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.