Border crossing, border closing ceremony and Golden Temple

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The 7th was my last day in Pakistan. I was still not 100% healthy but good enough. My plan for the day was to cross the border and then watch the border closing ceremony, a daily show where the guards *gasp* close the border. I must admit I wasn't totally optimistic about this border ceremony thing but the LP raved about it, even saying it was a highlight of India so I figured it would be stupid to miss it.

I took my time in the morning as there was no point of leaving early, the ceremony happened about an hour and a half before sunset so if I crossed early I'd simply wait around for hours. I spent a while on the internet, said goodbye to everyone remaining and eventually left at around 12:30.

I was planning to take 2 public buses to reach the border but after 20 minutes of waiting I decided to take a rickshaw to where the second one would start, which turned out to be a good idea. As soon as I got off the rickshaw, the public bus I was supposed to take took off and I managed to jump on it while it was moving with my 2 backpacks!

The conductor confirmed that it was going to the border so I paid him the 15Rs and sat. The bus was old and dusty by any standard. After 2 minutes I realized I shouldn't touch anything as my knees had a big stain, probably because I made the "mistake" of touching the seat in front.

After about 45 minutes, pretty much everyone was gone so I asked around where was the border. Some people told me to get off somewhere, while others told me to come back in. Nobody had a clue what to do about me and I was getting a bit pissed off. Nobody understood when I asked for "Wagah" (the bordertown) or "border), they just made a move with their hand meaning"Sit down" (palm down, and they go up and down a few time, as if you were flapping the head of a dog or a mentally retarded child).

Now there's nothing that infuriate me more than people who tell me to chill and relax when things are obviously not right. I'm not a god damn kid who need to be told to sit down. I know they mean no harm but they piss me off. After a few minutes of me asking around, I was left alone in the bus with only the driver and another man in front. Then the bus proceeded to do a U-turn and started to go back to Lahore. I went to see the men in front and said "Wagah" and "border" but they only did that goddamn condescending gesture with the hand while not even bothering to look at me.

I was really angry by that point, I'm not retarded, that bus was going back to Lahore. I slammed the door hard in the bus and told them to fuck off while I jumped off the bus. I started negotiating with rickshaw drivers who wanted an insane price to go to the border. I thought I made a good deal by agreeing to 40% of what they had started, but the laugh of the driver a few minutes after we left told me I got screwed.

The border was only 7 km away so we reached it fairly quickly. When I paid the driver, he asked for 10Rs more so I just told him to choke up and die. The owner of a well-known second-hand bookshop in Wagah came to me to ask if I had any books/money to exchange. In the process he destroyed any pride I had in not giving the extra money to the driver by telling me I had been overcharged by 20Rs... Ah well, there goes pakistani honesty. I guess I'll see it as a practice for India.

I changed some books/money with the guy at the bookshop as he was giving a decent rate (and had decent books). I met 3 czech backpackers who were drinking cokes but didn't speak much english. They had been coming from czech republic overland in 8 straigh days. One of them had a dog and looked like a street punk with long dreads and a missing teeth. I don't say that to be judgemental, I don't care about his appearence and I joined them at the border crossing but it soon appeared that other people did care: the border guards.

For the first time since I crossed border my bag was handsearched, probably because our group looked "suspicious". They searched the punk guy more thoroughly but in the end they didn't find anything, although the tea leaves that one of the czech had made them quite suspicious. While we were being searched, a canadian biologist of chinese ancestry was not searched or questioned.

The Pakistanis really didn't like the punk's dog (who has his own passport) as dogs are seen as unclean in islam. Some of them even refused to be anywhere near the animal, who was quite friendly. After the pakistani immigration/customs we walked over in the no man's land to the indian side. We were not alone in the no man's land, there were pakistani men with boxes on their hands who were running to the border line where they gave the boxes to their indian counterpart who ran to a truck about 500m away. Trucks do not cross the border so cargo has to be crossed this way. Pakistani carrier were asshole often, they'd throw the boxes to the indian in a manner that would make it pretty much impossible for them to catch, forcing the indians to pick them up from the ground while the pakistani ran back to his truck while laughing with his buddies. Maybe pakistanis have been among the most hospitable (in general) people I've met, it doesn't mean they can't be total asshole in other circumstances as this was a proof.

On the Indian side, the officiers were much nicer with the dog and some of them even came to play with him. This time I made sure to write my immigration form a bit faster so as to go to the customs alone so I wouldn't be searched. The sikh man whom I gave hte entry form to was a total asshole, he stapled the entry form on my passport. That made me really angry, this is my freaking passport and he's just stapling his useless form on it? He could've used something that wouldn't permanently damage my passport. As a border crossing is not the best place to lose it, I tried to make my point politely that he shouldn't do that, that my passport was a very important document and I didn't want to have it damaged but he just said "no damage, no damage" to which I replied "Oh yeah, what about the 2 fucking holes here?", finally losing my temper. He just went back to his computer and ignored me.

