Amritsar - Part I

Well hello there everyone!! It's been a few days as I have been in Amritsar, this is going to be a long blog entry since I have so much to tell!!! But no worries, it is all very exciting stuff, and to make it easier to read, I shall divide it up into sections with titles and everything! I'm so nice, I know :-)~ hahaha

  The Wizard of Oz - Journey to Amritsar

 So, Raj, my most excellent new travel partner, and I set off in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday to head towards Amritsar to see the Golden Temple.  We took a rickshaw there and were amazed to actually see the streets of New Delhi totally empty!! Certainly a first since my 2 1/2 weeks of being here (which by the way, it is so crazy to think I have only been here for 2 1/2 weeks, it totally feels like I have been here for at least a month by now).  As we travelled through the lovely smog (note sarcasm) we then entered into monkey land!! hahah and no I am so not kidding, it was the craziest thing, there were monkeys EVERYWHERE!!! all over the sidewalks, the streets, sitting on fences..... it was hilarious, cute and also a bit frightening since we were in the rickshaw which has no doors or windows, so they could have jumped in at any moment.  But where did all these monkeys come from?? They totally disappear during the rest of the day.  Anyway, so we made it through monkey land alive, phew! Then our next mission.... combating the flys and beggers while waiting for our train.  By this time is was about 6:30, our train was to arrive at 6:40, we waited... it was already about 70 degrees out and extremely humid, swarms of flys everywhere, people staring (i honestly just felt like screaming out "YES I AM WHITE AND I AM A WOMAN! GET OVER IT!! but I resisted) beggers constantly coming up to us... 7:30 rolls around, still no train and no announcement as to whether it was actually coming.  While both my frustrations as well as Raj's began running out, 8:00 rolls around then finally an announcement that our train was approaching, thank god! The train rolls in, WOOHOO!! little did we know what we were about to experience........ COMPLETE AND TOTAL MASS CHAOS!! Literally, before the train was even at a complete stop people were running for the train, pushing theirselves into the train cars, while the people who were still on the train were trying to get off.  We locked arms and had to make like a football line up or something like that and pushed our way through, while people were pushing in every which direction, luggage falling off the luggage racks, people screaming in Hindi, I'm trying to make sure I have my bag and that I'm not going to get pick pocketed.... oh my god!! I have never in my life seen such total and complete madness!! Absolutely no order or politeness about anything.  We find our seats and there is a family of like 6 sitting there totally unashamed that they had hijacked everyone's seats who had actually payed for a seat.  They start screaming at us as if we are in the wrong.... well thankfully a guy who was making sure his mom got on the train ok came on and stuck up for us and got them all to get up and move, he told us "you have to be forceful, otherwise they will take full advantage of you" we were very gracious and promised to look after his mother and make sure she got off at the correct stop.  Oh he was also a Sikh (more on that to come).  So finally in our seats (after I wipped out my handy dandy clorox bleach wipes to clean off all the gross food that the family had so nicely left behind on the seats) we set off on our 7 hour train ride to Amritsar.  It was hot, smelly and since there were no windows, only bars, by the time we got to Amritsar we were totally covered in pollution and dirt.... awesome.  But we were just so excited to actually be there that at that point we were over smelling like crap and wanted food ASAP!


