after delhi we went north to the indian state of punjab...for those of you who haven't been to india, what you know of india probably comes mostly from punjab...tandoori chicken, a lot of curries, etc...
we went to the city of amritsar, home of the golden temple...it's the holiest shrine in sikhism, and attracts a lot of sikh pilgrims...made of white marble, and covered in 750kgs of pure gold, it's beautiful...it's on a small island in the middle of a holy pool, and you walk across a white marble bridge to go in...it's not big, not at all...inside there are holy men reading the sikh holy book, and musicians singing and playing sikh hymns...they are broadcast around the entire complex from 0300 to 2200 each day...arriving in amritsar was much more pleasant than arriving in delhi...the golden temple is a big deal, and they have a lot of pilgrims/visitors, so they run a free bus from the temple to the train station and back quite regularly...once we found the correct spot to wait outside the train station, the touts and rickshaw drivers left us alone...soooo nice...when we got to the temple, we were immediately shown where to go, and very quickly shown into a room...nearly all of it was done w/out any english (or much talking at all, for that matter)...the temple provides (free) accomodation to pilgrims and tourists...it's simple accomodation, think dorm style...each night there were a lot of people sleeping in the courtyard of the building in which we had our room...communal bathrooms, etc...they can accomodate as many as 30,000 people at a time, which apparently happens a few times a year, during major holidays...there is also a GIANT community kitchen, which can serve 40,000 (free) meals a day...eating there was quite an experience...the entire complex is staffed by volunteers...they do everything from organizing the accomodation, to peeling potatoes, to serving chai, to washing spoons, etc...all of it is paid for by donations and the offering money in the temple...it's an amazing example of how incredible something can be when a lot of people happily give time and energy, and all work together...during breakfast of our second day, we ended up talking to a 20 yr old punjabi girl...she wanted to practice her english, we had lots of questions to ask...she was at the temple with her family, for the second time in her life...she answered all of our questions, both about the sikh religion, and about herself...a total sweetheart...she even helped us get train tickets!! we also spent some time with her after our last dinner there...
one of the other reasons to go to amritsar is that it's an hour bus ride to a border village called attari...the border with pakistan, that is...the pakistani side of the border has a village called wagah...each afternoon there is a fancy border closing ceremony that lots of people come to watch...each country has built permanent stands for all the spectators...(and they are separated by sex)...you're not allowed to carry a bag of any kind to the ceremony, and you are searched on the way there...the soldiers in the ceremony are wearing super fancy uniforms, complete with head stuff...i have no idea how to describe them, maybe head plumes? lots of marching, stomping and the like...even some high kicking, which, as lonely planet puts it, is so high that you wonder they don't concuss themselves...the crowds on either side are really patriotic, chanting and cheering the entire time...LOUD...at the very end of the ceremony, the flags of each country are lowered in unison, staying at an equal level the whole time...considering the level of animosity between the two countries, the degree of cooperation during the ceremony (for choreography and the flag lowering) is pretty incredible...tensions between the two countries have never been good (going back to when the modern borders for india were set and pakistan was created)...politics are different, and so are the religions...pakistan is mostly muslim, while india is mostly hindu...during the partition, hundreds of thousands of people were killed and injured as they crossed the country in order to get to the right territory...the anger hasn't ever gone away...and now, after the bombings in mumbai, the feelings continue...
after amritsar, we went to jaisalmer...a pretty town, mostly built of yellow sandstone...throughout the town there are beautiful havelis, old, VERY ornately carved houses...the town is most known for the fort in the middle...unfortunately, the fort is on the world monuments watch list for the world's 100 most endangered sights...the drainage system under the fort was only built to handle a 10th of what it is dealing with now, and as a result, the ground is slowly collapsing...the fort is slowly sinking into the hill...there are currently 99 bastions surrounding the fort, 3 have already collapsed...it's not ethical to stay in a hotel inside the fort, and we didn't...we didn't eat at any of the restaurants in there either...people still live in the fort, but they always have, ever since the fort was built...it's the hotels and restaurants that are so awful...basically, the town is killing itself by not practicing conservation...the town isn't big, there is no reason to stay inside the fort...layna talked to a guy at our hotel whose family emigrated here in 1971 from pakistan...at that time, the countries didn't like each other, but the border was relatively open...now, they can't really go back...this guy would like to see where his family is from, but he's not likely to ever do so...he said he considers himself indian, not pakistani...and he doesn't like pakistanis...he said no people live in pakistan, only animals...soooooooooo, yeah, the two countries don't get along so well...
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