The Golden Temple site is a mess

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Ok, I left off on Thursday, November 3rd. On Friday, we went to the small town of Palmpur via two buses (30 minutes and 2+ hours). The second bus was overcrowded and hot. Any way, we made it in time for a quick lunch in town before we got an auto rickshaw to take us just outside of town to the Palmpur Tea Co-operative. There, the manager gave the two of us a great tour. Even though the last processing day for the year was October 31st, he still demonstrated all the equipment. We learned lots about tea processing; such as there are three harvests (called blushes) in a year. The first blush is the best as the plant had all winter to acquire its character. The plant we visited processed a black rolled tea. This is a bit unusual as most tea is cut. At the end of the tour, Wendy and I purchased a vacuumed sealed jar of the first blush - 250 grams $1.80.

After the tour, we walked a bit through the terraced tea plantation before returning by bus to our home in “Tibet.” (McLeodganj). We also set up to have a driver pick us up at the hotel for the following morning.

After breakfast Saturday morning November 5, the driver picked us up for the 4+ hour trip to Amritsar, the home of the Golden Temple. We got the driver ($47), as commercial connections are bad. Once we got out of the mountains near McLeolganj, the scenery was boring. Driving here consist of playing chicken with others as you blow the horn. I could never have driven it here in one piece. Once in Amritsar, we attempted to check into the Grand Hotel, but there was no room in the inn. Therefore, we ended up at a sub par place called Sun Dew Hotel ($14.50).

Before we go on, I want to explain that Amritsar is the dirtiest city I have either seen. Cars, rickshaws (both auto and bike) and pedestrians all compete for the road. What a mess! And the pollution is everywhere. It seems hard to breath. I won't miss this place at all. Maybe we should have stayed in "Tibet".

Once checked in our “hotel”, we went downtown for lunch. Then walked to the Sun Temple that is nearby the restaurant. This temple is called the "Golden" Temple since there are over 240 pounds of gold that were applied to its roof in the 1800’s. At the temple, we discovered that tours in English are twice a day at 8:30 and 5:30. So we decided to wait. Instead, we went and attempted to book at Sunday train to Jaipur either directly or through Delhi. We really didn't have any luck as we came away with a second-class sleeper on a 20-hour local train.

That was about all we did yesterday. Well, today, Wendy was feeling very bad. In addition, I think I got a touch of "Deli Belly." Therefore, we decided to have a rest day and not eat much. We booked rooms ($44@) at one of the best hotels in town (Mohan International) to recuperate. The hotel also managed to exchange our train tickets for us. So now we plan to leave at 5:30 AM tomorrow for Delhi. After this 7 1/2 train trip, we hope to get an express bus (6 hours) to Jaipur. That is, if all goes right. Today, the only excursion will be to see the Golden Temple. We postponed the tour from yesterday.

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