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Published: January 1st 2008
(Matt)
7am: Despite the stories we'd heard from other travellers of rats running over body parts and the need for 'a good clean' we decided to stay in one of the small rooms off the dormitory actually on the perimeter of the Golden Temple (Sikhism's holiest shrine). A man with a spear pointed us in the right direction to what could have been a set from 'Porridge' or 'Prisoner of Cell Block H' but as they say beggars can't be choosers. After seriously cramming our backpacks into one of the small lockable cupboards we set off to the Temple proper.
Leaving our shoes at the bowling lane type 'leave shoes here' counter, we were called back for Catherine to take off her socks (we hadn't yet experienced the foot washing trough before entering the Temple!). With my newly acquired orange bandana (hair must be covered) we entered the Temple.
The Golden Temple is a two-storey marble temple in the middle of a holy pool with a wide walkway around it. When entering this sort of place it can feel like everyone knows the rules but you; however, the Golden Temple had such a holiday, joyful feeling we soon
became comfortable making the long walk around the pool in warm sunshine. We also started to get used to the weird celebrity like status we had somehow acquired - parents sent young children to shake our hands, lots of people were staring at us and many people wanted photos with us.
At about 11am we discovered 'Gura-Ka-Langar' (Langar Community Kitchen) the huge community dining room where everybody is welcome to eat for free, even a couple of slightly scruffy (possibly famous) looking westerners. In a moving line we were handed a metal tray, a spoon and a metal bowl, we followed everyone else into the huge dining room and sat on the floor in a long line. Seconds later dhal and rice was ladled onto our plates (from varying heights and with varying success) and our open hands caught the flying chapatis. The food was amazingly good especially when you know they serve up to 40,000 people a day. 15 minutes later we filed out to hand back our plates to the biggest washing up pile we've ever seen!
What was already a fairly unusual day got a lot weirder around midday when we decided to take the
short rickshaw trip out to 'Mata Temple' - a labyrinth Hindu cave that commemorates a bespectacled modern day saint called, Lal Devi. It's a kind of kitsch, walkthrough, spiritual house of fun. I should point out these are my own impressions and I'm sure the people who pray there (mostly women wishing to become pregnant) would describe it differently. However, we were required to crawl on our hands and knees through caves, walked up and down stairs and finally walked through a narrow cave, shin deep in water, which apparently symbolises the inside of the divine mouth!
4pm: To round off our already strange day we decided to take a shared taxi out to the India-Pakistan Border to watch the border-closing ceremony. Most of you have probably seen this on TV. The ceremony takes place everyday before sunset with young soldiers from both sides of the border proudly marching with funny walks to undertake an extremely complicated and unintentionally hillarious routine. What I didn't expect was the football crowd atmosphere on both sides with hundreds of cheering Indian and Pakistani fans, the sale of flags and people selling DVD highlights.
After all of the strangeness and excitement of
Dining Hall
Extreme close upthe first day we decided to keep things simple on day two. However, I should mention we went into the Golden Temple with the long queue of pilgrims to pay our respects to the Gods and to see the four priests who chant all day from the Sikh holy book that is broadcast from huge speakers. A friendly wizened old man took us under his wing, showed us onto the roof and tried to make us drink holy water from the central pool (we pretended to drink because we thought it might kill us!).
We finished off the few days in Amritsar by finding one of the few places that serves alcohol. As it turns out it was an 'English Pub' or certainly an Indian idea of what an English pub is like! Next stop - Rishikesh.
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steve and lucy
non-member comment
Ministry of funny walks.
Hi, we remember seeing the border closing ceremony on Michael Palin, its hillarious.Its on YouTube, so we watched it again! Another drinking opportunity, this time in a pub.Its good to see somethings never change no matter where you are in the world!Ha Ha;) Great pics.