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After a short wait for the electricity to start, the Pakistan authorities allowed us to leave their country! We enter India through the border at Wagarah. The authorities made a dogs dinner of booking us all in, once we were told all was well, another Official decides we have to take all the bags of the truck and put them through the scanner, which was not even on, for most of the bags?? We also met up with some of those who could not go through Pakistan and the girls took off their head scarfs with a sigh of relief. We also notice that there are women soldiers and others openly working in the border crossing, we have not seen such behaviour since Turkey. Once through we wait to see the famed beating the retreat ceremony at Wagarah. Thousands attend this each day at sunset on the Indian and Pakistan sides, it is unadulterated Nationalism at its worst and best. The crowds are whipped into a frenzy by a compere and girls dancing and the soldiers (both men and women on the Indian side) posture and march at each other until they close the gates to the respective borders. We then dash to Amritsar to our next stop, in the old suburbs of this city, which is in the heart of the old military area.
The rest of our group were waiting for us when we arrived.
What an oasis of tranquility it was set in gardens with loads of wildlife including various birds, chipmunks, geckoes and even water buffalo!
Myself and Jackie are better, but intend to rest up for a day then visit the Golden temple later in the stay.
A day after our rest we take a motor rickshaw to the Golden Temple which is the main centre for the sikh religion, you have to walk bare foot and cover you heads, there are countless sellers of head covers trying to get you to buy head scarves, or you can take a chance and use those provided, thats what I do. We are treated like celebrities people want photos taken with us, we are asked to hold babies, pose with whole families, one lad even said I was cute and gives me some beads as a present! But we do get the chance to spend time looking at the sites, go in the Golden temple and watch the people bathing in the holy pool, and engage in their prayer. I even have a chat with an old Guru and we discuss London and our experiences on our trip. After three hours we visit a memorial ground nearby where the English Slaughtered 500 hundred protesters, this was an odd experience, as there were a lot of Indians visiting as well. A bit uncomfortable but they still wanted our photos! After we went back to our hostel and chilled out in the pool and prepared to move on the next day. This was a good stop to recover, reflect on Pakistan and plan for the rest of India.
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