Part II

The ride back to Mrs. Mehta was unsettling.We weren't really sure what was going to happen.I had promise Alex I would go so that was what I was going to do.I have saved a good amount of money for trips like this, so I was able to handle it I felt.Clint on the other hand couldn't help but run numbers through his mind; wondering if he would have enough money to last him 6 more weeks.Clint has been having constant trouble with his bank Washington Mutual about using his card.Apparently, even though he told them he was leaving, has spent a lot of time with customer service, he cant readily get any money out of his account.The only way he can get money is if his parent send him some money directly which is very costly.They had recently sent him some money and he hopes to be able to survive on that for the rest of the time we are here.It wouldn't have been so bad except we had just treated the Mehta family to dinner out to our now favorite restaurant Indian Dollar.It's a new restaurant that just open down the street from the Mehta's and it serves really good food.The best part is that not only do they serve everything from Indian, Chinese, and Continental dishes (Western) but it's and vegetarian and non-vegetarian.The food was really good.We first went last Sunday and all of us got different dishes and shared off each other's plate.I had gotten the chicken lasagna.It was the last dish to show up at the table but that didn't stop me from eating, rice, vegetables, Greek salad, chicken fried rice, mutton, Matika chicken, and Honey Spicy Chicken Chilli or something like that.It was amazing and I was already pretty satisfied before my dish even showed up.But regardless, it smelled so good and I was so happy to be eating meat that I still ate the entire thing.We treated the Mehta's there Thursday night for dinner as a thank you for all the cooking and the great hospitality; we owe them a lot for giving what we easily call our home away from home.

We finally got back to the Mehta's getting ready to go.I had packed early that morning so I was pretty much ready to go but the others had to clean everything up because that was our last day at the Mehta's.We were running late and not really sure what was going to happen.I guess it was just going to be the four of us.That was a little unexpected and I was preparing myself to become a little more self-reliant in getting around in a place that I had never been before.I felt like it would be a bit scary but was ready.I was sitting outside with Mayank with my travel guide, asking him questions about going here and there.We would pretty much be taking to Amritsar hopefully near the Golden Temple and then explore for a while and then around 3 or 4 leave for the border.The Changing of the Guard was going to happen around 5:30 said my travelers guide and it stressed the importance of being early.We saw the taxi out front.It was just a Toyota SUV so that was nice.It would give us air conditioning and a place to leave all our bags when we needed it.So we were ready to go, only one thing before we went.At last minute notice just as we were about to leave Katie and Eric decided to go!Awesome.You could practically hear all of us sigh with relief at the same time.We all piled in the car and began our trip to Amritsar.

The car ride was just like any other in India; long and uncomfortable. The plan was that we were leaving about 6:00 so we end up being there early like 5:00 am in order to see the temple at night and during sunrise.Unfortunately that meant a ride of trying to find the most comfortable spots to sleep.This was of course impossible.I feel somewhat hindered from my American upbringing.Were everything is design around comfort and luxury now it's like we are simply doomed if things can't be just right.I mean we certainly didn't have it as bad as the cars next to us.Most were packed to the brim with people and I can guess not everyone had AC.We had a slight reclining, AC, and plenty of leg room.The first thing to notice was that not everyone had seatbelts.Katie sat in front seat, Eric, Zoey and Alex sat middle row, and Clint and myself were in the back.Eric never could find his seatbelt and Zoey only had the strap but no buckle.We were under the impression that in India people just do not use seat belts.In fact, to be honest this was the first car ride since I've been here that I actually had a seatbelt (of which was hidden in the cushion and Clint and I had to dig it out of the seat).But we were off and there was no turning back.

