Hotel la Cascade Amritsar

... cleanse my feet, I walked up the steps and there was the golden temple in front of me.
WOW it looked serene, the golden building floating in the middle of the water. Singing from the sacred book was also being played over the loudspeakers. Walked down the steps to the marble walkway which surrounds the lake and just stood there taking everything in.

There were people there but luckily not too many,it was still early in the morning. Took a ...

... the Indian Army to start strutting their stuff.

Loud music bellows out and crowds cheer and dance and the army guys, there were about 10 of them adjust their long french like moustaches and then what I can only explain as a John Cleese impression march up to the border gate throw their legs as high as what the limitations of a mans groin area will allow only to be met by the Pakistani boys doing the same, it is hilarious... I swear I have not seen ...

... lowest price. Unfortunately, this low price meant that we were stuck sitting around in a hot van for about 45 minutes, while the driver found more people to pack in. I was getting frustrated because I knew that we would never make it to the border before the ceremony started. Then as we were finally leaving, an Indian man in the back row started having a seizure, and we pulled over so his friends could carry him out, but no one seemed too concerned except for the group ...

... overall, the museum was fascinating.

Although I haven't been in India long I can definitely say so far so good. The crowds might prove to be a big challenge, as I've seen with booking train tickets, but the jury is still out. I'm going to spend a few more days in my very comfortable and cheap hotel to further acclimatize myself to this planet of a country before moving on to the big time in Delhi...

... Originally they were trying to charge to enter the mosque, but many tourists complained about paying to enter a religious meeting place. So they changed it to a camera charge and irrespective of whether you put it away in your bag and say you will not use it, they say you will have to leave your bag (which they know we won't!). Women were also told they had to don these huge pink and white spotted flannelette gowns, down to the floor, in the searing heat. They ...

... from his bed on the other side of the berth. He was very interested in my goggles, (glasses) even asking if he could borrow them to read better. When I tried to do some meditation (tying to be a good yoga student!!) I heard some yelling. "HELLO! HELLO! HELLO!!! You are doing it wrong. If you want to be doing meditating, you have to be doing meditating right way!!" Apparently, I was holding my hands in the incorrect position. He was an amusing travel companion, and better ...

... Mommy went right to bed and felt much better the next morning. Aunty has three houses. One in Amritsar, one is Punjvard (the one we stayed at and the one she winters in) and one in Delhi, where she spends her summers. The house in Punjvard is a former Misal house (there were twelve total,) which means the owner (our great uncle's grandfather) was appointed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh to govern the area. Janpal; Amritsar ...

... mats and hold your plate high as dal is slopped and chapatis are thrown. Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and any other pilgrims, travellers or those on their own journey - it doesn't matter who you are, all are welcome. a tour of the kitchen revealed incredibly enourmous vats of dal simmering away over huge gas burners, pots so big fully grown men disappear within when doing the dishes, and a chapati machine that makes 15,000 ...

... a young Indian's journey to Toronto, it seemed quite fitting as we will be moving to Ontario after our trip...hopefully ours trip is less challenging than his (update: Arik finished the book and loved it!). On the train we shared our bench with another Canadian backpacker who is also a Photo Journalist for the Province news paper in Vancouver, small world eh? Our 2nd class ticket cost a beautiful $2.50 and for the next 7 hours we watched India ...

... project work. The result is a pleasant and unusually clean city with wide roads and a commendably well thought through system of cycle routes. At night, though, the many arcades are lined with countless homeless sleeping outside and overcrowding, similar to pretty much all other Indian cities, has added a number of ramshackle tent slums onto the fringes of town. Sadly we could not look at the actual government buildings, the high court or Le Corbusier's iconic open ...