Visiting Amritsar

Train journey was 48 hours. Every travel towards the journey is exciting, because there is energy within us, hence we all remain excited to our level. We boarded train up to Jalandhar, and reached there two hours late. That made our journey 50 hours in total.

So, taking next rain to Amritsar, we reached Amritsar at 12 noon.

Click Here To Check Introductory Part of Tour

City of Agents?

As soon as we got out of railway junction, almost dozen of people surrounded us asking us for hotel, for visit and packages. This is common in any part of India, but Amritsar was too much. They did not stop following us unless we reached hotel. And when reached hotel, these agents stood before us talking in their tone claiming that they brought us to that hotel. We got the hotel, again, heading towards Wagah Border, we caught auto. Oops! Next Agent again, he took us to expensive hotel for our lunch! We had no option than to pay!

Autowala’s Talk

This Autowala indeed was crazy. He kept on talking as if we would believe everything of him. He claimed that there would be traffic on direct street, so he need to charge extra till Golden Temple. He also stated, that we will not be able to find things we want on our own, so he has to be accompanied with. We pretended as if we were fools. He showed some trees and claimed it the place where people would enjoy the shade, as if we didn’t know. We also fooled him in the end saying, we will need his help in next day, and took his number. We assured that we will call him at 9 next morning, gave address of our hotel, and escaped out of Amritsar at 5 itself.

Punjabi Dish

Punjabi Dish indeed was amazing. We were already fed up of train food, and our own Bhujiya Chiura thing. And we ended up in this expensive Dhaba. We ordered our lunch, had it. Yes it was good.

Makkhi ki roti, Sarchu ki saag, lassi, basmati chawal.

Our expensive Punjabi thali

Hotness Overloaded

This is the worst part of Amritsar. We were all sweating. Standing in the queue of Wagah Border, that was the worst part. We don’t remember number of water bottles that we purchased. And every drop of water that we drank were excreted from sweat itself. Oh hotness! I don’t want to be in such hot place anymore!

Hot like hell, and we had to stand in this queue.

Wagah Border Ceremony

Guess what? We saw Pakistan! Yes, we just saw Pakistan! We were on Indian Border, while Pakistanis were on their land, Indian stood on their land. Both the countries performed various national performances. I could sense patriotism of Indian thereby. Initially the songs were something about patriotism, which gradually got into dance numbers. Observers started getting down to dance. We could hear something from Pakistan’s side too. Numbers of Pakistani viewers were less compared to Indians; however infrastructure of Pakistan seemed to be stronger and good one. The gate opened for around ten minutes from both side, and we could see each other. I wished I had known someone on Lahore, who would come to see me there.

Okay, watch the popular India Pakistan Gate. Across the gate, they are people from Pakistan watching Wagah Ceremony

The entire ceremony got over. Only then we realized that Shiva and Gaurav were already out before any starting, because of hotness there.

Four beautiful ladies!

Golden Temple

It was already 8 when we reached the temple. Wide open, and there were few fountains. ‘There was supposed to be temple in between water’, we said. We then realized that we were in the frontier of the temple. After keeping our shoes (free of cost), we were about to enter the temple when this Punjabi guard, with bhala in his hand told, ‘Per bhizake jaawo’, there was small storage of water in the main gate, and we were trying to escape it. That handkerchief like thing was compulsion in head!

Okay, Golden Temple

So, we saw the temple. We tried to worship as the people do, copying others. We started taking snaps, selfies, welfies and making a round. Inside the temple, we tried our best to worship seeing others.

Golden Temple – Prasadam?

While Susant, Shiva and Kapil were engaged in snaps, we were seeking for something to eat thereby. Yes, our stomach were hungry and we had heard ‘They provide good food inside Amritsar free of cost’. But all we found was some strong water.

We then saw haluwa like thing being distributed. But we had to pay for that. Okay, no problem, at least it would energize us, we thought and went. They were providing something like 200 gms of haluwa for Rs 10, and just around 300 gms for Rs 100. Were we fools? We took 2 Rs 10’s haluwa.

It was hot, and three of us, had it within no time. It was good. And then we went towards temple. Susant and others were about to return while were about to enter. On our time of exit, we were handed similar set of haluwa as Prasad. It was bit cold, but we had it.

And then we realized that, those haluwa that we bought were to worship, not to eat. No one were eating it. Ahh, what did people think while they saw us? We laughed!

Me and Rusen

Golden Temple – Langoor

At one point of time, it happened that Susant, Shiva and Kapil got lost. We had no telephone coverage, either our cell batteries were dead, or we had no balance. Rusen had his cell phone on, but no one called. We searched for them in gate. We had the key, but they had the token of shoes. ‘Ultimately, they will have to come at this place for shoes’, we thought and we waited for them for half an hour there. We did not see any sign.

We went back to temple. ‘Gaurav, you rotate anti clock wise, I will rotate clock wise, and Rusen, you stay here itself’, I said. Gaurav went in anti clock wise direction. I stayed with Rusen, because he would cover entire round, why should I waste my effort? Oh clever me? No, all of us were tired and hungry.

‘Bhai sap, khana kidhar bat raha hey?’ one guy asked us. We had no idea, we told we don’t know. But, we followed him secretly. We found out the place, where they were distributing plates. Now Gaurav was still rotating in his direction. We had to wait for him. Ahh, he was late, but we got him.

And three of us, we followed unknown. We were handed with plate and bowl. We had to climb up stairs (that was not necessary if we had not followed this unknown guy). Up, there were people sitting in queue, and eating. I was fast, I saw Rajma quickly. So we had no idea what to do, and when we saw people coming and sitting with plate and bowl, we did same.

Volunteers came, handed us with Rajma, Roti of maize, Tasty Daal and khir! They tasted great! We did not mind demanding additional stuff, because there were bunch of standard peoples too behind us. And there was small car, carrying water, which would pour water directly in the bowl.We had no idea what to do after eating, so we carried the utensils and moved.

Amazing thing we found was, people come there for volunteering. Some wash utensils, some take care of shoes, some distribute food.

Oops, while returning we found that these three guys had been waiting for us at the same place of shoe store. When we told food story, Kapil told us, you guys had langoor!

Who is rich? Who is poor? All were volunteering!

Midnight Auto Ride

On mid night we returned back to hotel, in this open auto. Funny thing was this auto driver had been in Amritsar for last six years, but he was confused about the road. He was old, but kept on talking nonstop as if he was the super duper agent of Amritsar. Oh was he drunk?

Few other snaps from Amritsar.

This is some university. I forgot the name.