The Golden Temple

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As you probably know, we are actually in Kathmandu, Nepal right now, but I thought I'd backdate this blog so that you might have a more accurate timeline of our exciting lives.

The first weekend in November, our friends Jeffry and Sonya who live in McLeod, along with their unbelievably cute daughter Lisa, invited us to join them in their fancy private taxi on the 5 hour drive to Amritsar, in Punjab. We needed a vacation, so we took a three day weekend at the school and went along for the ride.

Amritsar is quite a large city, especially considering where we have been living for the last three months. The main attraction is a golden Sikh temple in the middle of a manmade lake. This is the holiest pilgramage cite for Sikhs, and little did we know but we arrived on on of their holiest days, celebrating the birth of the foudner of the religion. The place was packed solid both days we went, with Indian pilgrams and hardly any other western tourists. People were pretty interested in us, but the LOVED Lisa, and Jeff and Sonya had to shake women and men alike off of the poor child as they squeezed her cheeks and grabbed her little feet from the back of the baby carrier. Jason and I ended up flanking them wherever we went, working as baby body guards. It got a little tiresome, but it was all in good spirits- people here really love children, and Lisa is really easy to love.

The temple was very beautiful, if not hard to look at as it was quite sunny when we went, and a combination of gold and water and white marble made the place kind of one huge horrible glare.

The second night there, we took a taxi to Attari, which is a border town between India and Pakistan. Every night at sundown they hold an elaborate border ceremony, witht he ultimate goal of bringing down the flags for the night. All of the soliders on each side are dressed in their finest plumage, with huge dress hats and metals and shiny boots. They run up and down to the border gate, singing and cheering and goosestepping and carrying huge flags with so much pomp and energy that it's hard not to get caught up in the whole thing. This whole ordeal is so popular in both countries that on either side there are huge stadium grandstands built, so that everyone can get a good look.

We took a lot of good pictures, and I'm not even teasing you this time because Jason is sitting next to me right now, uploading them as we speak. Whether you see them on here or we send you a link to a site easier to upload to, it's only a matter of moments now.

I'll write about our Nepal journey adventure once Jason is finished with the photos. This blog was kind of boring, but so was Amritsar, so I guess there's not much more to tell you.

Yours truly!
S&J

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Photos

Armritsar, Punjab India
We had to wear hats! Sara at the Golden Temple.

Armritsar, Punjab India
Pakistan! At the border ceremony.

Pakistan/India Border
Pakistan! Little Lisa looks North!

Looking
at the Golden Temple

Soldiers
At the border ceremony