india - Amritsar

Amritsar is in punjab right up in the northwest of India within a few kilometers of the border with Pakistan. We arrived off a bus and took a rickshaw into town where we knew there were a few hotels. One of the funny things about India are the descriptive (or perhaps misleading) the trading names establishments adopt - Lucky Hotel, Hotel Decent, Good Times hotel and so on... Amritsar was no different and one of the hotels we considered was the utterly misleadingly named "Hotel Deluxe". The rates quoted were reasonable but when we viewed the room it was a little dingy due to the fact it had no window. Deciding to give the proprietor a second chance (and not relishing lugging our packs about in the heat) we asked if he had any better rooms, with windows. He proudly informed us that none of the rooms in his hotel possessed something so common as a window and even seemed a little mystified when we took the news of the world line.... made our excuses and left.

Anyway once we successfully procured ourselves a room we set out to the Golden Temple, the most holy of sites in Sikhdom. It really is something to behold and the place is very peaceful and welcoming...you don't get that feeling of trespassing you do when visiting some holy places. The temple itself is reckoned to be covered with 750kg of gold. There are free rooms here for anyone that wants them and there is also a kitchen open to everyone. Volunteers serve meals of dhal, roti and rice to all comers 24hrs a day right throughout the year. There certainly is a lot of washing up but we managed to slip through the net and avoid being pressed into service.

The other reason people (including ourselves) visit Amritsar is to view the closing of the border ceremony that takes place each night in front of a crowd which is thousands strong. The soldiers on each side (all selected for their height of over 8ft- or so it seemed) prance about with much pomp and ceremony. They goosestep right up to their counter parts kicking so high their feet touch their hats, shake hands and then slam the gates shut. Meanwhile the crowd of indians is whipped into nothing short of a frenzy by the cheerleader and the hindi music... They dance shout wave and chant for 25mins before the flags are lowered and everyone heads off home no doubt only to return the following evening. It was all very captivating and not a little amusing....we watched the guards "warming up" behind their hut. This involved star jumps and dancing to the hindi music and despite their imposing stature we found it impossible to take them seriously after seeing the prancing warm up....I don't think GMA should even consider adopting such a routine!