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Published: September 23rd 2007
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Amritsar: Originally we were going to try and get up before sunrise and get to the Golden Temple as the sun came up, supposedly a gorgeous event that we wanted to catch. The night before we asked at the desk of our hostel what time the sun came up and he told us 6:30am so we figured we'd play it safe and get up at 6:00 so we had time to get there. When we awoke at 6:00 the sky was already bright so we figured we might as well sleep in a little. Four hours later we were up, packed and checked out, making our way through the streets of Amritsar. We got to the temple and removed our shoes and covered our heads (the custom there) and headed in. The temple was absolutely incredible! The main building is the Sikh's holiest shrine, a giant golden temple surrounded by a sacred pool. All around the complex were marble walls decorateded with carvings of flowers and animals. We were able to walk out across the bridge to the temple and walk around inside and see the priests spreaing flowers, lighting incense and chanting which was broadcast over the entire complex. When
coy in the amrit sarovar
the sacred pool around the temple we came out we took a lap around the outside of the pool and watched the Sikh pilgrims who had come splash themselves with water from the pool or climb down into it and bath themselves.
When we left we walked over to the Jallianwala Bagh, a park that now holds a memorial and a museum to the 2000 Indians who were massacred by the Britished during a peaceful protest in 1919. As we walked around the park we could see places in the walls and buildings where the bullets hit, it was incredible. We had lunch in a nice air-conditioned restaurant to get away from the incredible heat of the day and then tried to put some pictures and a blog up but the place we went had such an incredibly slow connection we just decided to wait. A quick rickshaw ride later we had picked up our bags and were waiting for our train outside the station. When we bought our tickets two days before in Delhi the guy told us the train would leave Amritsar at 4:00pm and get into Agra at 9am. We found a sign that said our train, #8238, left from platfrom 2
at 4:15 so we walked over and there was a train there. We hoped on and found our seats, then asked the guy stamping tickets if this was the right train. He said yes so we settled in as the train started to pull away from the station. At 4:00pm. We thought it was a little weird about the time discrepancy but figured the ticket puncher knew what he was talking about and tried to relax. A stop or two later a family got on and sat next to us and started talking to us. Their English wasn't great and our Hindi is non-existant but through hand gestures and a few basic phrases we talked to them, had our picture taken with them (a regular occurance at this point), and Trish was given a couple bracelets. They got off and we looked at the station sign, noticing that we were much further along than we thought we'd be. At the rate we were going we would be in Delhi by midnight and Agra about two hours later, seven hours earlier than we should. I got a little concerned and figured I'd talked to someone about it. I asked a different
train employee (again, almost no English) what time we would get into Delhi and he replied 'This train no go to Delhi.' Slightly shocked I asked what time we would arrive in Agra then, to which he responded, 'No go to Agra either.' It was quickly established that we had boarded the wrong train and were headed somewhere in the far northeast, nowhere near where we wanted to be. We were told to get off at the next stop, the last before this and our train split paths and wait 2 1/2 hours for our train. Slightly skeptical we got off and checked the board there and sure enough our train, 8238, was due in at 12:20am and was 30 minutes late. Current time, 10pm. So after three hours of sitting, reading and denying beggars we were on the correct train headed for Agra. Unfortunately this train was more crowded than the first so all our bags were in our berth with us, forcing me to sleep in the fetal position and Trish halfway atop her bag.
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