Hotel City Heart Amritsar

... Just decided to sit by the pool and soak up the atmosphere. The lights, the chanting of the sacred book and people watch. I am still impressed by the clothes the women wear. They always look incredibly well turned out (and me in my holiday clothes...not looking my best!) and the colours of the clothes are fantastic.

So just sat there, soaking everything up. I wanted to wait until the sacred book was ...

... the necter I believe, lots of sikhs bathe in this and cleanse themselves.. there is a huge white structure all around so its enclosed away from the outside world, marble pathways take you around and it really is something very special and serene, you have to wash your hands and feet and cover your head to enter as you can see from the profile picture.. it really is beautiful. Will post more pictures soon..

One thing that happens alot is young guys taking pictures of their ...

... King like in the US and had just stolen the name. I thought it would be pretty hard to operate a Burger King in a country that doesn't have hamburgers, and strangely most of the menu here was pizzas. We settled for lunch at the Pizza Hut across the street instead. It is definitely nice to eat familiar food from an American company every once in a while.

Tamir and I went back to the Golden Temple and decided to actually go check it out. You are not allowed to wear ...

... room. The process of doing this was unbelievably chaotic and the lines just to get to the window weren't fun. Once that was done you then needed to wash your feet in a filthy pool of water directly in front of the entrance that hundreds of others were using. There is no doubt in my mind that my feet came out of that water dirtier than when they went into it.

Once you enter the complex you find yourself in a massive high walled ...

... 100 kilos of pure gold.All visitors are allowed to enter the premises, after washing the feet, and covering the face with a headscarf.People are sleeping already, some of them around the pool, entire families, just on the floor or on thin mats.Also foreigners are welcome, they provide special dormitories.
But we already had reserved a room in another Amritsar ...

... By this we do not mean to say that we didn't enjoy it-- it's pretty incredible that something like this goes on every single day and both flags are still lowered side by side and everyone goes home peacefully. But Attari is like, nothing but this ceremony, and the 1km walk to the border is infested with people trying to sell you these ridiculous CD's containing slideshows of the sights of Amritsar. It's some serious gang work going on because they are all young boys and they are all ...

Our train to Amritser was not direct so in Jalandar train station we met this Indian lad of 22 who was just finishing his landscape architure degree and stayed talking to us while we waited the hour for the train. When we arrived in Amritser he got us an autorickshaw and refused to let us pay for it which was really nice and restored our faith in Indian people again. He offered to drive us around the city to see the sights in the evenings when he finished college and we intended on ...

... br>I moved on to the Red Fort - a colossus built to the west of the Yamuna River by Emperor Shah Jehan. With a 2km circumference and wall heights between 18m and 33m, it's a huge & impressive looking area. There's a 10m deep moat & the original wooden drawbridges. Similar to that of Agra, it had a Diwan-I Am public audience hall, except this had a restored marble throne with inlaid precious stones. The Diwan-i-Khas private audience hall was beautiful, with ...

... a precision and harmony of action that belies mutual respect and appreciation. There are loud yelps, synchronized marching, high kicks, seemingly chanting/cheering contests between the Pakistanis and Hindus, puffed-out chests, and staring contests all performed in lieu of the lowering of the flags and closing of the border gates...and it's done every single day! It's a strange ceremony, but if you decide to visit ...

... the Sikhs in Amritsar and trying to get some understanding of the religion. Wacky Wagah - The daily carnival at the India/Pakistan border Hoards of people flock from far away to witness the twice daily border opening/closing ceremony at the Wagah/Attari border between India and Pakistan. This is truly a spectacle to behold: gathered on grand stands on both sides of the border gates proud Indian and Pakistani countrymen are whipped up into choruses of "Hindustan" and ...