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Published: March 16th 2010
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Amritsar This weekend was our trip to Amritsar, a quick five hours from Patiala as compared to our last jaunt to Jaipur. Amritsar is a small city in northern India, famous for two things: the border crossing with Pakistan and the golden temple. As we stayed for only a single night in Amritsar, we did not see too much of the city itself. Instead we focused on the important attractions, the border crossing, the golden temple and Domino's Pizza. Okay, we do have a Domino's in Patiala, but it's always fun to eat there.
The Border We started off our travels at around 10:30am on Saturday and made it to Amritsar, around 5:30pm. We went straight to the border to see the border ceremony, which we were just in time for (Stretchable time strikes again) and we were all glad we made it. The ceremony was interesting although I couldn't understand what was going on. What I gathered was that a lot of guards on both sides marched around and tried to outdo eachother. Based on how loud our crowd was and the fact that the Indian side easily had 10 times more people attending, I think we
won. After the ceremony was over, and the border closed, the crowd was allowed to go and say goodbye to Pakistan. This involved a massive rush to the front and a crushing crowd. Naturally I wanted to go as well and some of the girls tagged along. It was fun and crazy to be involved. I don't know what else to call it. But after escaping the massive crowd, Dipshikha and I (the only two girls who made it all the way through the crowd) got to within feet of the border. We were the only two of our group who got to be this close to Pakistan, so that was definitely an experience.
However, we didn't know where the other girls we had pulled into the crowd went. We had to find them, so of course finding people involves being up high where you can see them. And somewhere up high happened to be the top of the bus. I mean, there is a ladder and everything to put luggage up there, so we needed to investigate anyways. We found the missing people about twenty seconds after climbing on top of the bus, but it didn't seem right
to stop there, so we asked for a little ride-it's India and this is how everyone rides buses. It was lots of fun.
After this we went to the hotel, and the girls found out that we got the only room with a view of the golden temple. We were pretty excited about that and couldn't wait to see it close up. The girls changed into our suits (that I was very happy I got to wear again) and we all went out for pizza. It was fun to eat at an American restaurant again. Such a novelty here. Good old American pizza, about half the size we are used to and with a lot more chilies on top. It was great.
The Golden Temple Later on we proceded to the golden temple, which was just steps away from our hotel. By this time it was around 11pm. We admired it from the outside and then went onto the grounds and readied ourselves to enter the temple. In the Sikh and Hindu religions, whenever entering a temple or holy ground, you must remove your shoes and socks, wash your hands and feet and cover your head. These
are the basic rules of the temple that are observed. Others that I learned include never turning your back on the holy book, touching your hand to the floor whenever entering or exiting through a doorway and you are not allowed to sleep inside the temple.
The temple grounds are large and comprise of a city block. The entire surrounding building is white and encloses an area with a giant pool of holy water on which the golden temple sits. The holy water is there for people to cleanse themselves and they do on a regular basis. Nearly everyone who enters washes their face and feet in the water, which you can walk right into. Many others strip down to shorts (men only of course) and bathe in the water. Still the water is entirely clean because it is meticulously taken care of by the hundreds of catfish who live in the waters, as well as devoted people who spend hours cleaning the entire temple grounds.
To see the temple properly, you walk in a clockwise direction around the pool. This way you can see the temple and admire it from every direction before you enter it. We
did just that and got to the temple just as it was being locked for the night at 11:40. Unfortunately we missed the chance to go inside. Our professor tells us that the holy book has been closed, so the temple gate is locked. This gives us only one other opportunity to see the temple up close: the holy book is opened during a ceremony that begins daily at 4am. By this time is is well past midnight and everyone is debating avidly whether it is worth getting up at 3:30am to see the temple, when we know we won't be in bed by any earlier than 1am. In the end, we divided up and I decided to drag myself out of bed after two hours of sleep.
3:30am is a wonderful time in the morning. It is still dark and the air is cool (another novelty here, where the temperature is hitting 30+ everyday now). We donned our suits again and headed to the temple. We saw the ceremony and watched as it was carried along the bridge to the temple. We waited for a few minutes to collect ourselves and then proceeded to the line. It was
then around 5:10am. It turns out that waiting was our downfall because so many people rushed onto the bridge right after the holy book that by the time we got there, we weren't even at the gate. We found out that it would be a one to two hour wait. Some people left to get some sleep. The rest of us stuck it out. Finally at 7:40, after hours of being crushed in a mob, so close to everyone that other people were supporting you entirely, we finally got into the temple. Let me say that it was worth it. The inside of the temple is decorated intricately with gold, marble and paint. It is amazing. And impeccably clean. Very nice to walk around barefoot. There were three levels to the temple. The first floor, right off the water, the second floor and the roof. Of all the temple, and all the golden interior and intricate works of art on the ceilings, I know that my favourite part was the open air on the roof. We sat among the golden towers with the morning sun on our faces and simply enjoyed the reward of being able to sit down after
standing for so long. A few of us nearly fell asleep and found out the no-sleeping-in-the-temple rule.
About forty minutes later we left the temple and headed towards the free kitchen. We reveived beans, khadi, rotis and water for our breakfast, which was pleasent after a long morning. Our professor then directed us towards the Chah (tea) and we were much happier for it. Then, ever the engineers, we explored the kitchen and the massive roti-making machine that they employ to cook all of the temple's rotis. I will let the pictures explain for themselves.
We finally returned to the hotel around 10am. But, by this point, we didn't want to waste time sleeping, so we went to the gift shops and generally poked around the places by our hotel. I finally bought some postcards and found some cute souvenirs, including a bandana, which is my most favourite purchase. Not because it's memorable or fancy or anything, but because I really wanted a bandana to keep the sparks off my head while I am welding.
Directly afterwards, we hoped back on the bus and went back to Patiala. A feat which included two traffic jams, some sitting
on top of the bus (we get creative when we are bored) and finding comfortable ways to sleep while leaning on various people and windows.
We finally got back and I had just enough energy to scarf down dinner (beans again) before flopping into my bed. And getting up early for classes today.
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Igor
non-member comment
Happy Birthday Elise!
Hi Elise, sorry I haven't left any comments yet, but I wanted to send you a long distance Happy Birthday!! What a great adventure you are on! Canada will seem so boring when you get back. See you in a month, take care, Igor