India, Sri Lanka and The Maldives - Days 5 to 8

On the train from Delhi to Amritsar. We were first on, it was full by the time we left

We were up early, and no I hadn’t slept very well. We were in the car with the driver at 06.00 but we had to wait for our assistant, who as it turns out was our guide from the old town, Abhishek. He was a little late, but traffic to the station was fine. He took us into the station and onto the correct platform which was the one we first walked on to, though I don’t think we would have known that. He waited with us till the train arrived and ensured we were in our reserved seats. Talk about service.

First snack before two meals on our six hour journey

The train pulled away on time for our 6ish hour journey. Almost immediately we were brought a little tray with a tea kit (an envelope with a teabag and a sugar sachet) a creamer and a biscuit. This was quickly followed by the man with the cups and hot water and breakfast had started. We had a packed breakfast from the hotel, though B wasn’t sure about his egg sandwich, my cheese one was better than expected. An omelette quickly appeared from the train with some bread and butter, which was surprisingly ok. A bit of dozing, a bit of reading and crossword and 5 stops later the train had thinned out considerably. At this point the delivery man reappeared daal, chicken curry (odd as the ticket said veg, but hey) rice and roti. All very runny to be eating with a wooden spoon on a train so we went for the rice, not the roti and fingers. It was surprisingly good, and we are still her to tell the tale.

By the way Tim, there's the diesel locos pulling us. Not sure how many carriages there were, a lot!

We arrived a little late, but there was the man with a Magic Tours placard, our guide for the next three days, Param. Rather than risk getting stuck in traffic going to check in at the hotel (though he had got us confused with his next customers who are staying somewhere else) we stopped for a coffee, just to fill a little time. This was before we headed the 20km to the Pakistan border for the Wagah-Attari border ceremony. The daily lowering of the flags of the respective countries. This is a bit of ceremony, but each country trying to outdo the other, with volume of music and shouting and silly marching and salutes. I can’t believe our master of ceremonies was actually a soldier, he was more like Freddie Mercury reincarnated. This ceremony has been going on since 1957 with apparently up to 17000 people going every day. It was entertaining, and we are glad we went, though we really had no idea what was going on! They did start off with a shake of hands across the border before the marching, gesturing and performance made it appear that they really hate each other.

Watching the Wagah border ceremony at the India-Pakistan border. Its a light hearted, quite funny event, but it must be remembered that these two countries are sworn enemies and have fought one another on several occasions in the recent past. They also both possess nuclear weapons. This is one of the few crossing points along the short road between Amritsar and Lahore. We are sitting in India, a lot of people waving India flags, but the crowds beyond the gate are in Pakistan waving Pakistan flags. Its both funny but deadly serious at the same time. Watch the Youtube video below to get a feel for it 

We’d been instructed to make a dash for it just before the flag was completely down, which we duly did. There weren’t 17000 people there but there were certainly a good number, so getting out first made very good sense. To our hotel then which couldn’t be more different from the first one. Delhi was fine, a homestay, all a bit tired and certainly nothing special. This is a heritage building with amazing furniture and staircases all over the place. We have a four poster bed and our own little balcony, though sadly it’s too cold to sit out. A thick duvet and electric heaters made it lovely and snuggly though.

Tuesday wee were collected at 09.00 to firstly go to Jallianwalla Bagh the site of the Amritsar massacre where in 1919 a peaceful group were protesting against the Rowlatt act, which gave the police the power to arrest anyone for no reason. Temporary Brigadier General Dyer instructed his troops to enter through the only entrance into the square and shoot until they were out of ammunition. Estimates of dead vary from 350 to 1500, but whichever it appears entirely uncalled for and caused a re-evaluation by the British Army of its military role against civilians to "minimal force whenever possible".

In 1919 this was the only entrance into the Jallianwalla Bagh enclosed area where up to 1500 protestors were gathered. It was blocked by British troops and they fired into the crowds until they ran out of amunition. People tried to climb the ten feet high surrounding walls to escape...

We exited from here to go to the Golden Temple, the main reason we are here I guess. An amazing structure of copper panels covered with gold leaf in the middle of a lake. It is spiritually the most significant shrine in Sikhism, with pilgrims coming to bathe and pray. We didn’t go inside as two hours to queue to not pray was a little much. We did walk all around the lake though as it was all quite beautiful. We also went into the langar (the dining hall) and through the kitchens. The same as any Sikh temple they will provide free meals, but here the scale is somewhat different. According to Rick Stein, (we’ve watched his food tour round India though I managed to leave my notes at home) up to 15,000 meals 5x a day. All prepared, cooked and served by volunteers with most of the food being donated. What an undertaking.

