Amritsar

Date arrived: 3rd March 2024

Date Departed: 7th March 2024    

Favourite sight: Attari - Wagah Border Parade 

Average Cost: £27.10 PPPD

Amritsar is famous for the Golden Temple, a fabulous Sikh shrine that completely lives up to the hype. As with so many places visited on this trip though, we found a lot more to explore in our time here.

3rd March 2024

We arrived late in Amritsar, and managed to arrange a tuk-tuk from the station to our accommodation, the functionally named City View Hotel with Garden. We were greeted by Avijit, the delightfully enthusiastic and knowledgeable hotel manager, and a lovely room, which we were told would be changed the following day to an *even better one*. We were also told, unexpectedly, that we would get complimentary breakfast the next two days. Well weren't we the lucky hotel guests!

As it happens we were. For the next few days, Avijit and his team looked after our every need, offering us complimentary tea every time we arrived,, as well as the aforementioned breakfasts. The room was nice, which was just as well as all we really wanted to do was collapse into our (large and comfortable) bed, and we didn't bother unpacking much since we knew we would be moving rooms the next day.

4th March

We had an alarm today, as we had been notified that our complimentary breakfast would be served at 09:30 sharp! We enjoyed a good shower, and a delicious breakfast of local kurta, along with the company of a pair of English ladies who were staying at the same hotel. Avijit  suggested that if we wanted to visit the border closing ceremony at nearby Wagah, perhaps we might all like to share a taxi, which would keep the price down for us. As all four of us were keen to explore this, we asked him to make the arrangements - which he did, for that very afternoon.

With the morning free, and as we were in Amritsar, there seemed like no better place to go than to the Golden Temple itself!

When you see pictures of it, the Golden Temple seems to float in the middle of a tank, otherwise open to the world. You could easily spend quite some time looking around for it. In reality both tank, temple, and a number of other buildings are all enclosed within a campus in the heart of the City. It's not difficult to find, but it's only by crossing the open courtyard and then making your way through one of the surrounding buildings that you get into the temple complex itself. This involves covering your hair (scarves are provided for you) and removing your shoes (there are shoe cloakrooms as well) then bathing your feet in the shallow baths of gently flowing water that cross all entrances to the complex.

Clockwise from top left: Ceremonial guards wander the temple campus wearing disctinctive purple robes and yellow turbans, and wielding spears; The temple is truly magnificent to see; You can get a feel for the scale of the temple campus.

We spent a fascinating 90 minutes exploring the temple complex, but refrained from joining the queue to access the temple itself. This ran the full 100m length of the causeway at least, and from what we could see was a significant religious pilgrimage for the Sikhs there. Whilst we were confident we would have been welcomed, we didn't feel right to do that.

We left the magnificent Golden Temple behind us and explored some of the more commercial areas of downtown Amritsar, eventually finding a very impressive looking coffee shop next to the Partition Museum, housed in the old  converted town hall. We had a light lunch and an excellent Latte, before wandering back to the hotel.

Attari-Wagah Border

This, I think takes some explanation... and that won't be enough. At the India - Pakistan border between Attari (Pakistan side) and Wagah, the respective border forces stage a nightly ceremony to 'close' the border point. Many years ago, Julie saw a Michael Palin travel programme on the BBC, where he visited this crossing , and explained what was going on. On this basis, and as this still goes on each and every day, we were keen to visit and see for ourselves!

Words fail me. It's barking. There you go, that's as coherent as I can get. The whole thing takes place in a kind of specially constructed stadium that faces the road running to the gates, and there are lots of soldiers in dress uniforms with crazy hats.  First they gee up the crowds on both sides, getting all of the ladies down to the road for lots of flag waving, dancing, relay races and shouts of 'Hindustan!' (and presumably Pakistan on the other side of the gate.) Then the crowds move away, and the proper bonkersness begins. 

Various groups of soldiers line up (and this seems to be mirrored on both sides of the border) and then take it in turns to march up to the border very aggressively, high-stepping, kicking, and generally stomping, all in time to a manic drum beat, and perfectly in sync with their counterparts on the other side.  There's lots of saluting, hat waving, foot stomping,drawing and sheathing of swords and general pomp, and it's it so camp it's insane. If you ever get the chance to see it for yourself, you must!

With no word of a lie, this ceremony is the craziest organized event I have ever seen!

Ram Tirath Temple

From the ridiculous, to the sublime.

5th March

6th March

7th March