Hotel Indus Amritsar

... one of the tracks into the mountains. But with parents worried at home, we decide to move on. At the parking we meet some other overlanders, a german couple and some cyclists who made their way here via Iran and South Pakistan. We are definitely not the only ones traveling here. A lot less since 9-11 however, when the tourism industry received a huge blow, leaving many hotels and restaurants half empty. Such a shame, cos the people are so hospitable and the scenery so ...

... further pictures were taken of course. We then headed back to the same restaurant (as it is the only 'non-meat' restaurant in the local temple vicinity) where Nicola ordered the Punjabi Dhaba special, it really was that good!<br> The next journey is a relative hop of 17 hours down to Jaipur (the Pink city) in Rajastan which is part of the 'Golden Triangle' in the North of India (Agra and Delhi being the other two).<br> Darryl and Nicola x

... place to travel from to the attari border.. <br><br>We had hoped that Amritsar was going to be different to Delhi, not so much hassling and touting but the minute we stepped off the train it all started again.. and our rickshaw driver topped it off by dropping us somewhere apparently near our hostel but so very kindly didnt tell us where our hostel was and so we had to walk through the streets in 40 degree heat, backpacks and getting touted.. dear me, it was just a bit too much to ...

... and less pollution. We had been told that you can actually stay in the Golden Temple, and there is a special room for foreigners to sleep in, so we decided to try our luck there. We hadn't expected to find any room, though, because we knew it would be a busy holiday weekend and had heard that most rooms in the city had already been booked or were ridiculously expensive.<br><br>To our surprise, there were two beds open in the foreigner room, called Sri Guru Ram Das Niwas ...

... guards are dressed in very extravagant costumes with funny hats and crazy boots! They yell and scream and march with kicks like those of an irish dancer! Brilliant! They were shouting "hindustan forever" and yelling and screaming... of course we joined in like eejits whilst sweating uncontrolably.. Spot the two paddys at the back!<br>We also took a trip to the Golden Temple.. as the name suggests it's a temple adorned with Gold. We looked v ...

... see" museum. The museum I can only assume was also ****. Although I arrived (despite the best efforts of my one armed, no change giving, bumbling ****-wit of a ricksaw driv**, who tried to deposit me three times at the wrong place before a man on a bike took pity on me and took me for free) and bought a ticket, I was unable to visit the museum. I neglected to check about available electricity. Not wanting to feel my way around I left. My convictions regarding sightseeing are again ...

... of the marble walkways, the pilgrims both solemn and emotional, and the incredibly beauty of the temple made the whole moment really serene but also subtley overwhelming. The fact that we knew so little about this place really set in, and we just hung out there all afternoon. <br><br>The response of the Sikhs to our being there was varied but mostly welcoming or at least tolerant. There's a special force of spear wielding Temple guards that, like most ceremonial guards, kept very stern but ...

... occsional breaks where the two sides would try to out-cheer each other. All in all...I found it rather boring and repetitive. It was somewhat interesting to see...but I probably would've skipped out on it had I known it was going to be that unexciting. We all got back in the cab around 7 PM and were driven back to the Golden Temple. I left the temple in search of some fruit to have for dinner. I puchased 4 bananas and 1 mango for RS$30. I felt I got a great deal. I stopped at this ...

April 14, 2009 Aman felt much better when he woke up. We spent the 14th in Delhi relaxing and playing with Amrit and Meher. Janpal got sick overnight. He didn't feel well, so he didn't get to enjoy the wonderful chocolate cake and special dinner Mamiji had put together for him. The rest of us enjoyed it, though. 15th We took the train to Amritsar early in the morning. The ride was uneventful. Janpal got sick in the morning ...

With only a few days before we had to meet Stephanie (Charis' sister who is coming to join our adventure for a few weeks, yay!) we caught the first train out of Delhi north to the Pakistani border. Leaving out hotel in the ghetto at 6am for our train was a surreal experience. There was dense fog, narrow streets, and dozens of people sleeping on the street. The cool air settled the intense urine and garbage smells of yesterday. Inside of the train ...