...Others jumped into this well to escape. Over 150 drowned bodies were recovered from here

The partition museum was our next stop. I had warned Param that Brian will try and read everything. I don’t think he believed me, though he does now! A real morning of opposites then, the wonderful atmosphere of the Golden Temple compared to the horrible story of partition. Partition was the creation of India and Pakistan, with the movement of up to 18 million people. Separating Muslim from Hindu and Sikh with the loss of a million lives as those moving were attacked by each other. (The why of this, is the bit I’m not sure about)

Bullet holes in the old walls.

Lunch, we shared a chicken tikka masala (had to be done at some point) which was creamier and spicier than at home, so a definite win. I’m never having lime soda with salt and sweet again though. Plain, fine, sweet, also fine , but salty? Yuck. A quick stop after lunch to another museum in the Ram Bagh palace of the maharajah Ranjit Singh. This was the owner of the koh-I-nor diamond that now resides in the Crown Jewels. A little extra stop, along with a shopping emporium, where I did buy a pashmina, but only because it is the colours that my wedding dress was 21 years ago.

The memorial in the gardens

Back to the hotel for a quick rest, most of which has been taken up with blogging and trying to make the last payment from the house sale. I could ring the bank, but for some reason they couldn’t ring me back which they have to do as part of their verification! What a pain. We are out again in about an hour for dinner and the procession ceremony as the holy book from the Golden Temple is taken to bed.

Preparing to go into the Golden Temple. Shoes and socks off and heads to be covered

The Golden Temple, lit up, in the dark is beautiful. We had a little mooch about before queuing to watch the pallanquin be decorated to go and collect the book. By now it was 21.30 so we didn’t wait for it to actually come out of the temple as it was cold standing barefoot and would definitely have been past my (and the guide with an hour scooter ride) bedtime. It was however a calming way to finish the day after the unpleasantness of the partition museum.

First view of the Golden Temple, the holiest site for Sikhs worldwide and, although its not mandatory, all Sikhs are requested to try to get here at least once in their lives. Their holy book is within the temple during the day and you can see queues along the access way to pray to the book, which may take 2 hours or more of waiting 

A gentle start today, Wednesday, for a day in the countryside. We hadn’t known what this meant, but it was basically a home visit. There was us, and shortly after a couple born in India but now living in the US. These things can often feel contrived or intrusive, but this didn’t. We sat and made vegetable pakoras with grandma when we arrived before eating with grandpa and the baby. Brian who has been intrigued by the turban and how it works was pleased to be dressed in one. An 8.5 m length of fabric that was wound round his head in minutes. There are different lengths and styles, colour to suit outfit. Occasionally they are starched and may be taken on and off a few times, but usually tied every day though apparently not everyone has the knack so there are places you can go every morning to have it tied.

Next stop, the tractor, the four of us and the homeowner all piled on. Our guide and their driver hopped on a motorcycle and we went into the fields. The men both had a drive, which Brian says was quite scary, a narrow track with a drop either side and lots of play in the steering! We stopped to look at the man harvesting alfalfa for the cattle, they have 2 cows, one of which is pregnant, a bull and an ox (I think, though it may have been a yak, it was definitely hairy!) Again, Brian wanted to have a go, which he did, though he was told it was at his risk, in case he chopped his leg off. They have two crops a year, it was wheat at the moment, once that is harvested the fields are cleared and fertilised and used for rice. This area in the Punjab is known as the breadbasket of India as it is very fertile. Up here breads are the preferred accompaniment to food, while in the south it is rice. Rice produced here can either be sent south or exported to the rest of world. There was also mustard seed growing, with yellow flowers that is a common setting for song and dance routines in Bollywood movies. Mustard oil is what the pakora we had is cooked in, much healthier apparently and certainly crispier than when I’ve made onion bhaji at home. A little bit of research has led me to realise that mustard seed here is very closely related to oilseed rape at home. There was also spinach of a particular sort for a local specialty, about which our fellow guest was very happy, apparently it’s his favourite.

