It took some time for me to figure out where to go after Delhi, and I had quite a few options. In the end, I decided to head to Amritsar, capital city of the Punjab region in northwest India. I’ve heard several good things about Amritsar and it was recommended to visit by a couple of friends who’d been there. So there I went, and I sure was glad that I did.
On our way back into Amritsar I got the chance to drive the rickshaw for a bit, which was really fun. We had a great driver, Vicky, who let anyone interested in driving it take it for a spin on the main straightaway. As we drove back, piles of young people in rickshaws and cars drove past waving and saying hello, making gestures and faces of excitement to see what all the white tourists were doing. It was so much fun seeing them on the road and waving, yelling hello, and smiling. It was probably my favorite part of that day.
We spent the following evening going back to the Golden Temple in a more organized group from the hostel, which came with a guide who gave us some more info about it and who led us into the mind-blowingly incredible public kitchen. Nearly all Sikh temples have a kitchen that feeds the people who visit it, for absolutely no price. This kitchen in particular, being at the Golden Temple, was one of the largest in the world. From my understanding this place feeds almost 100,000 people PER DAY, and is operated 24/7 on a complete volunteer basis. People just show up to help out with whatever they can and then leave whenever they need. We showed up and had some amazing food here while marveling at the concept of how this place could possibly be operating. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in India and it was such an incredible experience.
Overall, I think the main take away from Amritsar was the people. The Sikh people were the nicest I had come across in India so far. They welcomed me with open arms and plenty of pictures, and the number of smiles, hello's, and waves was a constant overwhelming flow of warmth. I couldn’t get enough of it, and I left with comfort and happiness for this experience that India gave me, looking forward to more.
The main highlight in Amritsar is the Golden Temple. It’s the holiest landmark of the Sikh religion, so you have a ton of people making pilgrimages there all year long to visit the thing, and it’s a pretty incredible piece of gold. Surrounded on all sides by water with a promenade encircling the area, it also makes for a nice sightseeing walk around the temple. The first time I did it was with a couple friends during the day and it was beautiful. What was more amazing was how many pictures people wanted to take with us during our walk. It took us about an hour and a half to walk around the whole thing; not because it’s big, but because I think we had to stop once a minute because someone was asking to take a picture with us. I never had so many people want to take a picture with me in India. I think I got more pictures taken than most celebrities would on a typical day, which was fun for the first 20 pictures, but then it started to get old. But they didn’t stop, and it was picture after picture after picture before we were able to escape.
Later that day, we went to accomplish another popular thing to do in Amritsar. Every day in the afternoon there is a ceremony at the India-Pakistani border crossing. I heard about this before coming and heard about how interesting and bizarre it was, so I wanted to check it out. Before going there we went to a very strange Hindu temple in the city. The best way to describe it would be a hybrid between a funhouse you’d find at a fair and an actual Hindu temple. It was very popular and consisted of a labyrinth of staircases and crawlspaces, mimicking caves and mountainous passes that I think were supposed to resemble an actual Hindu temple in the mountains. There was also very elaborate tile artwork, mirrors, and sculptures of Hindu Gods and scenes, and just the line passing through it was entertaining. It was so packed we didn’t have enough time to get through the whole thing, but it was still an experience nonetheless.
After the funhouse temple we made our way to the border. We pulled in and joined the crowd of what seemed like a few thousand people and watched to see what this ceremony was all about. It was definitely interesting, and they basically built grandstands on each side of the border for spectators. Pakistan was heavily outnumbered by the amount of Indians there were on our side, chanting and dancing for what I can only presume to be their showing of national pride. The border guards then began their part of the ceremony, which consisted of a lot of marching around with excessively high kicks while wearing funny hats. Same deal with the Pakistani guards. Most of the ceremony consisted of what looked like a pride competition between participants and guards of each country, with each chant and march an attempt to beef up the mentality and crowd of each country. It was definitely entertaining to watch in a bizarre and comical way, and in the end I’m glad I went.
Later that day, we went to accomplish another popular thing to do in Amritsar. Every day in the afternoon there is a ceremony at the India-Pakistani border crossing. I heard about this before coming and heard about how interesting and bizarre it was, so I wanted to check it out. Before going there we went to a very strange Hindu temple in the city. The best way to describe it would be a hybrid between a funhouse you’d find at a fair and an actual Hindu temple. It was very popular and consisted of a labyrinth of staircases and crawlspaces, mimicking caves and mountainous passes that I think were supposed to resemble an actual Hindu temple in the mountains. There was also very elaborate tile artwork, mirrors, and sculptures of Hindu Gods and scenes, and just the line passing through it was entertaining. It was so packed we didn’t have enough time to get through the whole thing, but it was still an experience nonetheless.
After the funhouse temple we made our way to the border. We pulled in and joined the crowd of what seemed like a few thousand people and watched to see what this ceremony was all about. It was definitely interesting, and they basically built grandstands on each side of the border for spectators. Pakistan was heavily outnumbered by the amount of Indians there were on our side, chanting and dancing for what I can only presume to be their showing of national pride. The border guards then began their part of the ceremony, which consisted of a lot of marching around with excessively high kicks while wearing funny hats. Same deal with the Pakistani guards. Most of the ceremony consisted of what looked like a pride competition between participants and guards of each country, with each chant and march an attempt to beef up the mentality and crowd of each country. It was definitely entertaining to watch in a bizarre and comical way, and in the end I’m glad I went.
We spent the following evening going back to the Golden Temple in a more organized group from the hostel, which came with a guide who gave us some more info about it and who led us into the mind-blowingly incredible public kitchen. Nearly all Sikh temples have a kitchen that feeds the people who visit it, for absolutely no price. This kitchen in particular, being at the Golden Temple, was one of the largest in the world. From my understanding this place feeds almost 100,000 people PER DAY, and is operated 24/7 on a complete volunteer basis. People just show up to help out with whatever they can and then leave whenever they need. We showed up and had some amazing food here while marveling at the concept of how this place could possibly be operating. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in India and it was such an incredible experience.
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| Volunteers helping out in the kitchen |
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