Amazing Amritsar and Attari

After making the 2 day journey into northern India from Delhi, Brendan and I were really craving a unique experience - something that would show us the "true" India, without the watered-down impact that tourism can have on the culture of a country. Well, we think we have found it during our couple of days in Amritsar and Attari.

Amritsar is a quirky little northern city that sits about 30km east of the Indian/Pakistani border in the Indian state of Punjab. It is dusty and noisy (enough with those bloody car horns PLEASE), but it also has a certain charm about it that makes it endearing - mainly because of its people. This is the first place in India that we really felt accepted without feeling like we are being judged or seen as cash cows waiting to be exploited. Yes, there are beggars and touts that will hassle you, but every second person on the street just wanted to come and say hi, ask where we are from, have their photo taken with us and shake our hands. We genuinely felt welcomed here.

Amritsar is home to Sikhhism's holiest shrine, The Golden Temple, and true to Sikhism's inclusive nature, everyone from every religion is welcomed here without judgment (perhaps this philosophy is responsible for how we felt in this city). The temple itself was smaller than we thought it would be - this may have something to do with it being gilded in gold (i guess size becomes an important issue here!). The temple is surrounded by a massive pool that is considered holy to bathe in. Within this complex is a dining room where EVERYONE is welcome, 24 hours a day, to sit down on the floor and have a meal for free. This place serves around 50 000 people every day with a fantastic meal of chapatis, dahl, curry and tea. Brendan and I decided to participate and it was pretty incredible to sit in a room with around 500 other people chowing down on a great meal. The whole operation (and it is a huge operation - they even have a machine that churns out 1000s of chapartis each day) is funded by donations and ran by volunteers. It is fantastic to see holy men, the rich, the homeless and the likes of Brendan and I sitting side by side sharing a meal. Quite a humbling experience.

Our other major experience here was to make the 30km trip west to the Pakistani border. Every night at about 5pm some members of the Indian and Pakistani military meet at the border to participate in a border closing ceremony. May sound relatively dull on paper, but this is perhaps the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. Hopefully I can do it justice in my description! OK, let me set the scene. A couple of thousand civilian Indians arrive at the border around 4:30 and fill up 3 huge grandstands - the same numbers arrive on the Pakistani side of the border. There are flags being waved about, loud music and dancing in the street. Then the military comes out and everyone is herded to their seats. The chanting begins and it is LOUD - a compare comes out on each side of the border and starts revving up the crowds with chants. Then a squad of very pumped up, dressed up soldiers come hurtling out onto the street on each side of the border. The general idea is to march very quickly up and down to the border gate, stamp your feet very hard, yell a lot and scissor kick the air as often and as high as possible. The gates are then flung open and the commanders from each side come face to face and stare at each other for a really long time before shaking hands and saluting. The flags of both countries are lowered at the same time while the guards strut around and do some interesting 'dance-like' side stepping and marching. Then the gates are very forcibly slammed shut and that is that for another night. Despite the tension that is currently escalating between these countries, it is amazing to see the respect that is displayed during the ceremony.

Anyway, enough for now. We are currently experimenting with putting some our videos on YouTube. When we have a couple up we will put some links on the blog. Hope you are all well and until next time...

//Kate