Amritsar - Place of the Golden Temple & Border-Closing-Ceremony

2005-06-02, Amritsar, Punjab, India

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Now that we are back in Delhi I wanna kind of wrap up what we did the last two days since we left Dharamsala last tuesday. On our way to Amritsar we very soon realised that the border to Pakistan was coming closer - military stations & roadblockings appeared every ten minutes. But finally we've made it through, checked in to our hotel & had some chinese food for dinner as well as some beer at the hotel bar later on. When we woke up yesterday morning we firstly were refreshing ourselves at the hotel pool and were heading afterwards to the Golden Temple. This building is the holiest place for all Sikhs, those people following the religion of Sikhism which is still quite popular in Punjab. The temple itself is made of almost pure gold and is shining bright. The atmosphere is a quite festive one, holy chants are played and people are so friendly to each other. As far as we could realise we've been the only foreign tourists at this place thus the more welcomed we felt. Many people just wanted to shake hands or wanted being photographed with us.... sometimes it felt like being a popstar because of the masses constantly following us... Within the temple buildings there is also a place where people are doing a free service to the temple by making chapatis or tea. Next to that building there is a huge hall where each and everyone is welcomed to receive free food. Having been at this Golden Temple was such a nice experience that I really would have loved to stay longer there. But as it was already afternoon we wanted to go to the border between India & Pakistan at Attari near Amritsar. Due to the ongoing conflicts between both countries this is the only place where you currently are allowed to cross the border. Even all bus- & train connections between India & Pakistan have been cancelled. The border is closing every day by 4.00pm followed by a huge military ceremony half a hour before sunset. This ceremony is held in an utmost nationalistically way with kind of ringleaders rooting for the masses on both sides. Once the border was officially closed for that day we left the place to get our night bus back to Delhi. Here we arrived this morning and I'm currently uploading some pics from the first leg of our tour through Northern India. The next 2-3 couple of days we will stay in Delhi and will do some shopping, sightseeing and maybe meeting up with some friends of Clara.