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Published: November 17th 2012
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Delhi Pitstop Although marginally less chaotic than travelling in sleeper class, the long overnight trip from Jaisalmer to Delhi was still punctuated by occasional confusion as people got into the wrong bunks or into wrong carriages at various points throughout the night. We did however at least manage to get more sleep than is usually the case and so arrived in Delhi ready to face poverty, pollution, traffic queues, Diwali preparations and the inevitable hoard of tuk-tuk drivers trying to charge quadruple to make a short trip across town. To manage the latter, we did find a prepaid autorickshaw booth outside New Delhi Station, but having paid for a ticket, trying to find a driver willing to take us at the normal fare proved somewhat of a challenge! Eventually we found one guy who didn't speak English and couldn't read our ticket, but he agree to take us, albeit not quite as far as we wanted to go!
After some negotiation, we got a half decent room, which as luck would have it, was directly above a bakery and cheese shop. Given the limited bread, cheese and cakes thus far available in India, Emma naturally insisted that all meals
should be taken there. It's amazing how exciting crusty bread and a lump of cheese are when you haven't seen them for a while! Subsequent to this, Delhi sight-seeing was largely food-based, with a trip around the marginally plusher British built Connaught Place to see people preparing for Diwali festivities and joining them in eating a load of Indian sweets, and then returning to our bakery for a four cheese pizza and icecream sundaes.
The Rough Guide to India, in one of it's warnings about scams, states that you shouldn't trust anyone outside of New Delhi train station when you go there to buy onward tickets. Apparently anyone offering help, including those in uniform, are invariably up to no good. It goes on to describe how helpful and efficient the tourist booking office above train station is. Chris, leaving Emma with a selection of baked goods and dairy products, went to check it out and to hopefully book some onward tickets. He was almost disappointed when no one had tried to hassle him at all, or offered to help (extremely unusual state of affairs in an Indian city), and he subsequently managed to find the tourist booking office without
any difficulty at all. Unfortunately when he got there, he found that, rather than being in a state of efficiency, it was chaos with tourists queuing for hours to buy tickets. Not up for that, he thought he'd give online booking one more go - and finally, twentieth time lucky, it worked and we were heading to Amritsar the next day.
Amritsar Revelries Amritsar, spiritual centre for Sikhs across the globe was in full festive swing when we arrived. Getting into the Diwali spirit, we think that Emma, against all the odds, has managed to try most varieties of Indian sweets available locally, as she's now ploughed through multiple boxfuls of barfi, laddo and milk cake. Fortunately she's also invested in several pairs of stretchy trousers and a new toothbrush!
On arriving in Amritsar, first on the tourist itinery was a trip to the border town of Wagha, 25 kilometres away. It's unusual for us to relish a trip to the border of any country, but this time, it was different. Since the 1960's, the Wagha border crossing with Pakistan has had a 'closing ceremony' which both sides participate in and which has become a tourist attraction
in it's own right attended by thousands of people everyday. There's an initial warm up period with speakers blaring on both sides of the border, trying to be louder than the other, with similarly loud cheers and shouts from the crowds as women dance to Bhangra music and run about waving the Indian flag. Following this, the ceremony is an interesting display as border police on each side try to outdo each other with giant moustaches, fancy turbans, high leg kicks pantomime marches and loud long shouts. Following a lot of marching, shouting and acrobatics, both sides march up to their respective gates opposite each other, lower their country's flags, do a comedy handshake and then the gates slam closed and everyone goes home again. Brilliant!
The next day was Diwali, and although many shops were still open during the day, the streets were definitely less congested, that was until we got to the Golden Temple which was heaving with visitors, including large numbers of pilgrims, many of which arrived in large groups on foot carrying huge bags and looking like they'd walked along way. With bare feet and heads covered, we joined the hoardes walking around the temple
complex and as the day wore on it got more and more packed with families, tourists and devotees of different branches of the Sikh faith who conglomerated into groups. This included a huge group of nihang sikhs, identifiable by their electric blue robes and matching turbans, carrying a spear, sword or trident (or in one case a semi-automatic weapon, but we think he might have been part of security).
We were sitting down resting in a quietish corner of the temple complex when we were invited by a Canadian Sikh to come and rest in a quieter room. It seemed like a good idea so we went along and found ourselves in a small room with a few other people. The Canadian man explained to us that the room was the private resting quarters of an important elderly Sikh man who was held to be a saint, having been extremely rich but then given away his worldly possessions in order to devote himself fully to Sikhism. We were offered food and water. Having eaten a big lunch a couple of hours previously, we did try to decline, but not very successfully, since a few minutes later we found ourselves
being given heaped trays of tasty thali. Naturally we tucked in, and then continued to eat as seconds were insisted upon! We were the only white people in the room and were treated really well as guests albeit ones who didn't really know what was going on, being served before anyone else and seemingly being given more food as well. During our meal, the important Sikh, whose resting quarters we'd invaded, arrived. We still don't know who he was or what his name was, but on his arrival, everyone stood up and then people bowed to him and queued up to be blessed. We don't think he spoke any english, but he was very keen to bless us many times and gave us a whole heap of blessed apples. We did try and find out a bit more about him, but the Canadian man who had brought us in was deep in conversation, and the only other guy who we were speaking to in English, seemed only able to recite the names of successive British prime ministers from Harold Wilson to date and then laugh manically! After being blessed one more time, and with a bag full of apples and
tummies full of thali, we thanked everyone and left the room, with an open invitation to return, which included accommodation and use of a car with driver should we ever require it!
Back out in the open, the sun was setting, thousands of candles were being lit and the Golden Temple and surrounding shrines were illuminated by millions of fairy lights. We found a spot to sit and soak up the atmosphere and then prayers were said by the tens of thousands people crammed into the complex before a firework display to commemorate Diwali.
So, all in all, Diwali in Amritsar was awesome and comes highly recommended. We certainly felt very welcome by one and all, despite being three of only a handful of non-Sikhs there. Even Emma was in good spirits when we had countless requests for novelty white-person-with-head-covered photos!
Back at the hotel we were all ready to go to bed when there was a loud knock at the door. Grumpily, Chris got up to answer it, to find one of the timid hotel staff there with a plate of goodies to wish us a Happy Diwali. The perfect end to a great day!
Tallies Trains booked online - 4. Hurrah!
Number of times Chris has woken up to discover Indian sweet crumbs on Emma's side of the bed - most mornings
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david
non-member comment
wow
This is tremendous. I feel very in touch with Amritsar. You convey the atmosphere with beautiful words and stunning pictures. Thank you.