Amritsar
This past weekend we went to Amritsar via train. It was not like “Darjeeling Limited,” but they did bring us tea and fun snacks. It was a 6-hour ride through the country, mostly crops and fields, a few dried-out rivers. It was great to get out of Delhi for a bit and everyone’s’ moods were lifted.
Once in Amritsar, we drove to the India-Pakistan border to see the ceremony of the changing of the guards, which happens everyday when the guard position at the border is changed from a Pakistani guard to an Indian one. It was the most chaotic and confusing event I have ever experienced. After a long drive through the middle of nowhere, we came upon a giant crowd of cars, busses and people selling foods and toys—it was like the entrance to a huge music festival. We walked through this for about a half-mile, stopping at various security checks in which we were patted down, led through metal-detectors and instructed to turn-on our cameras by guards with large, automatic weapons. Finally we were led to a seating area in which to view the ceremony. It was a thoroughly confusing spectacle, with people chanting about Hindustan and cheering and soldiers marching in a very silly way—high-kicks included.
The next day, after a relaxing evening in a nice hotel with HBO and Domino’s pizza, we went to the Golden Temple. We again wove through crowds of people, removing our shoes, covering our hair, and washing our feet before getting through the entrance and down the stairs to see the temple. It was breathtaking. Situated in a large pool of water surrounded by a huge complex of white, ornate buildings, is this glowing, pure gold building of intricate detail. A constant, thick line of people wait to get in to the temple, and everywhere else around the complex are more people. People praying, people washing themselves in the water, people laying with their families. We toured the huge free-kitchen in the complex, which was a spectacle in itself as it feeds hundreds of people everyday.
We arrived back in Delhi at 11pm, exhausted from the weekend. It was over-all a refreshing and aesthetically stimulating trip.
See pictures below.
