The Golden Temple...

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We were sad to be leaving McLeod Ganj but excited to be heading off to a new location. We were up and out early as the journey from Dharamsala to Amritsar would take us about 9hrs by public bus.

The journey was problem free thankfully and, we arrived in Amritsar late that evening. We made our way via rickshaw to the legendary Golden Temple and were surprised to find that the city was very clean (by Indian standards, i.e. no open sewers, city centre landfills or piles of burning rubbish by the roadside), had fewer touts than the other cities we had visited and appeared smaller than we had expected.

The Golden Temple is a Sikh temple and the complex is open 24hrs a day, with the actual temple only closing for 2hrs in the middle of the night to be cleaned and polished. The Sikhs pride themselves on rejecting the caste system and accepting individuals of all race and wealth into the Temple and, they house and feed anyone that arrives on their doorsteps. Because of this there are absolutely no beggars in the city and we also managed to get a free room for the two nights we were there!

The hostel we stayed in was completely free but they appreciate donations. However there is no pressure to donate and you are hassled by no-one when inside the hostel compound. It was a beautiful old building with a central courtyard that housed a shower block and countless rooms around it spread over three floors. We had a room for three, with shared facilities and a ceiling fan and, the only drawback was sharing the room with two lizards and three mice!

The Temple itself is incredible and was well worth the journey we made to see it. It sits on a platform in the centre of a small lake ajoining the main courtyard by a bridge. Its almost entirely plated in gold and the domed roof is fabled to be composed of 750kgs of gold! It is amazing at night and we spent the two nights sitting by the lakeside chatting to the Indian tourists who had travelled to be there also.

The people were probably what made Amritsar so memorable as the Punjabis were the friendliest we had encountered so far. In fact, we were treated like celebrities everywhere we went. Everyday countless people approached us asking if they could take photos with us and shake their hands. Parents would send their children over to say hello and we received about twenty invitations to people's homes all over the country! It was very surreal and often very awkward and we didnt really enjoy the attention, as flattering as it was!!!

Aside from the Temple, the city had loads of other tourist attractions and we visited a Hindu Cave Temple (very elaborate mosaic and mirror work all over the walls and ceiling- it was like being in a fun-house at a carnival!) and we visited the Jullianwala Park (a park commemorating 1500 innocent Indians who were killed by the British during a peaceful protest, in an incident similar to Bloody Sunday). Both were enjoyable but we had to leave the park early after a big crowd of people gathered to ask us questions and take our photo!!

Amritsar was a lovely city and the Punjabi people and the domestic tourists who we encountered there were so friendly and helpful that we couldn't believe it. We left Amritsar and the state of Punjab, after two nights, on a sleeper train bound for New Delhi with our purses bulging with business cards, e-mail addresses, names and numbers and with our cameras full of photos of strange Indian men and women who never wanted us to forget them! (and after all that- we wont!)

Next stop: New Delhi... take two...

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Photos

Amritsar
The Golden Temple

Amritsar
The Golden Temple