Dirt, diahrrea and a golden temple

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Amristar. Noise, dirt and heat. These are my primary impressions regarding Amritsar. Doesn’t help that I’m sick. It doesn’t feel like it’s going to be bad, but one never knows how these things will play out.

Checking into the Sharma Hotel, I met an Italian guy named Al Tundo who’s lived all his life in Basel and is travelling from Australia to Switzerland by bicycle. Can’t imagine bicycling in this heat with this traffic on these roads. But you can see he’s determined and has the sand to do it.

Many, many Indians stare at you. I mean outright staring that gets on my nerves and makes me feel like the only Muslim in Bibleville. At times I stare back until they look away. I saw Al Tundo actually challenging a couple of them, aggressively asking why they were staring at him. Long day on the road I guess.

There are only two things worth seeing in Amritsar: the changing of the guard at the border town of Wagah 30km away. I didn’t see this but I’m told it’s entirely Monty Pythonesque. Look it up on YouTube. I was too sick to go.

The other is the Golden Temple. It’s an oasis of peace in the dirty chaos that is Amritsar and it is outstandingly beautiful. I shuffled from my hotel the 50 metres to the entrance and went inside. Huge marble structure surrounds a big rectangular pool in the middle of which is the temple shining golden in the late afternoon sun. Shining golden because it’s covered in something like 100 kg of gold. Usually there’s a very long line-up to get in, but today there wasn’t and I only waited about five minutes. I watched the musicians and the person singing for a while, then went out and sat by the water watching the giant goldfish come and go. But I wasn’t getting the best out of it, so shuffled back to my hotel, exhausted.

Random notes
Five and fifteen are favourite numbers here. Everything is only five minutes away from where you are, or five minutes’ wait, or else fifteen kilometres distant, no matter how long the wait or the distance.

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Photos

Al Tundo
The Australia-to-Switzerland cyclist.

Golden Temple.
A great place just to sit and relax.