I was done with him and now had to go to the customs. On the way I talked with the superior of the sikh and told him the story; he agreed with me and said he'd have a talk with the man as it was totally useless to staple the entry form. I know it might sound petty to some but I like my passport and don't want it to be full of holes. I'm gonna do a hell lot more border crossing on this trip and if some idiot staple stuff everytime it's gonna look like shit.

Anyway I guess it's because I was still a bit angry about the whole bus/rickshaw ripoff earlier that day but the officials at the customs were among the nicest I've ever seen. They gave me a form asking if I had any things to declare. There was a form about money so I put the money I had in rupees. It was indian rupees because I had changed them at the border. An officier looked at the formed and said: "You mean Pakistani rupees right?". I hesitated a little wondering why he said that so he helped me by saying: "Because, of course, you know that bringing Indian rupees in India is illegal and any indian rupees you have on you will be confiscated" while winking at me. He was about to say "hint, hint" but I got it before he made it too obvious. So I said: "Of course, of course Pakistani rupees, I come from Pakistan, of course I could only have Pakistani rupees. Of course. Hehehehe" feeling a bit stupid. Note to self: read the customs regulation before entering a country.

The czech were still dealing with the stupid sikh at immigration when I was done with customs so I waited outside for them (but before I went to give some custom declaration to some officier a few hundred meters away). It was about 3:30 by the time I got done, the time when you can't cross the border anymore and the time when the crowd can enter the stadium for the ceremony, which starts at 5PM. So while waiting for the czech I watched the people walk (and run) to the border to get good seats. My first thought was: so many colors! The women wear extremely colorful saris and some are stunningly beautiful. In Pakistan not all women wear black burqas but they don't wear such colorful clothes so it was a bit of a shock to me.

It took about 40 minutes for the czech to get out of the customs and they didn't want to attend the ceremony so I said goodbye. I had no intention of waiting an hour in the stadium for the ceremony to start so I went in a place with a few restaurant to have something to eat. I had a few pokharas (fried vegetables) and a coke. There were quite a few touts but I was ready for them. Kids trying to sell me indian flags, or DVD of the ceremony and that wouldn't take no for an answer. I just ignored them for a while and if they persisted I just said "Chelo" (hindi word for "go away", most useful word for india) with a dismissing hand gesture while not looking at them and then resumed my ignoring. It might sound rude but after a few of these kids you'd do the same thing. It didn't take long before word got around that I wasn't worth bothering.

As I was sitting at the table people watching, the second thought that came to my head was: "But there's more westerners here than I've seen in the whole of Pakistan". They were everywhere. I don't remember seeing so many since maybe Yangshuo. And this isn't the Taj Mahal or the Red Fort, it's a relatively small (albeit well sold by the LP) attraction on the outskirt of the country.

Even if there were lots of westerners, there were many more indians so by the time I got to the stadium it was jammed packed. I knew there were special seats for foreigners but to get to them I had to fight my way into the crowd. I eventually landed a seat in front of some package tourists and next to a beautiful group of indian schoolgirl that, I will have to admit, perturbed my concentration during the ceremony.

As the crowd was building up, they gave indian flags to some kids who ran up to the gate to wave them to the pakistani in defiance and then back down to some other kids. After a few rounds of that they stopped and started playing bollywood music. Slowly a few girls started dancing in the main alley and within a few minutes they were joined by several dozens. It was pretty funny to watch this impromptu party. The crowd was really into it and everyone was either clapping and singing along the songs or down there and dancing.

Then the music stopped and the proper ceremony started. The soldiers would yell something to which the crowds would reply and then they'd walk very dramatically to the border full of bravado. Then they'd look at their pakistani counterpart in the eye, do a little bit of foot stomping and try to intimidate the other. The crowd was loving it. After a while, they opened the gate and a soldier briefly shook hand with a pakistani soldier. Then there was some more foot stomping, walking around, getting the crowd warmed up until they started lowering the flags. They are supposed to lower the flags slowly and at no time should any flag be lower than the other, this would imply a sign of national superity. But it seems that the indian flag lowerer was sleepy or that the pakistani one was trying to be assholish because the pakistani flag was higher than the indian one. After the flags were finally lowered, they closed the gate as if they were very angry at each other and then all the soldiers left, with more foot stomping and theatrical walking.

I liked the ceremony, less for the show than for the crowds. They were really into it and made the whole event very interesting. What was less interesting was getting out as the foreigners seat were at the far end of the stadium so I had to fight my way through the crowd to get out with my 2 backpacks but I did managed to do it, somehow.

There were even more touts now trying to sell everything but I guess my tactics were working because none followed me for more than 15 seconds (while I saw some stick for minutes to desperate looking older western travellers who, in the end, bought a useless indian flag to get rid of them). I negotiated a fare in a shared taxi and insisted that I wanted it to leave now. They said "yeah yeah yeah" (ie: shut up and pay, we'll leave after we chat up with our buddies) so I went outside to look for other shared taxis. That quickly got their attention (and lowered the price). Then they showed me 3 western backpackers who were entering the car so I figured it would leave soon so I paid up. It didn't leave for 20 mintues but at least I had company.

