Amritsar

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Last weekend we took a couple of days off teaching and took the opportunity to hop over the state border into the Punjab to go visit Amritsar. I was partly because it doesn't fit in with any of the other travelideas (being in the opposite direction) and partly because it was one of the girls (Imogen's) birthday.
Amritsar was an experience. We had to get the bus at 6am (the others had to get up at 3 so I cant really complain) so we got to amritsar at about midday....so just in the heat of the day then. And trust me it was hot! When you went back outside after being in a fan cooled room the heat hit you like a smack in the face.
I have mixed emotions about Amritsar. The city itself I loved. I can't help but love the absolute choas of Indian cities, the traffic, noises, smells and hundreds of people make it an exciting, if a little overwhelming and very dirty experience! The streets are just so vibrant and they make England look unbelievably dull in comparison. It i, however, so dirty and polluted though that you have a shower on an evening and the water runs off brown.
When we got there we went straight to the Golden Temple because you can get free rooms there. We were helped by the sweetest Sikh man who sorted us out the best room I've come across in India (with loads of space, water and even an air cooler!) which we were very thankful for later on. That afternoon we went straight to the Golden temple, which is absolutely beautiful. I thought Amritsar in general and the golden temple in particular would have loads of tourists but of the hundreds of pilgrims and visitors that are there at any one point ridiculously few are westerners...cue the stares....
The Temple Complex is wonderfully peaceful considering it is in the middle of the city and has a genuine sense of being a scared place.The golden temple is really impressive, it is gilded by 750kg of gold so looks beautiful and twinkly in the early evening light. Is also has some really beautiful inlayed marble work (yes I realise that makes me sound very middle aged but trust me it's really nice).
The golden temple itself is in the middle of a man made lake in which devout Sikh men bathe (obviously it'd be horrendous for a woman to show her devotion in a similar way as she can strip off and bathing fully clothed might mean her clothes who reveal she did indeed have a womanly form....) It is lovely to watch though as they go in until the point where only their heads with their brightly coloured turbans are left bobbing on the surface. I'm a complete convert to turbans, they are rivalling monk and nun robes as my favorite religious clothing. They are such bright colours here and seem really fun, There are also loads of different ways that people tie them, my favourite is when they are tied to give them a really impressive peak. I have an urge whenever I'm behind a man wearing one to ask if I can touch it but I think they'd just think I was a bit strange!
We also went ot a couple of other temples in Amritsar, one of which was a Hindu temple dedicated to a 20th century female saint with glasses where you have to crawl through passages and walk through ankle deep water. The only requirements for the inclusion of any kind of decoration in that temple seemed to be garish and kitsch objects only....the Indians really do love all things shiny, bright and above all kitsch.
The main downside of the Amritsar trip was the shear amount of stares I came across. Having blonde hair and blue eyes and having lived in rural India for 3 months I have got pretty used to being stared at and on the whole I don't mind it any more. I do mind the lecherous stares from most men who think you'll conform to their idea of how western women act, but the old ladies and small children I normally am fine with. In Amritsar, however, it was wide open mouths and comments all the way. It was possibly worse because I was wearing a Salwar Kameez (the most common comment was "you look beautiful in suit") but the number of people who asked for a photo just got ridiculous. Why do they want a photo, they don't know me! In an odd way I suppose it should be flattering because they say things like "you're beautiful" (by which they mean "I like your white skin") but when they form crowds of staring eyes round you (and trust me it was really like that) you don't feel flattered you feel like an animal in a zoo. If there is one thng I would change if I could it'd be my hair and eye colour, I'd be so less conspicuous with brown hair and eyes and it'd all be so much easier.

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