Royal Castle Amritsar

... nice and friendly people. We sleep in the van as usual.<br><br>Note to all you overlanders: From Besham going South the road is getting better!<br><br>Sticking to the KKH and GT-road we make it to Islamabad, where we can park cheap and save on the tourist camping ground at Jasmine and Rose Garden. Here we meet up with Altaf, a guy we met in Gilgit, who can help us find a garage for some much-needed repairs on the van! Turns out some of the bashers have gone and steering ...

... Had a nice chat with an English/Indian guy who now lives in the States and was introduced to the whole family and if you know anything about Indian families you know that was a lot of people!! He was mightily impressed that I wanted to see the Golden Temple more than the Taj and had come there first! <br><br>This was a very special evening and it is something that I will remember for a very long time.<br><br><br>

We left Delhi at 6.30am to catch train to Amritsar, famous for the Golden temple as you will see in background of the profile picture of me wearing my fetching shawl..(just purchased that morning!) <br><br>Anyway this was our first train journey in India, we had pre booked aircon seater class, OH MY it was FREEZING!! could not believe how cold it got but then it is me and I get cold even in 30 degree heat so why Im surpised I do not know!!<br><br>Must say ...

... inside the temple complex and have to cover your head, so we bought these orange bandanas on the street and headed in. My first impression was that the temple was much smaller than I had imagined it would be. It is on a big pool of water called the Amrit Sarovar ("the pool of nectar") and you are allowed to take pictures from the encircling walkway called the Parkarma, but not inside the temple itself. It did look really amazing though, with its shining gold (it is ...

... where four sikh priests constantly sing chant and pray along with the aid of sitars. it was a beautiful place to see and well worth the visit, on the way way out i recieved the sikh version of holy communion which is a strange warm brown mush, placed in the hand. it tastes very like ferrolla (not sure of the spelling) that my mam used to make when i was a nipper. come to think of it, i have ...

Entering India from Pakistan, it was hard not to notice a different vibe in the air. Living for years amongst both nationalities in Dubai has shown me how similar the people are, and yet the atmosphere from one nation to the next felt quite different. For starters, just as the border ceremony exemplified, India has a heck of a lot more people. But more than the hordes of people, there is also a certain energy that just seemed to be lacking in ...

... border closing ceremony between Pakistan and India demolished all our expectations. We got there an hour early, and this was not a good thing because the cement bleachers that would be our seats for the next three hours had no shade, and we were practically in Pakistan in summertime. It was really, really, really hot. The soldiers were marching around keeping order, and slowly over time more and more people filled the stands. From over the incredibly decorative gate between the two ...

... is marked by a large, low square black marble plinth, where Gandhi was cremated. Devoid of shoes, we all filed around the memorial, stopping a while to reflect on the moment that this man was assassinated. <br><br>Then it was on to the National Gandhi museum, which hadn't been billed in my book as anything special. I found it really good, as it told his life story thro' a chronology of photos and detailed event logs. I wasn't previously aware that Gandhi made the ...

... leper. So the Guru expanded the pond and gave it the name: Amrit Sarovar (which means holy water pool.) He began building the Golden Temple too. The temple was only gilded with gold after Maharaja Ranjit Singh, a Sikh Raja, donated the gold with which to cover the temple tops. The British took the original gold, but many Sikhs donated money and gold and the gold was replaced. Inside the Temple we got to see the original ...

... crossing numerous land borders during our trip, nothing had prepared us for what we were about to see. Both Pakistan and India have built massive grandstands surrounding the border where people from each country come to cheer on their guards, as they dual each other in a battle of yelling, high kicking, stomping, and scowling. Each side of the border had around 5000 people show-up for the event that is put on every day at sunset. The beginning ...