La Cascade Hotel Amritsar

... ushered upstairs and took a seat on the floor in the neat rows formed by everyone in the large open hall. Once the hall had filled up, a guy said some prayers before the food was dished out with amazing efficiency.<br>I copied others and held my hands out as a guy whizzed past expertly dropping 2 roti's in each persons hands. Next, water was poured into the bowls followed by Dal in the thali's. Refills came for anyone that wanted before rice and potato curry was served.<br>After finishing ...

... General Avery, I believe, opened fire on the unarmed women and children. Hundreds were killed here. This massacre was the reason that Mahatma Gandhi began his civil disobedience campaign which eventually forced the British to relinquish their colonial authority. <br><br>After the Brits left India to her Independence in 1947,there has been a strong independence movement within the Sikh community. India has resisted this desire for a separate state. In 1984, this ...

... and silly marching. After that we all went out for a lovely meal in town.<br><br>We crossed the border on Sunday after a whole morning waiting about at the hotel on the Pakistani side where we camped for the border officials to actually go to work (they were based in the building behind where we were camping and had come out to meet us). The border used to be really busy but now with the problems in Pakistan and visas getting harder to get it seems like ...

... and Pakistan, or too revealing clothes from Europe. Some of the other girls had visited a cool store called "Fab-India" which we decided to check out. It was cool, not too expensive, and I bought two tops and two pairs of trousers. I got the impression it was pretty up market by Indian standards and I prefer shopping in the markets and bazaars, but it still got us some suitable clothes to wear. I bought the most awesome blue stripy baggy trousers, which have been ...

... amp;N problem!<br><br>Case in point, at the travel agent yesterday, I'm trying to figure out which city would be best to go to. Now, I myself am a travel agent (or was) so I'm trying to be patient. Keep in mind that this guy does actually speak english.<br><br>Me: "How long does it take to get there?" <br><br>Him: "It's 1000km away"<br><br>Me: "How LONG does it take to get there?"<br><br>or<br><br>Me: "What time does the train leave on Thursday?"<br><br>Him ...

... portrayed here. Then I paid my respects to the Baba Atal Tower, where a guru&#8217;s (Har Gabind) 9-yr old son committed suicide. Having saved a friend from a lethal snake bite, he&#8217;d been admonished for 'interfering with the ways of God&#8217; by his father and so decided that he must end his life! I returned to visit the Golden Temple again (having not watched the 4.30am ceremony to return the book to its daytime home!) and found a royal blue canopy and royal ...

... they pounced with their cameras. We posed for many pictures with the young guys while the family just sneaked their photos of us. Finally we just got up and ran out of the park. Note: young women do not sit in parks on their own in India!!<br><br>There is another really exciting thing to do when you are in Amritsar and that is to visit the India/Pakistan border. They close the border every evening, amidst a lot of celebrations, to a packed stadium. There are vendors selling ...

... by the idea of sunrise pray**s at the Golden Temple. The Golden Temple, fact fans, is the holiest place in the Sikh religion and most obs**v**s agree second best place to visit in India only aft** the Taj Mahal. As I had come straight from the bus I did have to carry my entire rucksack and hadn't eaten for 24 hours due to the travel unfortunately. These w**e but trifles though as I had religious f**vor in my blood! It didn't start well. As I got off the ...

... though my hair still tried to escape.<br> <br>Once inside the feeling of peace was palpable. It is the sort of place you could just sit for hours by the pools. Everybody was friendly and wanted to show us the temple. In a genuinely friendly non pushy, non profit making way. I can honestly say the Golden Temple was the highlight of the holiday. Well worth the train journey. Sadly Ole didn't get his photo taken there as we felt it wouldn't be respectful to ...

... Pure Comedy We also visited a couple of Hindi temples around town; notably the Mata Mandir Temple which is a strange Disney style temple with lots of tunnels that lead you a defined way through the ...