Amritsar, Punjab, India
Amritsar is home to the Golden temple, the Sikhs’ temple of God. The state of Punjab is where the majority of India’s Sikhs live.
We arrived in Amritsar in time to drive to the border with Pakistan, and observe the mindboggling daily border-closing ceremony. India has actually erected a stadium of bleachers for their thousands of visitors who come to watch (I can’t comment on the Pakistani side, but it looked like there weren’t many visitors over there). Border guards march comically, while one hollers into the crowd. The audience chants something in return, over and over. Eventually the flag is lowered, and the guards march back to their exit post.
The next day, we visited the beautiful Golden Temple, and were treated to a tour of the kitchens, where they make millions of chipatti (flat bread), and tonnes of curry and rice, to feed the thousands or millions of visitors they receive each day. It’s quite the industrial operation, convincingly clean and providing diners with very fresh food. It’s a free service, and everyone is welcome, regardless of religion. The food was very tasty, but I’m afraid that both of us still got sick a few days later, perhaps from the residual water left on the dishes?
It was fun to just sit at the side of the massive pool of water, watching Sikhs bath in the holy water, line up to enter the temple, or pose in front of us insisting we take their photo.
I would have liked to spend more time in this pleasant, hospitable, city, but it was time to wrap up the tour, and head back to Delhi.
