Amritsar

Amritsar 

 It was amazing how much the landscape changed as we left the mountains and headed into the farmland area of Punjab. Colourful turbans started popping up everywhere. We arrived after 7 hours in Amritsar near deaf from the blaring bus horns, convinced that the horns were actually louder inside the bus.

We had forgotten the frenzy of the city since being hidden away in the mountains so it smacked us in the face as soon as we got off the bus. We haven't figured out what is worse here, the air pollution or the noise pollution. Amritsar is covered in a constant low hanging haze of pollution, quite similar to Delhi. On hot, sunny day the sky is grey and the sun is weak, it's a big dirty city.

The sky looks deceptively blue in this picture.

The view was a little hazier from our room in Amritsar.

The traffic of Amritsar

The main reason anyone visits Amritsar is to visit the Golden Temple which is similar to Mecca for the Sikh people. Things are slightly less frantic inside the walls of the temple, there is a big shared kitchen for anyone to eat in and people come to sleep on the floor around the temple. We learnt from our cooking teacher , be it true or false (we are slightly less trusting these days) that people take their gold to the temple as an offering in prayer for wealth and if it works out for them they take more gold in thanks. It is all melte down on site and added to the temple.

We didn't go giving any of our gold away in a hurry!

A local Sikh at the temple

The plan was to stay the night at the temple and eat in the dining hall with everyone but, as we are learning things don't often go to plan in India especially when you are struck down by 'Amritsar Belly'. Brock got some sort of bug which he said can only be describe as 'the most intense tummy bug you will ever experience'.


We did however got to experience the closing ceremony at the India Pakistan border. It's something like a mix between a crazed soccer match, with fans from each side chanting for their teams and Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks (definitely youtube it!).

The guards/performers at the ceremony

The crowds and crazed fans chanting 'Hindustan' and 'Mahatma Ghandi' - These were just the crowds inside the 'stadium' area!

Last but not least for the Amritsar experience was the train booking ... with plans to get to the famed camel fair we headed to the ticket office and inquired about tickets which turned out to be hard to come by so we figured we would go away for a discussion over coffee and book later. BIG MISTAKE. On our return with our train information the queues were snaking our of the door (we didn't realise but we had struck it lucky earlier that day). So we put to practise our ever growing patience, filled out the forms and took our place in line which, to Indians, means very little. People push from every direction to get to the front, with head wobbles, flicks of hands and cunning words exchanged. It's all very time consuming and frustrating but nobody really seems too bothered, pushing in is just what's done, meanwhile our blood is beginning to boil. After much waiting and frustration we were 2 from the front of the queue when the men behind the counter decided it was time to call a chai break for 10 minutes! OK, we think, 10 minutes, no big deal. However, 10 minutes turns into 30 minutes and we begin to get impatient but we are so close, it's OK, just a little more patience. The man finally approaches the window after his 30 minute break and changes the sign, not to open, but instead, to permanently closed, go to the next window.
Well that was the end of me! Everyone else in the queue just accepted it and squished themselves into the already overflowing other queue.Me on the other hand, I lost it, demanding Brock bang on the window and make a fuss about it. I insisted they had to know that it was ridiculous but even with all my screeching and swearing I don't think this was conveyed. Brock managed to drag me away ticketless and furious!

Brock holding his own against the Indian men and dealing with personal space issues.

After a cool down period we returned the next morning at 8am, opening, to line up in the already huge queue, equipped with our iPods to aid our patience. And after an hour we came away with our train tickets in hand. Little did we know that the bigger hurdle would be getting Brock out of his sick bed and onto a train at 5.30am for a 4 hour train ride to Chandigarh.

Breakfast

 Nek minit...

 I still don't know how he managed it but it did help that we had somehow booked ourselves onto first class and had a spare seat beside us! The little things to get us through!