Blogs from Amritsar, Punjab, India, Asia - page 24

hey hey, liabe leudde, zuerst gibts noch ein paar bilder aus rishikesh und chandigarh! wir sitzen eigentlich schon seit dem 31.12.05 in jaipur, der hauptstadt von rajasthan! und hier isses einfach total abgefahren.....ich sag nur eins: maharadscha sawai jai singh.....18 jahrhundert ....gold, silber und marmor sowieso......1001 nacht is a schaaassss dagegen.......! aber mal langsam, wollen euch ja keine etappen der reise vorenthalten! und was da dazwischen war, war ja auch nit ohne! oissohhh: CHANDIGARH......AMRITSAR........BESUCH IM PUNJAB! chandigarh ist die haupstadt des punjab, sie wurde am reissbrett entworfen und in den 50er jahren aus dem boden gestampft. wie gesagt untypisch fuer india, aber hat den vorteil, dass alles ( fuer indien!) sehr geregelt abgeht, sich die verschmutzung in grenzen haelt und man mal auch luft einatmen kann und irgendwie einen relaxten eindruck macht.... read more

I had a good night's sleep considering all the activities that conspired to stop me. The sink tap in the bathroom dripped constantly, however maybe this acted on my brain like a lullaby, in the same way a gently burbling stream might do. And at 6AM a mass throat-clearing erupted from the other residents of the hotel as well as the neighbours. On that subject, it's amazing just how much phlegm people are capable of producing - not just the gargantuan gozzers first thing in the morning, but the other offerings throughout the day. The hot water in my shower proved to be as much of a myth as I had suspected. On a relative scale, it was warmer than the cold water, but on an absolute scale it was a little tepid. Again, my hair ... read more

The atmosphere in the Golden temple compound is electric. The temple is the best I've seen in India, the dome is gilded with 750kg of pure gold. When entering the temple we had to remove our shoes, wash our feet, and cover our heads. Ate in the Guru-Ka-Langar, it is a free community dining room. They serve hundreds of pilgrams a day. ... read more

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 ... read more

After resting for so many days in McLeod Ganj, we decided it was time to move on and see some of India. We took the easy way and rented a jeep with a driver, to do the 200km 5 hours journey (yes... that's India) to Amritsar. Amritsar is the holiest city for the Sikh, the guys with the funny thing on their head (just kidding, they are nice people!) and the main site is the golden temple. We arrived in the evening and decided to go to Laurence road, which is the modern part of town - relatively speaking of course. As it is in India, there were some very nice shops, elegant and some in western style, fancy Pizza Hut, and all that among market style shops and stalls and plenty of dirt and garbage. ... read more