April 22, 2009, Still in Amritsar
I just noticed that I am posting for April 22, Wednesday, and the blog date is April 21, Tuesday. For your information - both are correct. It's Wednesday here - and Tuesday there.
This town is famous for the Golden Temple. The holy place for Sikhism as I mentioned before. Anyone can enter the Temple, and the Sikhs are very proud of that fact, that they accept everyone, and love everyone.
To enter, which I have not done, one leaves their shoes at a counter that is staffed and the staff person puts your shoes in bin and gives you a ticket to pick up the shoes. Slumdog Millionaire must have been here before and took a few shoes- and by the way - I still check every bottle of water for signs of glue!
After leaving your shoes , you walk across a marble area to the foot bathing pools that you simply walk through, then you MUST put on your headgear - a scarf, or shawl, - and if you don't have one, there just happens to be about 50 men selling "do-rags" with pictures of the Golden Temple on it, for you to buy and wear in.
Now the Temple is beautiful - clean - and well maintained. But something happens outside the Temple that is just beyond American comprehension. --- The trash - the junk - the ill kept EVERYTHING.
Example, in my hotel room, the lavatory drain pipe does not quite make it to the drain. I mean it misses it by a quarter inch, so that about half of the water from the lav goes out onto the floor of the bath. The bathroom itself is the shower - so it's not a real problem for there to water on the floor - but to go through the effort to put in a floor drain, to put in a drain pipe, and then to have the pipe a little short - is - well - I mean - .. it's India!
The border closing ceremony was very interesting. There are grandstands on both sides of the Border gates, and I would say there were at least a 1,000 people there (tourist - 98% Indian). The Army guards were all decked out in fancy uniforms (I will try to get some photos up when I get to Delhi), and they strut around Goosestepping and growling - and looking angrily at the Pakistani soldiers across the border - and those soldiers are doing the same thing to the Indian soldiers and for the Pakistani crowds. But before the soldiers start doing their strutting - a cheerleader comes out and gets the crowd revved up, then there is loud - wild music, and women and girls from the grandstand go down to the street and dance.
All these preliminaries take about 30 minutes, then the guards strut around - up and down in front of the grandstands and up to the gate where they growl at the Pakistani doing the same thing , then they all go to the gate and have a real face to face "growling ceremony" with the Paki soldiers, ..... then they take down the flags, and close the border gates. End of ceremony.
And I wonder why India and Pakistan have such a hard time getting along!!!!
Yesterday, I was ready for a little "western world". I am staying in the old city, next to the Golden Temple, and my guide book mentioned "the new city" being very modern, good Internet cafes, and several shopping malls!!
I though - "yea, that's what I need - a mall! ... a mall fix". I asked the hotel owner about the location and names of malls, and he gave me two malls. I left the hotel, hired a motor rickshaw
and headed for the MALL!
Well, first - the new city is as trashy and dirty and dilapidated as the old city! ..and the malls, well, apparently a MALL here is what I would call an office building with a few shops in it in the States. ...Very disappointing, and Internet cafes , ..well I had to hire a rickshaw driver to take me to one, and it was not the nice shiny one that I had hoped for. It was an Internet cafe in India. That's the best description.
Ben Wiggins visited here last year - he understands about trashy and what typical " India" really means. Ask him if you want to know more.
I took a bicycle rickshaw back to my hotel, and ate dinner in the market place at a little open air (sanitary, I'm sure) place. I had a rice dish and vegetables for dinner. This morning I ate at the place next to it and had beans and tortillas (they don't call them that). For lunch today I went to
a real restaurant but couldn't find anything I wanted, so I went back to market and ate beans and rice this time! Variety - that's what's great!
Tonight I am leaving Amritsar via a "sleeper" bus. I was assured (by the owner of my hotel) that it was a Super Deluxe bus, but deep inside me - I know that's a sham, and the bus will be a dump. But the only way to find out for sure is to show up and plan to get on. And, no - it doesn't do any good to ask to see pictures of the bus, or to even go to the bus station to see the bus (cause you will see what they want you to see). The way you find out is " go and plan to get on!"
But if it's in real bad - I hope I don't go ahead and get on!
I've never been on a sleeper bus before , so the good side of this is that it will a new experience. I'm hoping for a good one.
Again - will post more pictures from Delhi, I hope. Here it is just too frustrating.
thanks for joining me on these travels.
