Saras India

The train to Amritsar only took some 4-5 hours from Chandigarh. We reached around 12 in the night, and by then it was raining a lot! And it had been raining a lot too! Roads were flooded and it was impossible to walk far to get a cheap auto to the hotel. As soon as we reached the hotel we just went to bed. The morning after was an amazing day. Well, it didnt start out well for the mexican, he stayed home because he was a little sick, so me and the colombian went to the most amazing place ever - The golden temple. It was a 5 minute walk from our hotel, and this place was just outstanding. I dont have words to describe this place, or pictures to give justice to it. Since it is a temple, for sikhs I think, we had to remove our shoes and be barefoot inside, and cover our heads. 

 

The golden temple is my absolute favourite place in India so far. It was even more amazing than the Taj mahal. It was so peaceful inside and it was just magical. We spent a few hours here, which was too less time. We wanted to enter inside the golden temple, but the line was too long, so we decided to do it late in the evening instead. We needed to get back to the hotel, the mexican and the cab that we had booked to take us to Waga border, the border between Pakistan and India. 

We went to the border on August 15th, which is Indias Independence day. I dont know if there were more people than usual, but I guess so. Once we reached, and our driver found a parkingspace, we started walking towards the border but we were told to wait in the crowd. I have no idea for what we were waiting. But once the police told us we could walk, everyone started running, well except for me, the mexican, the colombian and all the oldies. There was a securitycheck for everyone, one line for ladies and one line for men. I had to wait for the guys for a very long time, ladies line is always shorter. And by this time, it had started to rain. A lot. And we were all without rain phonchos and umbrellas.

 

We were at the border for around 3-4 hours to watch the ceremonies and during these hours it rained non stop! Heavy, heavy monsoon rain and thunders. We were completely drenched, not a single inch of us were dry, our passports were completely wet, and my name and passportnumber is no longer visible on my indian visa (little scared of leaving the country now). The colombian were brave enough to use his mobile to take lots of pictures and videos, which I am still waiting for, by the way. It was an amazing experience to be at the border, it was, believe it or not, even more amazing and memorable with all the rain. Now when I look back, I cant help but laugh at the memory. 

 

When the ceremony at the border was over we went to the car, had dinner while freezing in our drenched clothes (yes, we kept teasing the colombian for the espicy food he could not eat) and kept freezing in the car on the way home because the driver insisted on having the AC on. When we reached the hotel we decided to go to the Golden temple again. It was even more amazing in the night than in the day. There were very less people in so we could even enter inside the temple. It was just magical, unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures inside, so you just have to go there and explore it yourselves. But it will definately be worth it. I would any day go back to Amritsar just to visit the golden temple again. 

 

When we came back to the hotel late in the evening, all of us had the best shower we ever had. We were still completely wet, cold, dirty and sticky from the day and it was just an amazing shower (I mean, we all had one each, not one in total). The next day there was only time for lunch, I wanted to go to the temple again, but I had a flight back to Bangalore to catch. It felt really bad to leave, I had had so much fun and I didnt want the trip to end. But like I said, I had a flight to cath, to my next destinaton - Bangalore.

 

The train ride to Chandigarh was so much fun. We were watching all the fun and weird pictures and videos we took in Jaipur. I laughed so much that I started crying. While the mexican was writing, me and the colombian were talking. He talkes a lot! Its like never-ending-talk with him. And he needs to hear sounds all the time. If its not the sound from talking, he has to listen to music. Whenever he is sleeping or taking a shower, he listens to music. Anyways, back to my story. We stayed up half the night and just talked, before we decided that it would be a good idea to get atleast a few hours of sleep before our one day in Chandigarh!

 

We arrived early morning. So early that nothing were open, not even a restaurant to have breakfast. We went all over the city to find a restaurant, the autoguy couldnt find anything and anyone we asked didnt know of anything that was open. I guess people do not eat breakfast in Chandigarh. We eventually did find a hotel that were nice enough to serve us some food. We were there for 2 hours or so, to freshen up, eat food and decide what to do. The guys came up with the great idea to drink alcohol. But since it was 9 am in the morning I had to tell them: "Lets do some sightseeing instead". Luckily they agreed to that! 

