Himalayan India

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Saturday 31May

A day of packing, travelling, hanging around, more travelling & hanging around!
Flight from Varanasi at 1400 arriving at Delhi about 1630. Thunderstorm broke just as we left the Airport.
We were taken to the nearby Radisson Hotel to wait & have some food before returning to the Airport about 2230.

Airport extremely busy & after checking in we were told to join the immigration queue. We waited in this for over an hour & eventually we got to the desk & were told to fill in the form for leaving India even though we explained we were not leaving India. We did the forms, then saw another man who said we did not need the forms but we should have gone to another desk, with no queues!

Sunday 1 June

We boarded the flight on time about 0200 but then sat on the runway for 40mins. Arrived in Amritsar about 0340, queued again, as directed, to go through immigration, which confused the man at the desk who though we were landing in India for the first time. Eventually allowed through to wait for our luggage and wait we did and wait! It must have been about an hour before our flight's luggage arrived on the conveyor belt. There had only been one other flight arrival so I think they must unload the baggage one piece at a time!

We got to our hotel about 0530 & tied to grab a few hours sleep before venturing out to visit The Golden Temple.

The Golden Temple, the main Sikh Temple, was first built in 16th Century and rebuilt in 1764 after it had been damaged by invaders. At this time 100Kg of gold was added to the dome which gave it its name.

We had to remove shoes & socks & cover heads with a scarves. Russell looked like a pirate in his bandana!
After washing hands & feet we entered the holy area. The floors were white & black marble & very hot to walk on as well as very slippy where the water from the footbaths or where people had been dipping in the lake in the middle of the complex.

This lake is called Amrit Sarovar which gives the city of Amritsar its name. A cripple was cured here which was why the temple was built here in the first place, so people come here in the hope of a cure. There are a few coir mats to walk on but these are so rough it is a tough decision whether to walk on these or on the boiling & often wet & slippy tiles. I only slipped over once I think the crowds helped keep me upright the rest of the time. Masses of people all around, all pushing & shoving - even worse than in Varanasi. Fortunately our guide is tall & wears a light blue turban so he is relativly easy to spot in the crowd.

The Temple is impressive standing in the centre of the lake covered in gold. All around the outside of the lake are cloisters & building in white marble. Within these buildings are large dining halls & kitchen with huge pots for cooking large amounts of food as they feed up to 60,000 people for free daily.

The whole city of Amritsar is busy with people, bikes, cycle rickshaws, motor rickshaws known as took-tooks, & cars. After a choatic walk back to the car we drove to visit the fairly peaceful Jallianwala Bagh which are gardens where there is a memorial to the many demonstrators that were shot by the British in 1919.

21.30hrs a great thunderstorm with lengthy sheets of lightening & forked lightening & heavy rain just as we left to visit the Golden Temple again to see inside the actual temple (Hari Mandir or Temple of God) so we could watch the holy book of the Sikh (Guru Granth Sahib) being wrapped up in sheets & golden embroidered clothes before being carried in a silver palanquin to its night resting place.

The ceilings in the temple are all glittering with gold & colours & the walls are covered with pietra dura - inlayed coloured designs in the marble, some I think are fixed with plaster. It was still busy with people queuing to get into the temple at 2245hrs. Apparently people can & do visit at all times, even through the night. This time of year is a popular time for people from all over India to visit the Temple.

See photos in seperate entry of blog.

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