Johnny
This town is famous for the Golden Temple. The holy place for Sikhism as I mentioned before. Anyone can enter the Temple, and the Sikhs are very proud of that fact, that they accept everyone, and love everyone.
To enter, which I have not done, one leaves their shoes at a counter that is staffed and the staff person puts your shoes in bin and gives you a ticket to pick up the shoes. Slumdog Millionaire must have been here before and took a few shoes- and by the way - I still check every bottle of water for signs of glue!
After leaving your shoes , you walk across a marble area to the foot bathing pools that you simply walk through, then you MUST put on your headgear - a scarf, or shawl, - and if you don't have one, there just happens to be about 50 men selling "do-rags" with pictures of the Golden Temple on it, for you to buy and wear in.
Now the Temple is beautiful - clean - and well maintained. But something happens outside the Temple that is just beyond American comprehension. --- The trash - the junk - the ill kept EVERYTHING.
Example, in my hotel room, the lavatory drain pipe does not quite make it to the drain. I mean it misses it by a quarter inch, so that about half of the water from the lav goes out onto the floor of the bath. The bathroom itself is the shower - so it's not a real problem for there to water on the floor - but to go through the effort to put in a floor drain, to put in a drain pipe, and then to have the pipe a little short - is - well - I mean - .. it's India!
The border closing ceremony was very interesting. There are grandstands on both sides of the Border gates, and I would say there were at least a 1,000 people there (tourist - 98% Indian). The Army guards were all decked out in fancy uniforms (I will try to get some photos up when I get to Delhi), and they strut around Goosestepping and growling - and looking angrily at the Pakistani soldiers across the border - and those soldiers are doing the same thing to the Indian soldiers and for the Pakistani crowds. But before the soldiers start doing their strutting - a cheerleader comes out and gets the crowd revved up, then there is loud - wild music, and women and girls from the grandstand go down to the street and dance.
All these preliminaries take about 30 minutes, then the guards strut around - up and down in front of the grandstands and up to the gate where they growl at the Pakistani doing the same thing , then they all go to the gate and have a real face to face "growling ceremony" with the Paki soldiers, ..... then they take down the flags, and close the border gates. End of ceremony.
And I wonder why India and Pakistan have such a hard time getting along!!!!
Yesterday, I was ready for a little "western world". I am staying in the old city, next to the Golden Temple, and my guide book mentioned "the new city" being very modern, good Internet cafes, and several shopping malls!!
I though - "yea, that's what I need - a mall! ... a mall fix". I asked the hotel owner about the location and names of malls, and he gave me two malls. I left the hotel, hired a motor rickshaw
and headed for the MALL!
Well, first - the new city is as trashy and dirty and dilapidated as the old city! ..and the malls, well, apparently a MALL here is what I would call an office building with a few shops in it in the States. ...Very disappointing, and Internet cafes , ..well I had to hire a rickshaw driver to take me to one, and it was not the nice shiny one that I had hoped for. It was an Internet cafe in India. That's the best description.
Ben Wiggins visited here last year - he understands about trashy and what typical " India" really means. Ask him if you want to know more.
I took a bicycle rickshaw back to my hotel, and ate dinner in the market place at a little open air (sanitary, I'm sure) place. I had a rice dish and vegetables for dinner. This morning I ate at the place next to it and had beans and tortillas (they don't call them that). For lunch today I went to
a real restaurant but couldn't find anything I wanted, so I went back to market and ate beans and rice this time! Variety - that's what's great!
Tonight I am leaving Amritsar via a "sleeper" bus. I was assured (by the owner of my hotel) that it was a Super Deluxe bus, but deep inside me - I know that's a sham, and the bus will be a dump. But the only way to find out for sure is to show up and plan to get on. And, no - it doesn't do any good to ask to see pictures of the bus, or to even go to the bus station to see the bus (cause you will see what they want you to see). The way you find out is " go and plan to get on!"
But if it's in real bad - I hope I don't go ahead and get on!
I've never been on a sleeper bus before , so the good side of this is that it will a new experience. I'm hoping for a good one.
Again - will post more pictures from Delhi, I hope. Here it is just too frustrating.
thanks for joining me on these travels.
Johnny
posted by Johnny at
10:17 PM
2 Comments:
I've been looking up the border ceremony, that is quite a production! Can't wait to see the youtube videos they have on it. Going to try and get the family to watch them at Adam's on the TV.
johnny, i am loving the blogs. it has been so fun to keep up with you. can't wait to see the pictures. carrie
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