I spent the first have fighting off car sickness (headaches and uneasy stomach) while trying to read my book.I have been really trying to finish and I was willing to risk feeling sick to finish.I read as much as I could and with unstable roads I was by no means reading very fast.Unfortunately, even my fortitude wasn't enough and I ended up giving up with only two pages to go.My light was going out, I was feeling terrible, my concentration had waned, and I wanted to get the last few pages down before I could successfully put the book down.Half through the trip we had to take a detour through a some town because of a road block.I had no idea where we would and apparently even the driver had a hard time.We pulled over several times for him to get out and ask someone for directions.It was practically midnight and by the looks of things you would have thought there was a festival going on in this town.There was just as much excitement going on that night than what goes on in the day.It probably took us an hour before I felt we were finally back on the "highway."I had pretty much given up on any hope of sleep.I tossed and turned but nothing was feeling good and I bet through the whole ordeal I bet I got less than 1 or 2 hours of "sleep" the rest was restless waking up.I don't know how it happened because just when it seemed like the trip would never end and I was disoriented with time from drifting in and out, we had finally arrived in Amritsar.Slowly the group got out of the car.It was 4:00 am and it was already warm and humid.We gathered what we needed, I had most of what I had early yesterday morning minus the white coat, and got some instructions from our driver.He did not speak much or any English but I think he could understand key words like time.We someone came across a man just walking by who helped with the translation but we concluded we had all day to see Amritsar but we had to be ready to go to the border by 4:00.We got his cell and then left.

Fortunately for us he drove us right next to the Golden Temple.We could tell because early in the morning the priest in the Golden Temple recite mantras over the loudspeakers.We were headed in the right direction.Before we knew it we could see the pathway and the Golden Temple in the far background.Even from this distance it was glowing in the night; a beautiful sight.We were excited.Because it was a holy place there was certain rules before entering the temple.You could not where shoes, you had to cover your head with something, and you had to wash your feet before you entered.The original pathway we found was not the way to the temple but just to the left was a place where they will take your shoes for free. You could also check your bag but with my passport inside I felt safer to have it with me at all times.The Golden Temple is a pretty amazing place; not just in beauty but also in The charity work.They offer free of charge places for anyone to stay and hand out free food to some 60,000 people a day.

After checking our shoes, treading through water to wash our feet we were inside.It was amazing.The building sat in The middle of a body of water with its reflection on The waters surface.We had to take a moment to take pictures and just absorb it.We started walking around making our way to The entrance but Zoey had suddenly gotten sick.We weren't sure what it was she just felt really sick to her stomach all of a sudden.We stopped and waited for her not really sure what was going on.I know I had fallen a little ill from The car ride so I assumed that was it.All The better as we sat ready whenever Zoey felt better we got to see The Sunrise over The temple.Zoey felt a little nauseated but as soon as it past she was feeling much better.Only later in The day did we finally figure out what it was.Zoey had taken some anti-malaria pills right as she got out of The car.She had gotten her pills mixed up and thought that you should take it on an empty stomach.The opposite was true; without food you have likely to vomit with taking The medicine.It all gave us a good laugh as at The same time we felt bad for her we all felt relieved that it wasn't anything serious.

We finally made it into The temple about an hour after we had arrived.In The center was The four priests with their instruments singing none stop.The walls were finally decorated with flower designs in The gold.I am not convinced The entire thing was gold but it was fun to imagine an entire temple made of gold.The build is three stories and everywhere there were people coming to pray, give offerings, sit and sing along.I felt like I real tourist then because here we were just walking around their sacred temple looking around while they were there for a service.It would be like if someone came into one of our church services and walked around while The pastor was giving a sermon.Kind of a weird feeling.We got to The top just in time to see The full risen sun burning red off The horizon.It was a sight.They isn't any photography inside The temple for obvious reasons but I tried to take as many photos from The outside as possible.

A couple of interesting things happened while we were there.In India The 'proper' way of sitting is with The legs crossed.I am not very flexible in this sitting position and on marble floors this was quite painful and hard to hold in any sort of comfortable position.Twice someone came up to me and yelled at me to sit in correct sitting stating that I was at The GOLDEN TEMPLE!I was getting frustrated, I understood The customs and its perfectly acceptable for them to fell that way but I was truly struggling and frustrated.I was tired and hurting and to be honest after being their for 3 hours I was more than ready to leave.

