Rishikesh and Amritsar

Pics: Nice view of the Ganga; John on the footbridge; View from the of otbridge;

(Lesley) Well, we enjoyed Rishikesh. It was what we thought Ooty would be like: cool, refreshing, cleanish and relaxed.  But Rishikesh was more than that. There was the beautiful Ganga; way cleaner there than in Varanasi. There were lots of Ashrams and Gurus and yoga places too in Rishikesh. It would have been nice to stay longer and do some yoga, but as we were nearing the end of our time in India, we had to settle for a quick visit. I suppose I was checking it out to see if it is a place I would like to return to on a later visit to  India. We stayed in a nice little guest house in High Bank next to the Swiss Cottage. It was very inexpensive (200 rs a night) so we splashed out on two rooms: one for the girls, one for the boys. We had lovely garlic and tomato nans in Rishikesh too. Mmmmm.  John and Sam had some tummy troubles though, probably originating in Varanasi.  This kept ours tours and hikes in check and forced us to relax and read some novels.

Pics: Moving gravel for construction; Sam  half asleep off the night train to Rishikesh via Hardiwar; 

Then on the 10^th we headed back to Hardiwar to catch our night train to Amritsar. The train journey was a good one. We all fell asleep early on and slept most of the night.  John was cold in the morning so his sleep was disturbed early. The Golden Temple in Amritsar is beautiful and majestic and peaceful. We checked our bags right away and walked in with the early morning sun. We had heard about staying in the dorm rooms so we looked into it. There weren't many beds. We could have squeezed into a small shared room but there were only three beds, one already taken, we are 4, plus there was another woman along seeking a bed. We looked into the rooms next door for families. We had been told by an important man from the tourism office for The Golden Temple that families can stay there. However, when we presented ourselves, the fellows at the desk kept referring us to the dorm rooms next door. They didn't seem to want foreigners in the family rooms. We nearly checked into a nearby hotel but had to pick up our checked bags near the tourist office anyway so we returned to ask the gentleman at the tourist office about the family rooms and let him know that the fellows at the registration desk had a different ideas about who can use the family rooms. He sorted us out in another block of rooms that are for NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) visiting the temple. We now have a lovely big room with a private bathroom and the cost is minimal. We ate at the Temple for lunch and it is a pay by donation system. Brilliant really because we always give more by donation because we don't feel we are getting duped into paying high tourist prices.  We enjoyed our visit to Amritsar and we learned a bit about the Sikhs.

Pics: Golden Temple (Amritsar); Fun at the border.

Speaking of getting duped. We went to see the ceremony of the closing of the border between Pakistan and India. It takes place about 30 kms out of Amritsar -at the border! It was surreal. I think I should let John or Sam describe it. But with respect to duping: they sell water, juice, popcorn and snacks along the walk in because everyone is headed to stands/ bleachers to watch an hours worth of pomp and ceremony. What they fail to inform you about is that they confiscate all your recently purchased stuff further up at the security gate, just like at the airport. We lost one brand new unopened bottle of water and two half drunk ones. They let John through the first checkstop with his almonds but at the next check stop the fellow was hungry so he made John leave them. I tried to retrieve them afterwards, but they were gone. I did manage to retrieve my full bottle of water primarily because I left it in the ladies search tent, so no eager guys got to snatch it. As we left, the garbage cans at the checkstops were turned over and people were rummaging through the stuff. Some people were genuinely trying to retrieve what had been confiscated from them, but others had caught onto the fact that people are forced to throw out cigarettes, paan, matches, water bottles, drinks, chips, popcorn etc. It was like Christmas or Halloween for the lucky garbage pickers.