The trip takes about 4.5 hours to travel just over 200 kilometres. So, you can imagine there were many interesting things happening along the way.
Definitely topics for future blogs! Here is the short version.
Our first stop was Haveli which is near Jalandhar. This is a vegetarian Punjabi restaurant--and much more.
It was breakfast time around 8 am, so the choice was more of those delicious paranthas.
We didn't have a chance to tour the model village they have created complete with lifelike statues.
This is not a lifelike statue but our real life driver, Harbans. He is truly an amazing driver as he weaves through trucks, cars, tractors, tuk tuks, motorbikes, bicycles, horse carts, people, cows....
He was all prepared with his head cover to visit the temple.
The Golden Temple! And, golden it is. Such a feeling to visit a place that you have seen so many times in photos. This spot did not disappoint.
The temple was started in 1585 by the fourth Sikh Guru. It has had some refurbishings over the years and the gold wasn't added until the 1800's.
We were tempted to join the Sikh faithful who were dipping into the sacred waters around the temple.
The temperature was 35 degrees at least, and the beautiful white marble was a little warm on the bare feet.
Simlee was our very able guide. She is a devout Sikh and so was able to explain what we should do and why.
Many, many, many others had the same idea to visit the temple that day!
Fortunately, the walkway is covered and there are several fans along the way, but it definitely was a crush of people.
Photos are discouraged inside and each person is given only two minutes. The inside was much smaller than I had expected.
We were able to go up on top and so this view is from that perspective, looking at one of the four sides of the site.
After leaving the temple, we took a short walk to the site of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.
This is a public garden in which British troops opened fire on some Indian protestors, killing close to 400 people.
This was George's second attempt at seeing this ceremony. On his previous trip to India, his group arrived too late.
By the time we parked and walked back with the thousands of other spectators, there was not a chance of seeing anything.
We could hear the music and the cheers from the huge crowd so it must be quite a spectacle.
We decided then to do a little retreat ceremony of our own--that is, we retreated back to Amritsar and went shopping at the beautiful Alpha One Mall.
BIBA is the shop and George is the man to take with you. As you can see, it is a ladies' wear shop--and he is paying the bill!
And, we finally ate chaat!
This was kind of like deep fried pie pastry smothered in yogurt and cream.
I would describe it as fancy junk food--which makes the name of this blog all the more suitable.
Our trip back to Chandigarh today included a stop at the Dera in Beas to visit Mohini Khosla.
Unfortunately, because it is a spiritual community, we were not allowed to take any photos. It is a the cleanest, most peaceful place we have seen in India--or any other country, for that matter. We were able to tour some of the buildings on the many acres that are home to about 7000 people, and see the classroom where she teaches Biology. We had a nice lunch with her and were pleased to see her looking well and happy. We didn't spend all of the time talking about the precious grandchildren we share!
