June 3 Day 108- to Amritsar
After a few days staying in a hotel and saying goodbye to everyone, we got an early bus to Amritsar. The McLeod Ganj bus station was closed so we needed a taxi to Dharamshala to the gas station where the bus was waiting. It was definitely dirtier than the bus we took from Delhi, with grime and cherry pits at the bottom of our drink holders. The woman behind us kept dramatically wailing to her family about some need or other she had but the other passengers were fine, almost all Indians.
It was a relief when we got going as the driver turned the AC on. The trip was supposed to be 4 hours but we heard it could be 6 hours on the internet and 7 hours according to the guidebook. There is no certainty when you're travelling in India.
Our driver certainly wanted to make time, as he had us leaning over from the force of his curving and smelling burning gears over a gravelly stretch. Anyone who wasn't going the same speed as him got tailgated and honked at until they got out of the way. He was a little more cautious about passing, but his aggressive driving got us there in 4 1/2 hours with one stop for breakfast.
We got off by the train station and were set upon by a swarm of taxi and tuktuk drivers, but they did not get to us. I had booked the Grand Hotel close to the train station so we were there in less than a 5 minute walk.
The hotel had a quiet, green courtyard that we waited in while the owner did a strange dance. He acted as if he didn't have ur reservation, which he did, and then encouraged us to look at upgrade rooms. We initially didn't bite, but when Meg found out that the toilet didn't flush we got the upgrade. For all of our trip around India, AC was a must as the temperature was solidly over 40 and sometimes approaching 50 degrees.
We had a nice lunch and settled into our room until our 3 pm tour to the flag ceremony that we booked at our hotel. This is the tour to the Pakistan border where citizens on both sides try to outdo each other as the military of their country does high kicks and folds up the flag at the border's closing.
The taxi had AC and we could see tuktuks packed with 10 or more people all heading along the highway with us. We also passed many bases for the border authority which went on for kilometres of high walls and barbed wire. Since we were foreigners we got to use the close parking lot and saw streams of locals walking beside us, as if they were going to a popular concert or a sold out hockey game.
We got into the foreigners and reserved seats line and saw many Indians quickly leave it once the military started to check if people were actually on the guest list. We were so obviously not Punjabi that we got waved through most of these checkpoints but Meg had to circle back to the bag check when we found that the books we brought could not be taken in.
Past security there were restaurant and vendors selling snacks and drinks as we walked towards the stadium-like building at the border. Locals got the large bleacher area but we went to the posheforeigner area which had metal seats. We were next to the similar reserved seats and across from the VIP seats, which had plastic lawn chairs.
We were entertained by loud Indian dance music while the stands filled up and snack vendors worked the crowd. They were actually charging reasonable rates, perhaps because the whole things was being overseen by the border guard agency. As thousands of people filled the stands and cheered to the music on the Indian side, the Pakistani side was quiet and empty and no one could tell us why the difference was so great.
Wen the stands were full at 5:15 the ceremony started. One guard grabbed a mike and got the crowd riled up while a huge crowd of women with a few children lined up. The women took turns running around with 7 flags to music while the guard got the crowd screaming. After about 15 minutes of this, the rest of the women were led into the space to dance to various songs for another 15 minutes.
The real ceremony then began with a few soldiers waving flags around in a surprisingly imperfect formation. Then two guys with fans on their hats did some super high-stepping and were followed by a group of about a dozen soldiers. On the Pakistani side, you could see soldiers mirroring what was happening on the Indian side and now about 50 people were in the stands. When the Indian soldiers took to the mike, you could hear that music similar to the Indian side was being cranked out on the Pakistani side.
Some Rambo-sized soldiers holding very large guns and some border dogs were marched out before they opened the gates. The dogs got a big cheer when they both bowed down at the same time. The gates were opened and there followed a few theatrical marches toward the gates to face the Pakistani guard and both sides would high kick, flex their muscles or twirl their mustaches.
This went back and forth several times until some soldiers grabbed the flag ropes and slowly lowered and folded the flags. Meg tried to beat the rush by leaving early but wasn't allowed out until the flag had left the premises. Interestingly, throughout the whole ceremony, people kept arriving and being sent to seats and even as we left, people were still coming in. Yet another thing we didn't understand about this bizarre ritual.
We did beat most of the crowd and had a pretty quick drive back to our hotel. The bar and restaurant there was fine, the first decent draught I've had in a long time. Many Sikhs were there watching a world cup of cricket match. We headed back to our room and had a great sleep in the cool chamber.
