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Published: December 4th 2006
By the time our bumpy local bus dropped us off in Pathankot to catch a train to Amritsar we were numb from the waist down! 5 hours of being tossed around a mountain road on a bus is surely some form of tourist torture. The views on the way down had been spectacular. We passed over several empty riverbeds, some of them were clearly huge important rivers in their prime, but here was real evidence of the water shortage that had been whispered about. Hopefully there will be a good snowfall this year to build these rivers back up.
The Golden Temple (a Sikh Temple) is amazing! We had to remove our shoes, cover our heads and wash our feet to get in. There is a huge pool for Pilgrims to bathe in the (healing) water, all of the Sikh holy sites in one place and the temple itself. The temple sticks out into the pool. Inside men were reading from the Sikh holy book(Guru Granth Sahib) (this goes on all day from sunrise to sunset and sounds more like singing than reading) and the décor was amazing. The whole place was just so peaceful and beautiful to look at.
We had lunch in the Langar (free dining hall, every Sikh temple has one) and another wee look around.
Next we visited Jallianwallah Bagh, a site of a British Massacre. Apparently, 20,000 people met celebrating Vaisakhi at a piece of wasteground surrounded by high walls and accessed via a narrow alleyway. The British troops came up the alleyway blocking escape and opened fire. Thousands, including a six-month old baby, were killed or injured. Many drowned by jumping into the well to escape. There are walls which have been preserved showing bullet holes. The justification given by General Dyer at the time was that he acted to prevent other uprisings throughout India. Now the place is a memorial garden with a good museum and a memorial flame. We felt pretty guilty walking round the garden to the stares of many Indian people. The garden is billed as being a memorial to peaceful protests yet it’s fences are made of barbed wire?
Later we hired a tuk-tuk to visit Waga, the border crossing between India and Pakistan for the border closing ceremony. There are huge stands (for 10,000 people) built on either side of the border and there is a
great atmosphere, a bit like a football game (not the old firm!) or a concert. Each side chooses volunteers from the crowd to run up and down waving the appropriate flag to the cheers of their crowd. There was an MC whipping up the nationalistic fever as well. Then the marching started. Up and down in straight lines all with over-exagerated movements. Then the same but with the gates opening and a soldier from either side shaking hands, gates closing and soldiers marching away. This was repeated several times, with the flag being lowered mm by mm. The whole time the cheers were kept going by the MC. After the colourful (it was hilarious, look out for it on TV, well worth seeing if you can’t come out here) ceremony we were surrounded by Indian schoolgirls wanting to take photos with us in them. Fame at last!
There was a massive queue of trucks (145, we counted!) waiting to go through the border. They were all full of onions! Some of them were sprouting as they had been there for so long. We found out later that only 25 trucks can be cleared to go through the border each
day so some of those poor guys were looking at least 6 days of waiting, and if any truck containing tomatoes or meat came up then it would get priority. More Indian efficiency!
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Scooter
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Awrite team, Just read up to here in a wanner from the start (admittedly skipping a lot). Looks like you had a much better time than your Kevin the Teenager "this is pish" e-mails would have us believe, Mr Meaty Breath. Sent you an e-mail re. Oz, but you blanked it as per. Let me know your plans Scott