Amritsar
We decided to take the 5 AM bus from Dharmashala to Amritsar so we woke up around 3 AM and headed out. We got to Amritsar around 11 AM, after having sand bags, luggage, etc. thrown on our feet because there was space where we sat (since when is THAT okay?).
We made it and as soon as we got off the bus, the harassment began. It was probably the place we were most looked at. We managed to get on a rickshaw to the train station to figure out how we’d get back to Delhi and once we sorted that out, we jumped on a rickshaw to the Golden Temple. Sonny was our rickshaw rider (I say rider because it was manual and bless his heart our bags weighed a ton).
We got to the Golden Temple after Sonny took us, we think, the long route. We gave him some extra cash because we loved him and we thought he earned it.
We got to the Golden Temple and they provide a free place to say and a free meal, that’s part of it. As we were walking up we heard a bunch of dishes clinking together and I realized it was everyone cleaning the dishes from the free meal. An assembly line of hundreds of people cleaning dishes.
Then we were told to go to the free room, where we dropped our stuff and locked it for the day. Too easy, right? RIGHT!
We headed towards the temple for Round 1 but had to take our shoes off - we weren’t allowed to tie them on our bags even. Round 2 failed because we also had to take our socks off. But you know what they say - 3rd times the charm!!!
The Temple is beautiful! It is a Sikh Temple and it’s surrounded by holy water (holy water with HUGE holy fish).
We walked around, and after a botched offering like complete Westerner’s, we went inside. It was SO cool. There were hundreds of people in there, some just sitting and listening to the scripture (I don’t think scripture is the right word), others filing through the lines, and others in a huge blob where they’d just bend right down to bow and make space.
Marlee said she felt like she was at Disney, which is partially true. We bought the offering, stood in line, and it seemed like the people in the Temple were like actors. Either way though, it was cool.