We got our shoes and decided that our next destination should be some other temples.We hired a Rickshaw (a miniature taxi) and went off to find The Silver Temple.This temple was much smaller and also much less populated than The golden temple.It also sits in The middle of a pool of water and only The front half is golden.Inside we find that they also were going through a ceremony.Walking through we caught someone's eye and he invited us in to their service.We sat in The back of 9-10 people who were singing, and playing instruments just having a good time.It was kind of a fun experience and I felt compelled to clap alongside them and enjoy their music.Afterwards a group of The younger guys took us to another temple on The other side near where we came in.This one was The smallest one yet and barely held our interested but we thanked them kindly for being so friendly and went back to The Silver Temple to get some photos before we left.Our next stop was another temple.We got in more Rickshaws and left.

This is when something else went wrong for Zoey.Without knowing her camera had fallen out of her pocket in The Rickshaw and because it was such a tight squeeze, when we got out everyone failed to notice.The Rickshaw had driven away with Zoey's camera.She was obviously in a state of panic because there was little chance that her camera would return to her.Alex said that maybe they should get a ride back to The Silver Temple in case The driver went back there.Hesitantly she agreed and The two of them took a cycle rickshaw (like a rickshaw but was powered by bicycle) and we were left there for who knows what.Apparently, someone teenagers on motorcycles had over heard our predicament and had chased after The Rickshaw.As we were about to go in they found us and told us they had found The guy and he did not have The camera.Eric was skeptical and didn't fully believe them but we exchanged our thanks for trying and went inside The temple.This temple was a lot different than The others.It was a tight enclosed pathway that went up down and around.We walked around in this carnival style adventure place apparently symbolic of some journey.We had to squeeze through a tunned, walk through a tiny glass mirror room, and even tread through shin deep water.It was pretty funny and reminded me of The adventure thing that used to come every summer by our house off of Chad.When we finished we were about to visit The actually shrine when something amazing happened.A man stopped me and behind him was The Rickshaw driver with Zoey's camera!How did they find us I have no idea but I knew it was Zoey's camera.To convince them, because they were for some reason very reluctant to give us The camera, we had to search through The pictures until we stumbled on one of us.He finally gave up The camera and The security advised we should reward him somehow.We knew that meant money.We gave him 150 rupees for his trouble and he left.When we got outside we realized none of us had minutes on our phone so we couldn't call Zoey and tell her what had happened.Eric and Katie decided that they should go back to The Silver Temple and see if they're still they and bring them back.Clint and I just had to wait.Well we waited and 10 minutes later Zoey and Alex came back on a Rickshaw and we were able to give her camera back.She was so thankful and promised she would buy The round of beer at lunch.Soon Eric and Katie came back and we were ready to go find someplace to eat.

Our goal was The Grand Hotel that was somewhere nearby but we weren't sure where exactly.Thanks to my handy compass [The free one I got from The trials before I left] we roughly judged where we should walk and went.The temperature was rising steadily and was nearly over 100 degrees already.We were all pretty tired, hungry and hot.I think we were at the breaking point because we had to keep asking for directions because no one knew where we were and we couldn't get very good directions.Soon we were asking from everyone where The Grand Hotel was but no one really knew what we were saying and just wanted to offer us rides.We were constantly being followed by rickshaw, motor and cycle alike, offering us rides not directions.They could all tell that we were not from around there and The ones that seemed friendly eventually just wanted to sell us something.We were all on edge and getting frustrated.Some people just wanted to take a Rickshaw, others thought we were almost there if we just kept going, some wanted to just ask everyone, and we all knew we didn't really know anything.Even my compass no longer passed The trustworthy test and we finally gave up and got in a Rickshaw.He agreed to take us there for what seemed like 50 rupees.We got in and he drove down The street, turned north drove for 5 minutes, turned east drove for 30 seconds, turned south drove for 5 minutes,and turn east and there it was.If you weren't paying attention he basically made a square and drove a longer to make it seem farther than it really was.We could have just walked another 5 minutes and we would have been there.He did a good job of convincing us that we really needed a ride.After paying for a pointless ride we went inside a nice air conditioned restaurant that looked very much like an old fashioned American pub.We got some beers [first beer in India], chicken, and some garlic naan.We were in no hurry but Neither was our food.We pretty much just wanted to sit there and talk, hand out, and forget about what happened in The street.It was cool, food was good, we had relaxed and even rested my head for 5 or 10 minutes.

