Pakistani border or The Ministry of Funny Walks

Hello my dearest friends,

hope you haven't missed me too much, had a few really busy days... and here is the longest email in the world. I left Jaisalmer - at some point - think three days ago and took an overnight train to Jaipur. Was a bit sad to leave Jaisalmer, it's an ace place to chill out and am probably missing the desert a bit, although it started to rain on the last day when I got to the station. Rain in the desert? What's that all about!

Anyway, I was kind of hoping the train would be delayed in Jaipur, as usual, but no such luck this time, so arrived in Jaipur at 5am, and was sat in a cafe for ages, chatting to a NZ couple, which was good fun really. Then dropped off my bag and organised a day's sightseeing in Jaipur - the pink city. Although I argued with our guide that the pink city really is either orange or terracotta, but not pink at all. He wasn't having any of it! Oh well, lost cause.

Basically we went on one of those "Jaipur in 1 day" tours, which was stressful, cause we were like sheep, being herded in and out of places, but it was also good fun, cause we had a good jolly group together... the tour guide was all school teacherish, which made us laugh a lot, all "See here, look there, get on the bus, ten minutes for photographs only"... we went to see the observatory, a cool marble temple, Hindu with Christian saints added to it - I asked the guide why that would be, the only answer I got was "Hindu architecture, you see, the pyramids...". So none the wiser really... :-) He was a funny man... Saw the maharaja's palace, three forts, all up on hill tops and linked with defense walls which seemed like little walls of China... Would have liked to have spent more time in the last fort, Amber Fort, but no, our tour then had to proceed to a shop. I was annoyed and most of our jolly group were too, cause nobody mentioned that to us at all at the time of booking. But that's the way India works. You always seem to go to shops. Suddenly our tour guide was in a lot less of a rush too. Mmmmh... which meant that Ana and I had to miss the last stop, cause we wouldn't have made it back to the station on time. At least our guide admitted that much and got us on a local bus, seeing us of with the words "And you have to change bus at some point too". Where and when? We figured that out with lots of international sign language and help from the odd English-speaking Jaipurian (if that's a word, but it sounds ace...).

Somehow made it to the station on time, picked up my bag and got on yet another overnight train, from Jaipur to Amritsar, 14 hours of fun and games. But like the train beforehand, I booked 3AC instead of sleeper class this time, which means plush pillows, sheets and a nice blanket. And it has heating anyway on top of this. So I was rather warm and toasty and pretty much slept like a log.

Got to Amritsar with an hour's delay (oh well, 14 or 15 hours, who cares anyway), found my guest house, had some brekkie, a shower (yes, I am no longer manky) and then set off to the Golden Temple. Decided to walk there (easy, right?) but kind of got my bearings wrong, walked for miles and eventually had to admit defeat to the cycle rickshaw wallahs and hail one down to take me to the temple. Never mind, 1-0 to them so far. The golden Temple is really ace, a very special place indeed, and I have to say I love the Sikh people, they're incredibly friendly. Everything is free in the temple (which for India is quite remarkable, although temples are usually free to go into), the place to keep your shoes, the museum, the food, everything. It is absolutely brilliant. I had a wander and was at first a bit reluctant to enter the main shrine, but followed as soon as I saw other obvious tourists wandering in - and I shouldn't have worried, cause they are really seriously welcoming... made me sit down and listen to their chanting from the holy book (the Guru something Granth, I think it's called, got it all written down somewhere - in fact the chanting you can hear all across the temple complex as it is relayed via loudspeaker and it is very relaxing. Apparently they sing from 3am to 10pm each day and getting through the holy book takes days and days...). Sat down by the tank, watching Sikh men bathe (mildly distrubing at times), and watching the world go by mostly... then felt peckish and went off to sample the free food in the canteen - again I didn't want to invade unless there were other Westerners going as well, am obviously a chicken... food was ace, you get handed a big plate and bowl and a spoon, then you enter the dining hall, sit down on the floor in rows, then guys come past and dish out rice, dhal, chapatis, and rice pudding for dessert. And water. Well ace. After you finished you get up, hand your plate and cutlery in to the the dishwashing army, and off you skip really - ideally with giving a donation. They have masses off people sitting outside peeling veg and stuff, all volunteers, it's amazing!

Had another sit down and chats with assorted Hindus, Sikhs and Dutch people, then figured it's time to go back to the hotel. Met this British Indian guy there and we made a date for going a) to the golden temple in the morning for a look around the museum, and b) to go to the Wagha border to see the border closing ceremony - and wave over to Pakistan. Which is what we did today essentially. We also visited the park next to the golden temple which was site of a massacre instigated by the British which inadvertently led to the civil diobedience campaign (Gandhi) and eventually Independence. All very interesting.

Most of all though - the border ceremony. Essentially you get a taxi to the border. Then you wait until they open the gate at the customs checkpoint, pile in, find a place on the stands (yes, there are stands on either side of the border gate, Pakistani and Indian). Then the party gets started. There's the support act which gets the crowd going (on the Indian side, you can queue, get a huge Indian flag and you're allowed to run up to the border gate and back with the whole crowd cheering - the party was less good at first on the Pakistani side, but I said they probably have better things to worry about these days than a silly border ceremony...). Then the guards (we could see them doing a warm up behind the guard house, hehehe, for all the high kicking and funny walking I'm sure, you wouldn't want to get muscle strain) come out, all shouting, kicking, stomping, parading, storming to the border and back etc. Very macho. Eventually the gate was opened, the guys taken the flags down got into position, not without much stomping and shouting of course, then lots more stomping and shouting as well as chanting from the crowds on both sides (the Pakistani side, although outnumbered, made a very valiant effort at being incredibly noisy, good on them!). Then the flags were taken down, in unison of course, cause you can't have one flag being lower than the other, they were folded up and paraded back to the guard house, then there was a handshake between the Indian and Pakistani guard boss, I suppose, and then the gate was shut, everybody rushed forward to get photographs of the border guards, or in fact with the border guards and everybody went back home. The Ministry of Funny Walks, it could be from Monty Python. Reckon we should have something similar at the border of England and Scotland... :-)

Anyway, have done pretty much all I wanted to do in Amritsar, so will be setting off to Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj tomorrow. Tibetans here I come! Will keep you guys posted...

Greeting, stomping and shouting,

Monni