 

So we went to a place called Rock garden or also known as Rock-estone by the spanish-speakers. It was kind of a weird place, but we still had fun. The boys were performing on stage, singing "The time of your life" to me and dancing. It was not only me who enjoyed it, they were asked by another lady to sing more songs and some guys were recording them and taking their pictures... After Rock garden we went to Sukhana lake. Thats where we spent around 5 hours before we needed to go to the train station. Chandigarh is like Bangalore, I guess. A great city to live in, but there is not much to do as a tourist. It was really hot this day, and just next to the lake there was a restaurant, so we decided to go inside and sit in the AC. I couldnt stop the boys any longer, so they started drinking beer. It was after 12, so it felt okay. And it was Chandigarh, apparently people from there drink a lot. 

 

So this was where we were all day! In a restaurant. I think the people working in the restaurant and those sitting there eating were quite disturbed by my very loud laughs. But I couldnt help it, they boys were just too funny.For example, The colombian can not eat any spicy food. And I mean not even a single tiny, tiny bit of spice, of course we teased him about that too. "I think I am getting better, this was not so espicy" was a comment by the colombian after having some ketchup, haha! (Poor the colombian, we teased him not only for his colorblindness, but his inability to eat espicy food, and his way of talking; "espicy, esleep, estatement, estupid, rock-estar, rock-estone" etc..)

 

After dinner and beers, some sleeping and photosessions in the sun it was time for us to leave for the train station and our next destination - Amritsar.

 

Quite long back, my ex-roomie told me that her 2 very good friends where coming to India and that I had to go and meet them. They were going to travel to Delhi and Jaipur which are cities that I really hate, so I told her "yes, maybe" which in my head meant NO FREAKING WAY! But after a lot of forcing from ex-roomie, "Sara, you HAVE TO meet my friends" "You have to travel with them" "You will have so much fun, I promise" and a promise from ex-roomies friends that I would have "The time of my life" I finally booked my tickets. Had I known how much fun I would have had, I would never have hesitated so much. 

 

So I started this trip in Jaipur. I didnt like Jaipur because last time I was there, well, it wasnt very nice, lets leave it with that. But now, awesome place! First day, we hardly left the hotel. I arrived late in the afternoon, so we decided to stay in the hotel and have dinner and some drinks on the roofterrace. One of the guys (The mexican) are really good at singing and playing guitar, so thats what we were doing all night. He played, and me and the other guy (The colombian) were singing. I know how that sounds to everyone who knows me. "Sara, singing?!" I didnt really have a choice, and it was actually fun. Even the other guests on the roofterrace joined in singing and applauding. I guess it was mostly thanks to the mexican. Since I was hanging out with lations, I was also taught how to dance Salsa and Merengue. I had a super-fun night and I started to think that my ex-roomie was right...

 

The second day we spent sightseeing. We were walking around in the pink city, which the colombian could not enjoy since he is colorblind, (yes, we teased him a lot about that). We later on went to Amber Fort where we spent a few hours and it was amazingly fun. After that it was the water temple, Hawa Mahal and some other place I forgot the name of. This sightseeing would have taken me two days, but since we only had one full day it had to be done. I was extremely tired after Amber fort, could have been because we were climbing  on very high and steep steps in 30+ degrees and blazing sun! 

 

Eventhough I was extremely tired it was an AMAZING day in Jaipur, we had so much fun, or atleast I had so much fun, I cant speak for the boys. After all the sightseeing we had to hurry back to the hotel, have dinner, change, check-out and leave for the trainstation and my second destination - Chandigarh!

 

Not very long ago I was travelling up north with new friends of mine, I will write about this later. And after I came back to Bangalore I felt like leaving for a trip again. Since all of my friends here are working and are not able to travel to that extend that I would want, weekendtrips is all we can do. So after a lot of persuasion from my side, we went to a place called Sangam yesterday. Just a few hours outside the city of Bangalore you reach this heaven. I had the most amazing day ever!

 

 

The other day I was in MG road for some shopping. It started to rain, and since I hate the rain I decided to go back home. I went to the metro, went through the security, and they scanned my bag. When I was walking towards the gates I hear someone calling "M´am", I stop and turn around and a security lady is running after me.

 

Security lady: M´am, do you have a scissor in your bag?

Me: Ummm, no.

Security lady: Okay. Then you can go.

 

The questions is, why didn´t she just check my bag?