Surya Residency Amritsar

... the best dhabas around. I must say that I have not had a puri/paratha better than that till date. We walked back to our hotel along the lonely streets in the middle of the night and crashed for the day. Dec 29th :Early morning visit to the golden temple was just a worthwhile one with a beautiful view. We shopped again for things like swords and sweaters. Paid a visit and homage at the Jalianwala Bagh which marks the inhumane gundown of innocent civilians by an English general

... the road was ok, in the passed month I started to forget that there are roads like this in the world. Amritsar listed as 1+ million city looked dusty and dull. It reminded me Shanghay - the skies missed the natural color and were kind of milky and opaque. The touts at the buss station were morning fresh and very irritating. 
I dropped my bags in a Tourists Guesthouse - which looked quite empty. The room was nothing unusual, but the really hight ...

... for photos started!
Decided to join the queue for the visit to the sacred book which is housed in the golden building - they reckon the roof has around 100kgs of gold (wouldn't be a Carole blog without these kind of details would it!) Didn't take too long to reach the building but it was very peaceful standing there listening to the singing and the people joining in, standing inline with their offerings. The book is on a throne in a room decorated ...

... 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 ...

... made out of 750 kg of pure gold) and the view of it sitting on the water. We spent a while just walking around and looking at it from different angles but decided that we would not go inside yet because the line to enter looked like it would take at least an hour. All the people that we encountered on the Parkarma was really friendly and all wanted to talk to us, especially the kids. I cannot count the number of boys who came over to Tamir and me and wanted to shake ...

... as we walked through with our orange bandanas previously worn by other smelly sweaty travellers! I felt really attractive! Anyway, heading into the temple again we get stopped by the paps, 10 photos later we stroll around the temple, taking pics and soaking in the whole atmosphere. THe place is quiet and calm, and there are some v sexy men bathing in their boxers in the lake of the temple.. NOT. We walked through the corridor to the temple and ...

... day was spent by most people chilling out and recovering from the harum-scarum dash that was our trip through Pakistan, (more about that later). Yesterday a small group of us took a tuk tuk out to the Golden Temple here which was an interesting place, so much going on. The temple itself is in the middle of a square lake filled with gigantic koi and is really lovely, the sheer amount of gold on it is staggering, so much that you forget it’s actually gold ...

... in my room and was keen to get into the temple complex again. I'd lost a couple of hours the night before trying to sort out a flight confirmation, so I walked around the grounds early, marveling at the sheer organizational brilliance of this busy Sikh religious gathering place. Men and children discreetly changed into bathing attire to take early dips in the holy pool, while brilliantly-coloured saris sashayed all around the Parkarna. Many sat under shaded areas at ...

... crowd, a HUGE crowd had gathered and were just staring at us. There was a group of teenage boys behind us, a group of guys in their 20s on the other side, and then a large family in front of us. They were just looking. After I noticed them, I nudged Ragga to kind of warn her that we had a little problem. We had literally no way of escaping. We tried to just keep writing and ignore them but that didn't work. We looked up again and tried plotting a way of escape. Once we looked ...

... seen in countless pictures. We were allowed to pass through the temple itself as Sikhs do not discriminate against anyone and allow all to enter their sacred place of worship. As we strolled around, admiring the beautiful interior, our experience was enhanced by the sound of tabla and various other Indian instruments being played by a group of Sikh man sitting on the floor. Afterwards, we were shown around the site by a charming Sikh man who ...