Amritsar.
What a whirlwind first week it has been in India, it already seems like i have been away for months! I have already had the highs and lows of traveling through here - On my first day I got ripped off by (very) crafty touts in Delhi, and then a few days later had lunch with a gypsy family in the Himalayas!
It has been pretty full on getting used to the street life here, it is non-stop chaos on the roads, and many areas are pretty grungy. I learned pretty early that you have to be wary of people who a 'helping you out', as a lot of the time they are just trying to make a buck out of you. Having said that i am having a great time and looking forward to the rest of my time here, there is so much to do!
I am currently in the in the Internet cafe of the Golden Temple in Amritsar... i have never seen anything like this, they have free accommodation and food for over 30,000 people a day! The kitchen churns out delicious food 24 hours a day, and all you have to do is rock up, take your shoes off and sit on the floor. Then a production line of guys come around and put different types of food on your plate until your full, before shuffling you out and cleaning up for the next group to come in.
The temple itself is also amazing, the entire roof is covered in real gold, and at sunrise this morning it was glowing spectacularly. There is a very spiritual vibe around here as well, it is the heart of the Sikh religion (turbans) and many pilgrims come hear to meditate and pray, and also bath in the waters around the temple.
I am spending today with some local guys i met at dinner last night - foreigners are a real novelty here, and i was shuffled around tiny streets on a triple stacked motorbike to various homes to meet their families! They are planning to show me around town this arvo, and tonight i think we are going to see the wacky India-Pakistan border display which should be fun.
Before coming here I spent 3 days in Kashmir, in the summer capital of Kashmir. The whole trip was a bit of a rip off (part of the Delhi tout business), but I got some pretty sweet experiences out of it and was treated very well. A day trip up through the Himalayas was the highlight - some of the most amazing scenery i have experienced and I had lunch with some mountain gypsies. The trip down to Amritsar yesterday could best be described as arduous - I left at 5am in a pajero with 9 others, on a winding mountain road with a mental driver for 7 hours! I'm just glad i wasn't up the back, as all 4 of those guys were spewing out the windows at various points in the journey. Then I had my first train ride, which was excellent, they are extremely solidly built, and must be 40 years old - they don't make them they used too.
