Amritsar

This weekend Lauren, Lena and I took a weekend trip to Amritsar.  Amritsar is basically the Sikh capital of India, which was very apparent when we got off the train and nearly everyone we saw had a turban and beard (signature Sikh look).  We took our first train in India and better yet our first overnight train!  Our train left Delhi around 9pm and didn't arrive in Amritsar until 8:30am the next morning.  I was pretty sure nothing could be more uncomfortable than sleeping on our bed at the guest house but the top bunk I slept on during the train ride proved me wrong...

 I found this picture on Google images since I forgot to take a picture of our train accommodations - sorry for the blurriness.  Anyone over 5'7 beware because you're not going to fit on the bed.

Once we arrived in Amritsar we set off in search of our hostel and were very disappointed when we found it.  Note: AVOID Hotel Grace in Amritsar.  Luckily we found another one not too far away that was decent enough for a one night stay and just around the corner from the Golden Temple (basically the epicenter for Sikhs in India).

 Golden Temple.  Apparently more people visit this site than the Taj Mahal in India (approximately 100,000 people a day).

 Within 5 minutes of being inside the temple area we ran into this guy - can't remember his name :(  He became our unofficial tour guide/preacher of the greatness of Sikhism for next hour.  I have to admit that my mind wandered during much of his preaching but he took us through all the back areas of the temple including the kitchen, which was really interesting and we never would have found some of the spots on our own. He also did it all for free!

The most interesting part of the temple, and where we spent most of our time there is the kitchen.  The kitchen dishes out free vegetarian meals to over 100,000 pilgrims a day and everyone who works in it is there on a volunteer basis.  Many of the people are actually the pilgrims who visit and help with whatever task they are given.  

 Chapati (kind of like naan) making machine in the GIANT kitchen.

 Women sorting the good from the bad chapatis (the bad ones go to the animals).

 We made our own chapatis!  I made two :)  Not sure who ate them...

 GIANT vats of rice pudding.

 Pilgrims getting their free meal.

 Old man taking a nap in some hidden back area we discovered with our "tour guide"

One of the Sikh's customs is to never cut there hair. The men usually have long hair that they put up in a "bun" on top of their head under a turban and have very long beards.  Sometimes they don't look that long, but really they've just twisted it up into itself.  The women also don't cut their hair.  This includes no eyebrow plucking/waxing.  You probably thought this picture above was of a man and a woman but these are actually TWO women.  I'm not sure why the woman on the right has a beard, because I'm pretty sure that's NOT normal, but either way she won't get rid of it because of her religion.

After spending the afternoon at the Golden Temple we hopped in a van and took the one hour ride to the Indian-Pakistani border for the border closing ceremony.  Yes, this is the border were the patrol men wear funny hats and dance/march around.

I'm not sure how many people come to the border closing ceremony everyday, but the stadium was completely full and people were left waiting outside the gate the to watch the ceremony from there.  On the way in we had to get in to separate, single file lines.  One for men and one for women.  We had a pretty intense female patrol woman on our side who literally beat people to get into a single file.  So that was interesting... We quickly obeyed to avoid the abuse.

Long story short.  The ceremony is basically one giant party.  People dance, people sing, people run back and forth carrying the Indian flag and it's like one big showdown between India and Pakistan on who can party the best and which border patrolmen have the best high kicks.