than two-thirds of the distance he’d promised yet still wanted the full fare, Matt held strong and got us some money back – spurred on by the driver trying to have a laugh and a joke about us in Hindi with some randoms on the street).
We knew that you could stay in Gurdwaras for free so we were trying to follow directions to find one when we heard strong whistling from behind us, my initial reaction was head down, keep walking but luckily Matt had noticed a couple of policemen back down the street (always stop if a policeman asks you to!), we turned and he beckoned us over, we hurried back to him wondering what rule we had broken, which no entry sign we’d missed… “You can stay in free gurdwara, I show you” Phew! One of the very few genuinely kind and helpful people we met in India. He got out his notebook and wrote down an address in English and Hindi, wrote directions and told us which taxis to get and when to get to the border closing ceremony. When we hesitated for the slightest moment, he raised his truncheon, tapped Matts bag and said “come with me”, he then proceeded to walk us to the gurdwara showing us a few routes and telling us some etiquette rules on the way, just to remind you, this was just a regular policeman that we happened to walk past in the street. We arrived at the gurdwara, said goodbye to the policeman and settled on beds while we waited to have a shower…the man running the gurdwara explained that once cleaned we could have a couple of beds in one of the more private rooms off the main room.
Showered and slightly more refreshed we donned our head scarves and headed to see the Golden Temple. I may have seen its picture before in many guidebooks but it was nice to get into the temple complex and still have that moment of wow. Although it was surrounded by tourists, it was still beautiful and serene.
We were still a bit sleepy so wasn’t really up for the free thali lunch supplied by the temple so went to Subway instead!
That evening we were just heading out to get a taxi to the border crossing ceremony (a ceremony held every day to close the border between India and Pakistan) when we met Weeya, a lad from Taiwan. We all went together and after a bit of hassle with the original taxi (they insist on filling their cars up with people before they set off so the driver was rushing around trying to find extra tourists!) we set off, Matt and Weeya in the front with the driver and me squashed into the back of the car with 7 Indian ladies that were on a bit of a holiday, they were fascinated by me and wanted to talk to me all the way there, the only problem being that only one of them could speak any English, another just made noises at me and a third would not shut up chatting in Hindi, I tried the best I could but mainly just sat and smiled. With a numb bum from being sat up against the window, we arrived, arranged where to meet the driver and ladies for the return leg and the three of us (me, Matt and Weeya) got a cycle rickshaw to the border, after getting Indian flags painted onto our faces. The ceremony was crazy, thousands of people on teared seating – westerners separated from the locals in a ‘VIP’ area, obviously(!) – I think this may have been to ‘protect’ us from the crowds of people that we’re dancing around waiting for the ceremony to start, we may have missed out on a bit if the fun by being separated but it was probably still a little bit too hot to be dancing anyway and it was interesting to watch the different styles of dancing going on, one girl in particular stood out, in a complete world of her own loving every second of it! The ceremony itself consisted of armed military guards doing a bit of a parade with super fast marching, high kicks and puffing out of the chest peacock style at the Pakistani version of themselves on the other side of the gate. Lots of cheering and chanting later and the border was closed for another night, presumably to have a similar ceremony the following morning to reopen it.
We managed to see the Pakistani side as we filed out mad headed back to the cab for another squashed journey, via a weird Hindu temple… take a look…
We went back to the Golden Temple the next day to experience the free pilgrims lunch…delicious! Such a nice experience, all sat in rows with your tray laid out in front of you being served different parts by different people as they walked down the rows. We cleaned up and took our trays to the washing up area, somewhere that you can get involved if you wish but it was a bit full for us to join in… We saw all the preparation of the next meals going in around us, chopping onions, peeling garlic…
All in all, a lovely little trip to the Golden Temple, it’s a long way north but I think it was worth the trip to a beautiful sacred place, and the Sikh people were some of the nicest and friendliest we met in India.