After a few days staying in a hotel and saying goodbye to everyone, we got an early bus to Amritsar. The McLeod Ganj bus station was closed so we needed a taxi to Dharamshala to the gas station where the bus was waiting. It was definitely dirtier than the bus we took from Delhi, with grime and cherry pits at the bottom of our drink holders. The woman behind us kept dramatically wailing to her family about some need or other she had but the other passengers were fine, almost all Indians.
It was a relief when we got going as the driver turned the AC on. The trip was supposed to be 4 hours but we heard it could be 6 hours on the internet and 7 hours according to the guidebook. There is no certainty when you're travelling in India.
Our driver certainly wanted to make time, as he had us leaning over from the force of his curving and smelling burning gears over a gravelly stretch. Anyone who wasn't going the same speed as him got tailgated and honked at until they got out of the way. He was a little more cautious about passing, but his aggressive driving got us there in 4 1/2 hours with one stop for breakfast.
We got off by the train station and were set upon by a swarm of taxi and tuktuk drivers, but they did not get to us. I had booked the Grand Hotel close to the train station so we were there in less than a 5 minute walk.
The hotel had a quiet, green courtyard that we waited in while the owner did a strange dance. He acted as if he didn't have ur reservation, which he did, and then encouraged us to look at upgrade rooms. We initially didn't bite, but when Meg found out that the toilet didn't flush we got the upgrade. For all of our trip around India, AC was a must as the temperature was solidly over 40 and sometimes approaching 50 degrees.
We had a nice lunch and settled into our room until our 3 pm tour to the flag ceremony that we booked at our hotel. This is the tour to the Pakistan border where citizens on both sides try to outdo each other as the military of their country does high kicks and folds up the flag at the border's closing.
The taxi had AC and we could see tuktuks packed with 10 or more people all heading along the highway with us. We also passed many bases for the border authority which went on for kilometres of high walls and barbed wire. Since we were foreigners we got to use the close parking lot and saw streams of locals walking beside us, as if they were going to a popular concert or a sold out hockey game.
We got into the foreigners and reserved seats line and saw many Indians quickly leave it once the military started to check if people were actually on the guest list. We were so obviously not Punjabi that we got waved through most of these checkpoints but Meg had to circle back to the bag check when we found that the books we brought could not be taken in.
Past security there were restaurant and vendors selling snacks and drinks as we walked towards the stadium-like building at the border. Locals got the large bleacher area but we went to the posheforeigner area which had metal seats. We were next to the similar reserved seats and across from the VIP seats, which had plastic lawn chairs.
We were entertained by loud Indian dance music while the stands filled up and snack vendors worked the crowd. They were actually charging reasonable rates, perhaps because the whole things was being overseen by the border guard agency. As thousands of people filled the stands and cheered to the music on the Indian side, the Pakistani side was quiet and empty and no one could tell us why the difference was so great.
Wen the stands were full at 5:15 the ceremony started. One guard grabbed a mike and got the crowd riled up while a huge crowd of women with a few children lined up. The women took turns running around with 7 flags to music while the guard got the crowd screaming. After about 15 minutes of this, the rest of the women were led into the space to dance to various songs for another 15 minutes.
The real ceremony then began with a few soldiers waving flags around in a surprisingly imperfect formation. Then two guys with fans on their hats did some super high-stepping and were followed by a group of about a dozen soldiers. On the Pakistani side, you could see soldiers mirroring what was happening on the Indian side and now about 50 people were in the stands. When the Indian soldiers took to the mike, you could hear that music similar to the Indian side was being cranked out on the Pakistani side.
Some Rambo-sized soldiers holding very large guns and some border dogs were marched out before they opened the gates. The dogs got a big cheer when they both bowed down at the same time. The gates were opened and there followed a few theatrical marches toward the gates to face the Pakistani guard and both sides would high kick, flex their muscles or twirl their mustaches.
This went back and forth several times until some soldiers grabbed the flag ropes and slowly lowered and folded the flags. Meg tried to beat the rush by leaving early but wasn't allowed out until the flag had left the premises. Interestingly, throughout the whole ceremony, people kept arriving and being sent to seats and even as we left, people were still coming in. Yet another thing we didn't understand about this bizarre ritual.
We did beat most of the crowd and had a pretty quick drive back to our hotel. The bar and restaurant there was fine, the first decent draught I've had in a long time. Many Sikhs were there watching a world cup of cricket match. We headed back to our room and had a great sleep in the cool chamber.
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| The crowd in the stadium at the border. |
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| Relegated to the foreigners' section. |
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| Our military cheerleader with the open border behind him. |
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