| Apart from the Golden Temple, there are many other Sikh or Hindu temples in Amritsar. An interesting example is Mata Temple. In addition to the praying space there is a maze-like area, built to resemble various holy Hindu locations from India and Nepal. At some point visitors have to crawl or walk through water. |
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| The Jallianwala Bagh is the site where in 1919 the British Indian Army massacred almost 1600 unarmed Indians, to send a strong message and deter against rebellion. One wall still bears the bullet marks. |
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| En route from Amritsar to Lahore there is the Wagah border crossing point. Every evening takes place a border closing and flag lowering ceremony, a joint show organized by the Indian and Pakistani border agents. |
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| The ceremony (filmed by someone else): |
Amritsar (Punjab) 2/2
Amritsar (Punjab) 1/2
| On the way back from Kashmir we stopped in Amritsar. The most important attraction in the city is the Golden Temple, the main Sikh pilgrimage destination, the same as Mecca is for Muslims. Free accomodatinon was provided, which included toilets and showers. Subsidized family rooms cost 2USD/night. |
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| There was a separate dormitory for foreigners. There were some French, Chinese, Austrian and even one more Romanian (Alina from Montreal) |
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| To get on the premises, one has to remove shoes and cover the head. |
 Free food was provided for those who needed it. |
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| It was good but not quite our favorite: sweet rice, beans and some green spicy sauce. |
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| Those who wanted could contribute to dish washing… |
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| …or help with food preparation. |
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| And finally the temple: |
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Kashmir
| We arrived in Kashmir and found accommodation on a houseboat. |
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| All Kashmiri people, just like our hosts, are very different than other Indians. Their looks are either Caucasian or Middle Eastern. |
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| The lady cooked us traditional Kashmiri breakfast and dinner, certainly the best food in India so far. |
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| The Dal lake is a popular attraction. I found a nice observation point, en route to a temple located on top of one mountain. |
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| From there we went another 90km towards East. Ideally, we would have been able to make it to Leh and then South to Manali. This road, claimed as being the highest in the world by some, was actually closed due to snow. So here’s good reason to come back sometimes! |
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| After some point the road remained open only for pedestrians and horses. So we picked two for the last few kilometers. |
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| We found Kashmir in a highly militarized state. We had to sign in to enter, and then there were barricades every few km. Many military vehicles, garrisons, barracks, patrols and even watchmen on roof tops.
The English language central newspapers claim the troops are on a peace keeping purposes. But the Kashmiri magazines call this a de facto occupation. They say there is today 1 Indian soldier for each 18 inhabitants in Kashmir, far more than actually needed, taking land and resources from the civilians. |
Jammu
From Kalka we continued East. As soon as we entered Punjab the landscape improved shomehow. There was less trash on the street, still far from optimal but definitely much better than before.
We continued North and entered Jammu. We spent the night in the back yard of a poor Urdu family, just North of the city of Jammu. They gave us milk from their own cow and we gave them chocolate and peanuts.
After that there was a steep climb, from ~750m to about 2500m MSL. The road was spectacular but also very dangerous due to rough driving and over congestion.
Kalka – Shimla railway
This century old railway is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, together with the DHR railway, noted for it’s technical achievement as well as spectacular location. Unfortunately, in the purest Indian spirit, trash is generally present, caused by travelers who refuse to use the bin and throw everything off the windows. But, as long as you look further than 100m, things look really nice.
Although there are no loops or zig-zagz, 893 bridges and 103 tunnels are needed to negotiate the rough terrain. The journey is 95km long and lasts 6 hours.
At the end we arrived in Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh and former summer capital of the British Raj.
Full photo archive available here.
