Tuesday
I awoke to the faint sound of tooting horns from the morning rush hour and the hum of the air conditioning,
I then realised yes I was still in India! I had woken up late - it was 9.30 but I'd probably had the best sleep of the trip so far. So had the morning usuals and then went and sat by the pool reading my book, unfortunately today the pool was empty while the staff cleaned and refilled it. Bit disappointed as it was so hot a dip would have been lovely. Not feeling quite myself this morning and would describe myself as grumpy! At lunchtime I had something to eat which made me feel slightly better.
Mid afternoon we left the guest house to find ourselves an auto into Amitsar, 150 rupees took us within spitting distance of the front entrance of the temple. We handed in our shoes and got a small token in return before following the walkway into the marble clad temple. Entrance is through a foot-bath, not for hygienic reasons but religious reasons, and as we entered inside there in the centre of the lake was the Golden Temple of Amitsar. We made our way down into the marble walkway that surrounds the holy lake, the marble was so hot in the Indian sun that we had to find shaded parts to walk on. Slowly we made our way around the holy lake taking in all the information boards and interesting shrines. We were approached on a couple of occasions to be in people's photos and I can only assume that it was because we were Western tourists in the Sikhs most holy place.
When we reached the walkway that leads out to the temple itself we watched and waited to see if we, as non Sikhs, would be allowed to go out there, eventually we plucked up the courage to ask the guard and he confirmed that we were indeed allowed. We entered the temple and saw the Guru Granth Sahib (holy book) and left with the rest of the worshipers through a side door. Following this we found a shady spot on one of the walkways to people watch, we must have sat there for forty minutes and twice got included in people's photos! We then made our way into the free kitchen, I decided that I would not eat, however Mrs G wanted to experience the holy feeding centre. We entered and were given steel plates and sat on the floor with all the other diners where they served dal, bean curry, chapti and sweet rice pudding. I got talking to the man next to me who introduced himself as Prince William, needless to say not the one that's married the Kate! When Mrs G had finished we left and saw the massive operation to prepare, cook and clean up the thousands of meals that are served each day.
We then had another walk round the complex where we witnessed the ritual cleaning of the temple. There were many volunteers using buckets of water from the lake to wash down and dry the walkways. Having been there about three hours at this point we decided to leave and brought ourselves a tacky plastic miniature temple for the mantlepiece at home. We found ourselves an auto back to the guest house where we spent the rest of the evening reading a book and skyping home before preparing the room for the nightly assault on the mozzies.
Nite x
I awoke to the faint sound of tooting horns from the morning rush hour and the hum of the air conditioning,
I then realised yes I was still in India! I had woken up late - it was 9.30 but I'd probably had the best sleep of the trip so far. So had the morning usuals and then went and sat by the pool reading my book, unfortunately today the pool was empty while the staff cleaned and refilled it. Bit disappointed as it was so hot a dip would have been lovely. Not feeling quite myself this morning and would describe myself as grumpy! At lunchtime I had something to eat which made me feel slightly better.
Mid afternoon we left the guest house to find ourselves an auto into Amitsar, 150 rupees took us within spitting distance of the front entrance of the temple. We handed in our shoes and got a small token in return before following the walkway into the marble clad temple. Entrance is through a foot-bath, not for hygienic reasons but religious reasons, and as we entered inside there in the centre of the lake was the Golden Temple of Amitsar. We made our way down into the marble walkway that surrounds the holy lake, the marble was so hot in the Indian sun that we had to find shaded parts to walk on. Slowly we made our way around the holy lake taking in all the information boards and interesting shrines. We were approached on a couple of occasions to be in people's photos and I can only assume that it was because we were Western tourists in the Sikhs most holy place.
When we reached the walkway that leads out to the temple itself we watched and waited to see if we, as non Sikhs, would be allowed to go out there, eventually we plucked up the courage to ask the guard and he confirmed that we were indeed allowed. We entered the temple and saw the Guru Granth Sahib (holy book) and left with the rest of the worshipers through a side door. Following this we found a shady spot on one of the walkways to people watch, we must have sat there for forty minutes and twice got included in people's photos! We then made our way into the free kitchen, I decided that I would not eat, however Mrs G wanted to experience the holy feeding centre. We entered and were given steel plates and sat on the floor with all the other diners where they served dal, bean curry, chapti and sweet rice pudding. I got talking to the man next to me who introduced himself as Prince William, needless to say not the one that's married the Kate! When Mrs G had finished we left and saw the massive operation to prepare, cook and clean up the thousands of meals that are served each day.
We then had another walk round the complex where we witnessed the ritual cleaning of the temple. There were many volunteers using buckets of water from the lake to wash down and dry the walkways. Having been there about three hours at this point we decided to leave and brought ourselves a tacky plastic miniature temple for the mantlepiece at home. We found ourselves an auto back to the guest house where we spent the rest of the evening reading a book and skyping home before preparing the room for the nightly assault on the mozzies.
Nite x
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| Just wanted a picture? |
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| Volunteers in the kitchen |
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