hey, Rajiv sharma here
So it was one day when my brothers and I decided a plan for Kedarnath, a day before the train we got the news about Kedarnath, Register 12 days in advance for pass, after we got this news we were completely shocked and suddenly there came a voice, let's change the plan, i said before a day hahaha it is impossible, we decided to go to amritsar as the train route is same , we go to amritsar.
A slightly later one than planned as we overslept, after our long journey with very little sleep and missed the hotel breakfast (served until 10.30 !).
Our room is on the lst floor and looks onto a red corrugated roof on which heavy rain pounded a lot of the night. Hence the late sleeping. This meant we had not had any view of the city from our room so we headed up to the pool area on the roof. Pool not very inviting after all that rain but at least we could see Amritsar from above.
Then down to the ground and we set off along the shop lined roads to find the Golden Temple. This is the reason people visit Amritsar. It is the holiest sites of the Sikh religion and round here it is all Sikh as evidenced by the many turbans. Also lots of traditional Sikh attire as well as long beards and handlebar moustaches. And the ladies, mainly in bright saris, a feast for the eyes. My camera is twitching at the thought.
Our hotel is right in the middle of the old city which can probably best be described as bedlam. Everyone has a scooter or motorbike but there are no car parks. Well we did see a couple but they not surprisingly were full of scooters, only the very brave venture into this part of the city in a car. Those cars we saw were well dented. There are also tuk-tuks which park where they can. The scooters park along the sides of the narrow roads, double parked mainly. Sometimes tuk-tuks triple park them and the occasional car also stops where it fancies, quadruple parked with a total disregard for anything trying to get along the street. This leaves one narrow lane for all the two way traffic. As I said, beldam.
From our hotel we headed left until we came to the high brick gateway which marks the way into the old city. Outside there are lots of big more modern buildings, but like so many sites in places like this they are either only partly completed or very badly in need of repair. One I I think wasthe town hall and there were certainly signs to a university. The roads are wider here but no less dangerous to cross for fear of being taken out by a tuktuk or scooter driving on the wrong side of the road at speed.
Then we came to the Temple area which is well demarked with traffic bollards to prevent the vehicles from getting close. This is fortunate as it is heaving with people. Many tourists, mostly Indian as this is a much visited, very holy place.
Shops line both sides of the road with little markets off these. So much to buy and a lot of the shops were much much busier than any English high street shop. If you want little leather slippers or a shawl this is the place to be.
At the temple we took our shoes off, found little fetching scarves to cover our heads and headed for the footbath entrance. We were turned back as we were carrying our shoes in our bag and had to go back to hand them in, in exchange for a token. Don't know how the guard knew we were trying to cheat but he certainly somehow did!
Then into the temple grounds and have to say they are magnificent. White and towering and ornate all round in an enormous square round a pool complete with massive fish and in the centre, the Golden Temple itself.
The other main tourist attraction in Amritsar is the Jallianwala Bagh , where the Amritsar massacre took place in 1919 and now a memorial garden site. This was the spot where a gathering of 20,000 was fired on for about 20 minutes by the British without any warning and where several hundred Indians were killed or injured. A moving place to be and nobody seemed to take it amiss that we were British and we starred in lots more selfies.
And one more thing, if you have gone to Amritsar, then definitely eat street food, especially the temple langar.