I started chatting with the westerners, 2 californians (girl/guy) and a finnish girl. It was obvious I had stumbled upon real backpackers when, 2 minutes in the conversation we started talking about diarhea and the californian man mentioned that giardia was "his little friend". They were fairly curious about Pakistan while I wanted some info on India. The guy had been in the subcontinent for 9 months and looked totally sick of it, the californian girl had gotten dengue fever and was still recovering while the finnish girl was a freelancer working in northern india.

Conversation was good and the ride to Amristar went really fast. The californians went to eat somewhere while I went ot the Golden Temple to get free accomodation! Kisri (the finnish girl) showed me the way to where there was the foreigners dorm before leaving as she wasn't staying there. The Golden Temple is the holiest place for the sikhs. The Temple offers free accomodation and food to anyone wishing to stay there. There's a separate dorm for foreigners and a common room for the sikhs. We use the same toilet/bathrooms facilities. It was quite interesting to walk through the room where they all slept to get to the bathroom.

In the dorm, I met up the czech guys and when I signed I noticed that Beat and the french cyclist I met in Lahore were also here but were not around. I spent the rest of the evening walking around Amristar and eventually met Beat and the frenchie somewhere. I quickly went back to the dorm to sleep as I was still very tired. There I talked with the californian guy who was sharing my "room" and an israeli girl before heading to bed, but not before having a mouse walk on my hand. The dorms are free but you shouldn't expect 5 star quality.

The next day was Sunday so most things were closed. I got up fairly early and went directly to the Golden temple. I probably spent a good hour and a half walking around or sitting somewhere just to watch families, pilgrims and other people walk around or bath in the holy water. The feel of the temple is very incredible, unlike anything I've encountered so far. You can feel that the place still serve a purpose for the pilgrims and that they still respect the place, unlike in China where the only purpose of temple is to sell cheap souvenir and overpriced water bottle. I was happy to just sit and watch but then my stomach told me that watching wouldn't get the calories in so I left after an hour and a half. I went to some vegetarian restaurant and met the 2 californians who were done with their breakfast. I had a masala dosa (a sort of pancake with curied vegetable) which was alright.

I spent most of the rest of the day taking it easy, walking around the city, on an internet cafe (where I managed to upload so many pictures, india internet is SO much faster than Pakistan) and taking a siesta at the dorm. I also went back to the temple 2 times that day, again just walking around and watching people. On the last time, I forgot to put a scarf on my head (you need to have your head covered, and cannot wear shoes in the temple) and was quickly told to get out by a guard. I felt a bit ashamed but it seemed people were making a point not to stare at me while I disrespected their temple so as not to make me feel bad. It seems every sikh except that stupid bureaucrat at the border is nice.

Most people says that it is very hard to adapt to India on the first day as the sights and the smells are too overwhelming to process and accept so rapidly. But I haven't felt any shock at all. Sure there's a few cows in the street but I knew that before. I think coming from Pakistan, I had the time to acclimatize, from the clean and small city of the north, then Gilgit, then Peshawar and finally Lahore there was a continuum of increasing dirtyness so I never felt a shock, I just got used to the cities being a bit more dirty, a bit more polluted. And now Amristar looks clean compared to Lahore, maybe because Punjab is a fairly wealthy state and Amristar is a much smaller city than Lahore. I guess I'll have to see in Delhi if I'll get a shock, but I doubt it.

In the evening, I met up with Chloe and Olivier (the 2 french cyclist) who were going out to eat. I had eaten before and my stomach wasn't feeling strong so I opted to join but not eat. We were joined by other frenchies and Beat. We all agreed that we had never seen so many foreigners (Chloe, Olivier and Beat all did the middle east/central asia route, and let's just say that Uzbekistan is not tourist central). We had great fun talking for almost 2 hours. They were going for a beer after but I was too tired for that and didn't think my stomach could handle it so I said another time. We exchanged emails and then went our way. I went back to the dorm with Beat and then said goodbye to him one last time as he was now cycling for the last few days to Delhi, where he'd take the plane to Australia to see his girlfriend. It was the last few days of his 1year+ cycling adventure that took him from Switzerland to India.

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Photos

Golden temple
Man bathing

Border closing ceremony
The crowd

Border closing ceremony 5
Lowering of the flag. It is done very slowly and supposedly at the same speed so as not to imply national superiority of any country. In this case however, the Pakistani flag was higher almost all the time. Coincidence?

Border closing ceremony 2
People just started dancing out of the blue to the pop music that was playing.

Border closing ceremony 3
Guards walking up to the border to open the gate

Massive mustache
The only point of that picture is to show the massively cool mustache of the guard. Awesome

Border closing ceremony 4
After opening the gates and the shakin of hand/salute in between officiers of both country, it is time to lower the flags.

Border closing ceremony 6
Crowd leaving. I cant believe so many people come here every day

Golden temple 5
Just after sunset

Outside the Golden Temple
Sikhs LOVE these little shiny thing.

Comments

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J'ai été très impressionnée de recevoir ton email avec le tas de m... Je vois que tu es en très bonne santé Ciao Gisèle