It was 2:00 and we were ready to start heading for The border.We found a Rickshaw took it back downtown near The temple and because our driver apparently didn't want to take us all The way walked 2 or 3 blocks to get to The parking lot were we got dropped off.This wouldn't have been a problem other than The fact that it was now 112 degrees outside.It was hot.We were gulping down liter water bottles like it was nothing.Something interesting that we realized was The fact that we can drink so many bottles of water and never have The incentive to use The restroom.I must have drank 4-5 liters of water that afternoon only to sweat it all out like is was nothing.But soon we would be in a air conditioned car and on our way to The boarder.Alex quickly took some time to buy a small dagger as a souvenir and we got in The car to go .It was about 35 km from where we were we was about a 1 hour away.It didn't seem like it because I actually dozed off a little and before I knew it we were there.

I felt like we were out in The middle of no where but with a giant party was there with us.There were a couple of stands and a large sitting area.We weren't at The gates just a rest area and in about 30 minutes we would be able to go The The grand stands.We sat there constantly batting off flies, sweating profusely, barely awake.Little kids constantly came up to us to sell us things because we were Americans.Eric and Katie had a little kid selling cheap Indian flags and visors for 20 minutes before they got The owner to tell them to leave of which they came back 2 minutes later anyway.Alex, The nice guy that he is, fought with The kid for 10 minutes before giving in and buying a flag.I didn't say anything because I also was The proud owner a straw with a plastic India flag attached by one staple.My worst 10 rupees spent yet.Once The gates had open we walked down to get to The bleachers.We understood that there were special VIP seats for foreigners but were surprised when we found out we couldn't sit there for some reason.We never got a good explanation but it we thought it was about to fill up so we couldn't stay and argue.The men's and women's sections were separated so we had to bid the girls fair well and sit up with The very crowded men's section.It was farthest from The gate and we could tell no one was going to sit down even though The people behind us kept telling us to sit.Eric was positive that we could sneak over to The VIP somehow because it was completely empty but slowly filling up with obvious foreigners.We saw Katie and Zoey and they somehow had moved over as well and was waving for us to come over.We made for The corner of The women's and men's sections but somehow had lost Eric.He went back down The stairs but none of us turned around to go get him.To our surprise there was no resistance to us moving across The women's section and when we got to The VIP section The officer told us to hurry and get in.We regrouped with The girls but Eric was no where to be seen.I kept looking back at The men's section hoping he would return and we might be able to show him how to get over.There was no sign until all of a sudden I turned and there he was behind me.Apparently, he had convinced The guard who ordinally told us that we couldn't go to The VIP section to let him cross.Now all we had to do was wait an hour in The blistering heat for The thing to start.I didn't have my thermometer but I knew it was just as hot as it had been all day.We were begging for The sun to start setting to give us some relief from The heat.

But before we knew it The sun did settle low in The sky and we watched as The Indian border chanted at The Pakistan Border.Everyday The two opposing sides demonstrate some macho-ist marching in front of each other with opposing crowds cheering for their country.It's a fun drill filled with high kicks, fast paced marching and about facing.The gates open and The two sides seem to have a 'dance off' style procession in front of each other.It was pretty fun and interesting to watch these people get so excited for something that although looks competitive is actually quite peaceful.To end The ceremony to two side lower their flags and everyone leaves happy.It was a fun experience and despite The longevity of The day it was by far The most worth while trip in India thus far.We got back to The car and drove back home.

The ride home was much like The ride there, except this time I was all hot and sticky from The day.A nice cool shower was all I wanted followed by a nice nap.We drove and drove and I got very little sleep during The entire event.I woke up frequently and probably watched The road more than I slept.I didn't care that much.I knew what awaited me and although I wouldn't get any rest and The drive would take even longer in my mind I had enjoyed The experience and knew The benefits would be great.We got home in only 8 hours woke up Jade to let us in.I took a nice cool shower and fell asleep as soon as my head it The pillow.Tomorrow I was leaving for Rishikesh at 2:00 and would be The last time I saw Eric, Katie, and Alex.We had some rough times but because of The time we spent over The last 3 weeks I have really come to enjoy their company.

Taylor