The Golden Temple

We had breakfast with the family, a very tasty mixed veg paratha with a curd, coriander and namkeen (little balls made of chickpea flour). We then drank chai and chatted for a while before heading for the bus.

Back at the Toll Plaza we jumped on a bus headed for Amritsar. 30 minutes later we arrived to an assault on our ears!  Having spent most of the last month up in the hills, with little traffic and horn blowing, it was a shock to our system to hear the noises of a city again.

We walked from the bus station towards the old town and the Golden Temple.  Being a weekend it was extremely busy.  We cannot count how many people asked if we wanted to book to go to the Wagga Border.  Having been to the border ceremony on our last visit, we politely declined, many times.

Once we were inside the grounds of the Golden Temple it was a little quieter, with no horn blowing but many, many people.  We put our scarves on our heads as you must cover your head to enter.  We then dropped our shoes off, washed our hands and feet, all compulsory before you enter.

Once inside, the Golden Temple shone in the sunlight.  A beautiful sight.  We first went to the Sikh Museum.  This is more of an art gallery of famous Sikhs and their battles, some of which were very gruesome.

We then saw 2 Sikh men who appeared  to be serving tea.  We followed them as they went inside and it appeared they were volunteers on their tea break. They very kindly asked us to join them and shared their tea with us. 

We then walked around the lake where many people were bathing in the holy water.  There was a huge queue to go inside the main temple.  As we have been before we decided not to join the queue.  Instead we headed to the langar, the communal eating hall.  The Golden Temple serves, on average, 100,000 free meals every day.  The meals are served by volunteers and it is a very slick process.  Everyone is handed a plate, bowl and spoon on the way in.  In the huge hall everyone sits on mats on the floor, in lines and daal, rice, chapatti, mutter sabji and rice pudding are all served within a matter of minutes.  Then came the water trolley, which has handlebars and when they pull the trigger your bowl is filled with water.

After lunch we headed out of the Golden Temple and went to Jallianwala Bagh.  This is a park which was the site of an awful massacre in which British troops killed several hundred unarmed protesters back in 1919.  The park is now a beautiful memorial to those who were killed.

After visiting the various galleries in the park we headed for the bus station.  On arrival we asked someone which bus we needed to catch and they pointed us in the right direction.  However, on arrival we were told this was not the right place and sent us somewhere else.  They too said it was the wrong place.  Luckily a nice lady, who told us she was a teacher, offered to help.  We went backwards and forwards across the bus station on numerous occasions trying to find the right bus.  Eventually the lady found someone she knew who worked at the station and after about 30 minutes we were on the right bus, heading in the right direction.

We got off the bus at the Toll Plaza and our friend was there waiting for us in the car. Back at the house we had tea and then went for a walk down to the river to watch the sunset.

As our lunch had been very filling we had a light dinner before chatting about our day and then listening to some bhangra music and watching some (very energetic) bhangra dancing. Somehow we were persuaded to get up and copy one of the videos ....it was like an aerobic workout!! We were also terrible!