Hotel A J Golden Crescent Amritsar

After 6 days in China, it's time to climb the mountains to conquer the highest paved mountain pass in the world: The Khunjerab Pass, to cross into Pakistan. Highest point at 4675m (depending on which map you have, all claiming different altitudes…). The amazing moment did bypass me a bit as we drove through a Chinese gate entering Pakistan quite suddenly a few km after the last Chinese checkpoint. Only to realize later that this also must have been the highest point ...

... feet as loud as possible, open and close the border gates as loud as possible, and then shout as loud as possible. Once they have completed the ceremony, they lower their flags and the close the gates as loud as possible. There was a section that appeared to be for western tourists in the Indian side but we ended up in with the locals yet again. Once the event was over, everyone rushed back to their taxis and went home, just like that.

We ...

... have seen. We attended an all day festival in a monestary where monks of all ages danced and played music.
One of the highlights for me was visiting Dharamsala and seeing where the Dahai Lama teaches and lives.
Our last stop was Amritsar which is the Sikh's holiest city. We visited The Golden Temple where all the pilgrims visiting that day (and every day) were fed ...

... unhappy with Hinduism and Islam, the two dominant religions of the region at the time, so he created Sikhism by combining aspects of both religions. Nowadays, Sikhs make up about 2% of India's religions.

On my second day in Armitsar I made my way to see The Golden Temple and got my first real introduction to just how severely crowded India can be. In order to enter the temple complex you have to remove and check your shoes at a massive ...

... the holy book is kept, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. We sat for what must have been about an hour and a half, just taking everything in, watching the people come on their pilgrimages, kissing the floor and the holy flag and praying and praying. We did receive quite a lot of attention from passersby, many wanted to stop and say hello. We then left the temple to sit back outside in the complex. At 10pm every night, the Granth Sahib is taken to the Sri Akal Takhat Sahib, and ...

... the India side had been blaring Indian classical music, but when the soldiers decided that enough women and children had run to the border waving flags, they shut off the classical music and started blaring electronic-pop Bollywood dance music. All the women and children in the line disassembled and formed an unruly dance party-- we guess to show Pakistan just how fun India really is. It was so confusing-- it was hot and we were practically in a desert and this dance off went on for at ...

... places where shut down. All I did was walk around a bit, rested in the afternoon and ate. Afternoon is always rest time because the temperature sits at a not so comfortable 40 something degrees.

After much discussion, Barbara and I decided to bite the bullet and go down to Rajastan, which is the most popular state for tourists. The debate was mostly about whether or not we could hadle the heat and we both agreed that Rajastan should not be missed ...

... the charkha (spinning wheel) and khadu (weaving) there could be no Swaraj (self/home rule), so he spun every day, for the rest of his life, while fully reviving both art forms thro'out India.

I loved this exhibition of wheels and looms and studying the excellent detail contained in both the pictures, text boards, art work and displays. It was a very humbling experience, but great honour, to be here learning about his philosophy, politics and determination ...

... through donations. To enter the temple area, everyone must remove their shoes, wash their feet and cover their heads. Entering the temple area, you find yourself presented with a square man-made lake with a striking golden temple in the middle. Golden as in 750 kg worth of gold used to make the temple and its inverted lotus flower dome roof! As you can imagine, when the sun is out it makes for quite a sight! The 'lake ...

... view. And then the 'shooting stones' made their presence known... We rounded a bend to be confronted by a long snake of traffic which had ground to a halt. The rains and resulting mud had caused a rockslide, totally blocking the road. It was two hours before we could proceed and I was fascinated by people's reactions and their total acceptance of the situation. No point in losing the head, nothing ...