Golden Temple & Wagah border

Golden Temple again

I woke up tired.  After couriering the guesthouse key back to Chandigarh to Princess Wendy, we took breakfast around 1030.  The courier charge was INR20 (about NZD0.60) which was very reasonable considering the weight of the key and the big keyring.

The Indian style breakfast consisted of various breads namely idli (like Chinese huat kueh), uttappam (like a soft pizza with vegetable toppings) and paratha (like roti canai).

After checking emails at an internet café we returned to the Golden Temple for another visit.  This time we visited the museum near the entrance.  It told us of the “minor holocaust” against Sikhs by the Muslims, British and the government.

Text continues after this gallery.

Daily border closing

After a light lunch at the hotel of paratha and tea, we made our way to the Wagah border with Pakistan around 1530 for the daily closing of the border, along with all its pomp and circumstance.  We had agreed on a price of INR100pp for the transport based on 7 passengers.  But when we realised that there were 11 passengers, we negotiated the price down to INR75.

The one-hour journey took us to near the border.  We had to walk the remainder to where the gates and no-man’s land.  Rickshaws were available, so we did that.  But we soon realised it wasn’t worthwhile as rickshaws weren’t allowed to go all the way there either.

We waited around the grandstands and were allowed up to them around 1630.  It was a mad rush and I now understand how people get crushed and killed in stampedes.  Actually, there was plenty of room and there wasn’t a need to rush.  There was also a special ladies section and foreigners got to go into the VIP gallery.

While waiting, we were entertained with music.  On our side it was Indian music but the music wafting over from Pakistan was more modern, somewhat a Desi-style Ricky Martin.

Over the speakers, a voice was cheerleading the crowd to say “Hindustan, blah blah blah”.  I’m guessing it is “long live Hindustan”.  On the other side it was the same words but with Pakistan.  I saw Indian Catholic nuns cheering for Hindustan, which I thought was a bit strange.  They were cheering for the land of Hindus who believe in many gods whereas the Islamic republic next door believes in their same god.

Volunteers from the public, young and old, took turns to run the Indian flag to the gate and back.  One volunteer tried to provoke the other side by taking the flag to a high point and waving it.  The atmosphere was absolutely electrifying and it gives an insight into how blind nationalism can take people down the wrong path.

Finally soldiers in about groups of ten marched up to the gate and back.  Finally, the two sides shook hands and lowered their respective flags at the same pace.  The bugle played on our side but I couldn’t tell if the other side had a bugler.

Text continues after this gallery.

Golden temple by night

Back in town we had dinner.  We chatted with an Israeli couple and their friend.  The man is a civil engineer and I wondered if in Israel, that included designing walls to separate Israelis from Palestinians.  They love dimsum so must eat pork.  They are staying inside the Golden Temple.

We dropped in at the hotel briefly to organise our transport to the airport tomorrow.  Then we took a final visit to the Golden Temple.  It was gorgeous by night with the glimmering gold against the dark velvet night.

This time we actually went inside the shrine.  It was very beautiful with white marble/stone like the Taj Mahal on the ground level and gold on the upper level.  The gold had relief work and some painted patterns.  In some ways the design was quite Islamic with no depiction of humans or animals but purely plants and geometric patterns.

People were chanting from a book and some had a big fluffy brush-like stick not too different from a feather duster.  We learnt that this was to chase flies away.

We took a last look at beauty of the Golden Temple by night before returning to the hotel.  Tomorrow morning we will be re-uniting with Kim’s family in Delhi.

Golden Temple by night.