Inside the temple is the Langer Hall, which is a large hall where anyone can enter to get a free meal provided by the Sikh community. This is just one of thousands worldwide, although this is the largest. Below is a Youtube video of our visit inside. Have a look at it to see the tremendous work this community does to humanity, where they believe that everyone in this world is equal. Apart from equality of all, they believe in Honesty, Hard Work and Sharing. We have come away with a very positive feeling for the Sikh community 

This spinach was one of the dishes at lunch, served with a spoonful of ghee on the top. It is this, I realised that which gave the distinctive rich, almost chocolate flavour that I’d noticed on our dhal the previous evening. I’m not sure it’s quite to my taste though There was also vegetable curry, dhal, rice and roti, one of which I made! Sweet lassi is a taste we are acquiring as yogurt is good for the digestion, though I think we have to be aware of the water used to dilute it. We may have to get to grips with chai too, just don’t think of it as tea but as an entirely different drink and all is good.

Two more activities made our trip complete some Bhangra dancing and a very strange martial art that looks easier than it is. Both of which need more practice!

This is the Town Hall in Amritsar housing the Partition Museum, a very thought provoking visit. We weren't allowed to take photos inside and Jackie has already described the visit here. So worthwhile visiting here, but very emotional

We ate in the hotel again, well I did. Brian had been feeling full all day, so really didn’t want to eat at all, but hadn’t wanted to appear rude at the home visit, so he’d had a good lunch. He did decide not to have dinner and stuck to it even though it was fish and chips. The fish I was expecting, and was delicious, the chips I wasn’t but were such a treat.

We've included this Youtube of a little bit of driving in Amritsar, just to give a flavour of what happens on a normal day

Today it is just us and Manjit our driver setting off for Shimla. A journey that will probably take us 8 hours, including stops. It’s going well so far, but this is the easy bit across the plain before we start the tortuous journey up into the foothills of the himalaya. Manjit will be staying for us for the two days ‘at leisure’ we have in Shimla which almost seems wrong just to save us the 40 minute walk from the hotel to the city centre, and the 10 minutes to the station in 3 days time. I don’t think we are good at having staff! His English is not so good, but we will get by and he has already told us we are good people which is very flattering.

We had a second visit to the Golden Temple at night to see the ceremony of taking their holy book to bed. It happens at 9:30pm every day and it is then returned to the temple again at 4:30am the next morning. We've done another short Youtube below showing the procession in. We didn't wait for it to come back out again as it was getting late

It certainly was a long way, and we weren’t even driving! We were all pleased to arrive in Shimla though I don’t think Manjit was very impressed by the road to the British Resort. I’d read about it so knew what to expect! Slightly dismayed to find a building site between the car and where eventually we found reception we carried on. We waited in the reception come dining room, doors open to the elements all around, thinking dinner at 3 degrees could be challenging, while Manjit finally found someone to show us to our room. It would have been lovely, a while ago, but now was just very tired. Patio doors and windows that didn’t fit, a floor I didn’t want to stand on barefoot, plaster coming off the walls and a toilet that didn’t flush! Collecting our bags I sent a photo to Ranjeet our contact and organiser who immediately responded that they weren’t informed of building work (unsurprisingly), did we want him to change hotel? And that he thinks it’s better if it’s not a good one! 20 minutes later we were booked into somewhere else. Just as we were going to the car, the manager tried to persuade us to stay, “this is a lovely room, part of a suite, here are the two shared areas, there is someone in the other part of the suite….(that’s a bit odd in itself) here is the bedroom….” I looked out of the window straight into the building site and had to laugh out loud!

It took us 20 minutes to find the new hotel which made me feel very guilty for Manjit, but it was a joy to arrive. Yes it’s bigger and more impersonal, but it actually feels like what it should be, a comfortable place. I understand why we were originally put where we were, but the shine was just too tarnished. We’ve had dinner which was delicious and half a bottle of Indian wine (no beer for some reason). It was nothing to write home about, but wasn’t the worst wine we’ve ever drunk, and it made me feel so much better

Our next days visit into the Punjab countryside to meet a local rural family. Here's mum preparing pakoras over an open fire

They were yummy!

Walking through the fields our guide Param stopped to pick a local weed that grows freely in these parts. Many people will recognise it. Its marijuana and it grows everywhere here, at the side of the road, in hedgerows, everywhere

Our host shows us how easy it appears to spin his special Indian piece. You can see on the Youtube below our pathetic attempts to do the same

Brian's pathetic attempts at hand harvesting. They didn't let him do much!

Brian has a go at driving the tractor

We both have a go at recreating a Bollywood dancing routine amongst the mustard grass

So here's the Youtube video our our day in rural Punjab. Until the next blog, bye for now...