Namasté! On our third day in India we left our hotel in the morning for a 3-4hour bus ride to Amritsar. Again, driving in India is mental and I really thought we were going to hit someone or something about a dozen times during the bus ride. Amritsar is a, in my opinion, typical "small" Indian city (+1million), located in the north-west of India. I even think there's actually no reason at all to visit this city, except for one amazing place located right in the heart of the city. The Golden Temple.
As the traffic within the city was crazy and our bus drive couldn't manage to get any closer to the temple, we had to get out and walk our way through it. Walking through traffic in an Indian city is an experience on itself. You can not be scared, nor look behind you. You just start walking and look left and right every other second as cars, busses, motorcylces, bikes and tuktuks are coming from every possible direction. It was an intense experience of walking through traffic, next to abandoned (?) houses and burning trash piles right next to the road. You love it or you hate it, but this is the real India... and experiencing this is actually a necessity to be able to say that one has visited the country.
The Golden temple, which is worshipped by the Sikhs, is comparable with Lourdes where a lot of people from around the world (or country in this case) come to in order to rince themselves of their sins and feel relieved by their belief in their religion. The whole temple is a must-see for visitors of nothern India and is even free to enter! When getting there, all visitors must take of their shoes and hand them over at a depot. When walking inside the temple we noticed that the entire complex, which is easily five football fields large, was made out of white marble. In the middle stood the 12-karate golden temple and easily a 1000-people were standing in line to get in the temple itself. Around the temple is a big pool, with fish, in which men and women (seperated from each other when doing this) bathe to be relieved from their sins and come closer to their god. After having this amazing view for a couple of minutes, and the necessary pictures, we walked around the pound clockwise and read some of the temple's history (which you can find on the link above). We saw all sorts of people bathing: baby's by their mothers, sons with their fathers, old men and youngstars. It was curious to see that, while in Europe religion is losing importance, today in India it still is a massive thing, which also influences the economy and even politics.
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| Namasté India! |
After having completed the whole tour around the pound, a part of the group decided to stay in the shade and rest while the others, including me, decided to go stand in line to enter the actual temple. After a 15-mins line Indian style (which means we actually stood in line for 55mins), I reached the temple and got to experience it from the inside. Three men were playing music and singing religious songs, which were send through speakers around the whole complex, while around a dozen women were sitting opposite of them, praying or listening to the music. Almost all the visitors, which had to keep on moving constantly, threw money towards the musicians, which was collected by two men who then putted it in a jar. By collecting money I mean: opening your hand, scratching the floor and picking up at least 20-30 bills every fifteen seconds. Almost the whole temple was made out of gold and locals were kissing the floor when entering and leaving the building. Also, we were not allowed to take pictures. When leaving the temple again, visitors were offered free food, making this one of the biggest free kitchens in the world, serving +100,000 a day!
I must say, it was a magnificent site to visit and a must-see for tourists, but I would not recommend it if you're in a hurry as we had planned to stay around two hours but actually stayed over four hours as everything and everyone was moving slower than we had planned.
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| GLP-Competition for best #Selfie: Golden Temple & Fish in the Golden Temple Pound |
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| Our Italian friend (right) was very popular among Indians and was taking pictures with pretty much everyone |
Right outside the temple was an exchange office and it took seven people an hour to change GBPounds to Indian currency. Yes, people are not efficient in India. After our visit, we had lunch in a nice local Indian restaurant and headed back to the bus and to the hotel.
After the 4-hours drive and some refreshments, we visited Rangla Punjab, a "traditional Indian town"-set up as a live-museum. This, rather small, park offered typical dances, shops, traditional clothing, games, a restaurant and even a ride on a camel or horse! Obviously the camel-ride was the most popular attraction among us, but the fortune teller was well-visited as well. I, however, did not visit him as I would prefer not knowing what my future brings. I try to live in the present and that's already hard enough!
A long and hot (+30*C) day had passed and we were satisfied when we climbed into bed at the LPU-hotel.
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| Happy children after they had received a free drink from the local restaurant |
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| Hans enjoying the ride |
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| GLP-Competition for best #Selfie: Camel & other animal |
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