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Published: January 12th 2008
After our death-defying experience in a tuk tuk we decided to try and top it with a share-jeep ride to the no-man's land between India and Pakistan to cheer on India in the daily display of machismo that is the border closing ceremony.
The share jeep drivers have really got a handle on the idea of economies of scale, and despite us thinking the jeep was full with the two of us and 5 Punjabi students, some how 3 other people were squeezed for maximum profit making opportunties. While Duncan got friendly with the driver and the gear stick, i was hoping that my door was not going to open with the same frequency as the driver's seemed to be doing.
The closest way of describing the border ceremony would be akin to a Disney World show. Everyone jostiling to the front of the queue, determined to get the best seats, and old women climb through the railings to try and get 10 people in front of where they would have been.
The ceremony itself is full of men in big hats marching deteminedly towards the border, shouting and stamping their feet. Despite all of the stamping and
shouting the flags are lowered at exactly the same pace so not to indicate one country may be superior to the other. However on the day we were there, the Indian flag was below Pakistan's despite our cheering.
The other reason for visiting Amritsar was the Golden Temple. I'm not sure my photos do it justice (and Duncan's are all in Black and White which we discovered later), but in the bright sunshine the temple glows with its 750kg of gold. The temple itself is in the middle of a lake around which is a marble walk way on which pilgrims circle the temple. Duncan and I, however, managed to walk the wrong way getting in everybody's way. To top that, we were on the walk way out to the temple during the mid day prayers, so although it made the visit seem all the more real as a living temple, we did stick out rather a lot as the only white people there.
I am also just about getting used to being the new attraction whereever we go. In Delhi it wasn't too bad, but in Amritsar I have been mobbed more than once by people wanting
to have their picture taken with someone with red hair. In the Jallianwala Bagh (where General Dyer killed and seriously wounded 2000 Indians during a peaceful protest in 1919) I was mobbed by 20 female kickboxers wanting their photo with myself and Duncan. Having said that we were just glad to have found the park after an hour was spent wondering around - we knew the park was (we could see it) but we just could not find the entrance - turns out we had had lunch right next door to the gate - ooppps.
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