Randhawa International Amritsar

... Granth (original book). There was an area to bathe in the holy waters of the Amritsarovar (lake surrounding the temple) and behind that a large building (the Guru-ka-langar) which housed a communal canteen providing free food to anyone that came. (apparently 10,000 people on average each day!)<br>I took a few more snaps before depositing my bag and walking through the archway and on to the path to the main temple itself joining the short queue to enter. I noticed the ...

... lake of "holy water."<br><br>The Shiks were amazing.<br><br>Multiple families invited us to sit with them as they explained the religion and the importance and history of what we were seeing. <br><br>Such kindness was amazing against such a beautiful backdrop and it was a wonderful last stop before heading to Delhi to catch our flight to Kathmandu.

... you know Micheal Jackson?" And of course I replied 'Yes.' At that point he became very excited as he took my answer to mean that I PERSONALLY knew him. So I spent a good 10 minutes convincing him that I did not KNOW him, only listened to him etc. Anyway, he was disappointed, and wanted to know for sure that he was dead. He did not believe it. <br><br>

We had an easy bus journey to Amritsar, very comfortable and only about 5 hours. We stopped at an amazing service station where there was a courtyard with cold misted air blowing out over the customers. We bought a vegeburger and then had to scoff it quick and jump back on the coach.<br><br>We arrived at Amritsar at about 7 pm and took a tuktuk to our hotel, which is right in the middle of the old town, near the Golden Temple. On the first night we just went to a ...

... means 'Lion'.<br> <br>You might see on some of the photos Sikhs with swords - which is part of five kakkars (emblems) donating the Khalsa brotherhood:<br>-kesh - the unshaven beard and uncut hari symbolising saint-liness;<br>-kangha - comb to maintain the ritually uncut hair, usually wooden comb;<br>-kaccha - loose underwear symbolising modesty:)<br>-kirpan - sabre or sword symbolising power and dignity;<br>-karra - still bangle symbolising fearlessness.<br ...

... straight to Amritsar. Really we hardly got to see anything of Pakistan but it's easy to understand the attitude of the police given the current situation. All our plans to go further north to see the Karakoram had to be disbanded which was a shame but probably wise. My most enduring memories of Pakistan will be the crazily decorated trucks, more glitzy than fairground rides and the coaches full of cows, especially the one that also had a roof rack full of sheep. <br>

... arrived and spent some 20 minutes bottled up in a mini traffic jam consisting of some 10 buses all blowing their horns and some 5 Sikh 'traffic controllers' blowing their whistles at the same time and the bus drivers not really listening to the Sikh traffic controllers and all trying to do their own thing. I was just sitting there laughing. Ales and I just looked at the whole situation and shook our heads. It was actually quite comical to watch. In the meantime...these two rickshaw ...

... posed by the children waking up and getting in the way. And here was I thinking I was fine because I&#8217;d got my bags chained!! Surprisingly, I slept well!<br><br>From that time on, I would insist on upper bunk sleepers (so you can take all your bags up high and lock them out of the way of opportunists and criminals) and ones positioned in the middle of the compartment. Lesson learned.<br><br>Twenty-one hours later (the trains are often late arriving) I arrived in Jaipur in one piece!

... like each oth** one bit. The really fun part was when our throng of Indians had to go through a metal detector one at a time to get in the stadium. Just the one detector for ev**yone. So imagine a crowd of 25000 religiously f**vent individuals pushing and shoving their way to the bord** only to then be squeezed though a metal detector one at a time. It was the v**y definition of a bottle neck. Aft** all this, such was the trouble getting out of the spot I ...

... waiting list" only. By now, I felt so fruistrated that I left the building at quite a pace and exited in a dramatic way, not realising that the perfectly polished solid glass door was in fact a door.... Yes, I walked straight into it, head first, and literally saw stars! After recovering in a chair and doing a little bit of meditation to cope with the ensuing saga of booking a ticket, I decided that I was going to try agent 3, again several streets away. However ...