The Maya Hotel Jalandhar

... a procession to Anandpur Sahib for cremation. The Punjab Government has constructed a pillar here, on which is inscribed the following quotation from Guru Gobind Singh describing the unique martyrdom of Sri Guru Tegh Bahadurji, "The Lord (Guru Tegh Bahadur) protected their paste mark (Tilak) - and the sacred thread. A great deed he enacted in the age of kala (darkness)". When we were copying our pictures f rom cam to laptop, one innocent family ...

... safety soon lol. There were tears in most ppl's eyes as the bride and groom left for their honeymoon. Me and Suv stayed on at the resort to help clear up and pay the waiters who were constantly begging for money. Just as we were leaving we saw a guy passed out on the sofa. We tried to sober him up and between me and Suv we worked out he was on the in laws side. His lift ...

We only ended up spending about 22 hours altogether in Amritsar, but there was not much to see there other than the Golden Temple so worked out ok. We decided to stay in the Golden temple complex itself- they offer free accomodation to tourists and you can even get a free dinner! There were hundreds of Sikhs milling around and everyone was so so friendly. We had to share washing facilities with all the people that live there more permanently, which was great fun ...

... my Powerbook, the guy who plays Nagojey in our Pind gave them to me. The sound quality is quite bad but its good enough for me to learn from, when I eventually get around to it! I fell asleep whist doing the first record and came around at 2.30pm. I had a call from the travel agent and she said that I would have to fax a copy of my confirmation to Delhi because it didn't come out clear enough on her machine, so another trip to Nakodar followed, and ...

Day 201 Sun 28th May 2006 Too hot to do anything or go anywhere! Things got off to a good start this morning, we measured up for the remaining tiles at Baba Moti's and went to Nakodar and got them ordered, all before 9.30am! While we were in Nakodar we had a look at a cooler (it's a poor mans AC unit), but having said that they are still around RS6,000 - which is not that cheap! When we got back to Pind it was too hot to do anything or go ...

... was in hospital because he had jaundice, so I gave that one a miss. I spent the afternoon updating stuff on the website. I had a call from Ashni uncle asking me to come to the shop. I asked Vinod to drop me up there and the 5 minute bike ride in the afternoon heat was unbearable, I've never felt anything like it, not even in Egypt or Dubai. Lets just say it was way to hot ...

... by 11am. We stuck to the same formation as yesterday, Soma rode the Bullet with Gagan on the back and I had Kaka's bike. I put my headphones in and we were on the way, we knew it was going to be a long ride but what we hadn't banked on was it raining along the way! Soma was on another flex with his driving, he was either going super slow or too fast, after a while I just went at my own STEADY pace. It started raining a little around midday so we pulled over at a Dhaba for lunch ...

... tumour has come back and is spreading at a rapid rate. He has lost a lot of weight and is unable to talk because the tumour is in and around his mouth. It was quite a shock to see him in such a bad way, he couldn't even walk from the van into the house, he was carried in like you would a child, it's a miracle that he made it back at all judging by the way he is right now. It would seem they have exhausted all possible avenues for treatment, I don't know what anybody else ...

... tour of village life, Peter Scot (whiskey) and more snacks. We visited two different Punjabi village homes of Edmonton men. The wives and servants of course were in the kitchen and never left. There we met a dumb and deaf man who was fascinated by me. My first sight of him was seeing him peering into the room through a dark minaret shaped window for several long minutes, big wide eye staring at me, before he begged an introduction. We then took the necessary ...

... then moved on to India, where she has been for five years. Tsering would like to return to Tibet and teach English, but has been warned by her family not to due to likely retribution from the Chinese government against her and her family. Pretty sobering to hear this 23-year-old's life story. So, think about all this next time you watch CNN and see how the whole world seems to want to be China's friend. The heavy stuff aside, we also did a lot of fun things - see the photos for more details...