  The Golden Temple and discovering a new appreciation for Sikh's

  We found a place to sit down, which was air conditioned, got a nice cold drink and a bite to eat.  Feeling much more rejuvinated after our long hot journey we set out to find a place to stay.  We originally were planning to stay at the Golden Temple itself, but after hearing that we'd have to sleep on the floor (when we were previously told they had beds) and we had no sleeping bags or anything with us, we decided to find a cheap place to crash.  A girl we met in the coffee shop had told us about a place we could stay for only 700 Rs. a night with A/C and even cheaper without A/C.... so we went with the no A/C (they had a ceiling fan) and it was 400 Rs. a night!! which split in 2.... thats like $4 a night! granted it wasn't all to glamerous, but it had a bed, a bathroom and was walking distance to the golden temple... when you're traveling on a budget, you learn to adapt rather quickly and luxory isn't really in the forefront of your mind.  Anyway! so we dropped out stuff, gave ourselves a quick wetwipe bath (my new most favorite thing EVER!) and headed right on over to the Golden Temple!!! I was actually quite excited to have to use a scarf to cover my head.... not really sure why, but it just felt really cool to be in such a spiritual place and to honor their religion like that.  We got there, had to drop our shoes off then as we walked into the temple they had these little rivers that you had to walk through to cleanse your feet.  We walked through and there it was, in all of its golden glory, surrounded by holy water.  There was a constant surround sound of Punjabi music playing along with prayers, people immediately kneeling down and touching their forheads to the ground.... oh my god... the overwhelming beauty of it all was just so unbelievable.  Everything was so pure and clean!!! unlike all of the other places I had seen during orientation week.  This by far outbeats the Taj Mahal!!  Then within about 5 minutes of having walked in, this woman comes up to me and she is holding a baby, she points to her baby then starts to hand me her baby! I was like "umm.... uhhh Raj?! what is she saying??" she then tells him that she wants to take a picture of me holding her son.  What?! I of course knod and take her son, smile, she excitedly takes a picture... unfortunatly I had just been taking video of everything so Raj didn't take a picture :-(  booo but anyway this whole being a white girl thing in a foreign country is so bizarre to me! I see so many other white tourists around and have yet to see anyone running up to them to shake their hand or give them a hug or ask to take their picture... Lol who knows.  So we continue to walk around, and just take everything in.  Raj's family is of the Sikh religion so the experience was just that much cooler since he is also American (and the first one in his family to come to India!) and he is basically discovering his roots.  He says he does the prayers at home with his family but it is much more westernized.  We then headed over to the kitchen hall where they serve meals 24/7!! and for free!! (yet another clever way of staying on budget! while also taking in the whole experience).  We sit down on the ground and get served Chai while waiting to be led into the hall.  As we sit there this little girl runs up to me and shakes my hand, then asks me in Hindi what my name is, I respond (yay I'm learning!) then she proceeds to ask me all these other questions, which I'm then like "oh god too fast!" she basically wanted to learn all about me, where I'm from, if I'm married etc.... hahah then she brought over her 2 sisters and their grandma and were so excited to talk to us, then they asked if I had a camera because they wanted to take a picture, although it was on my camera so they wouldn't actually get it, but none the less they basically took my camera hostage for a good 10 minutes snapping away and were so intrigued by the fact that you could take a picture and then immediately see what it looked like.  It was so adorable! and extremely amusing just watching them and how fascinated they were by it all.  Finally we get led into the hall and again sit on the floor and then down the line they come with these huge buckets of food and drop  it onto your plate... they absolutely have this whole operation down pat, a very well oiled machine they have going on there (this excited me greatly to see such a well put together operation).  We ate our food, which was really quite good! then went on our way to go walk around a bit more and wait for it to get dark enough to see the Golden Temple all lit up at night time.  Just sitting there and watching everyone walk around, praying etc... it truly was just such a fantastic sight to see.  I just felt so honored to be able to be there witnessing this spiritual place with this amazing temple which really is like the most amazing work of art I have ever seen. 
    The next day we got up and made our way back to the temple but this time it was to go inside the actual temple.  I was amazed at how quickly the line went, I think we were in line for maybe 30 minutes.  We got inside and.... oh how I wish I could have been able to take pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to sound like a broken record here but.... oh my god!!!! I just... really like no words.... the intricate art work and detail of this inside of this temple was out of this freaking WORLD!!! I can't even explain it!! Everyone just needs to go take a trip and see this place! There were guru's in every corner of the temple sitting in front of this massive book which was like a bible but like 20 times the size of it, then there were a few guys who were playing the drums and one guy chanting... or praying... or maybe just singing... not sure what but it was in Punjabi and sounded beautiful.  I'm also pretty sure that my mouth did not close the entire time I was in there, Lol I was just in pure amazement of the incredible detail of every single inch of the temple, not one space was left untouched.  And also to think that this temple is... how old?? no really I actually never did find the answer to that.. but pretty sure its like super duper old and it is still in pristine condition!! whereas most old temples such as that are cracked, tarnished, rusted, mildewed and falling apart... but this one still looks brand new!
 
...... to be continued in part 2