Steven Raucher's World Tour
2000-12-09 in Amritsar, India
Holy Cows and Cold Kingfishers
Suddenly the world brightenedup and put on a smiley face. We had made it to India
We arrived in Amritsar after crossing the border at Wagah (20 kms from Lahore). We were surprised by our over-efficient (read �bribe-seeking�) Pakistani customs inspector as he discovered that Robert�s Carnet de Passage had the chassis engine number printed on it, a problem easily remedied by an exchange of USD 20. Good to know some stereotypes still ring true.
Arriving in India from Pakistan one is immediately aware of the change of pace and addition of color. We were whisked through our customs inspection, obviously the border guard on this side isn�t as short of cash as his counterpart. One of our most peculiar sights in a while was the human chain of stevedores (?) that ferry the goods between trucks on either side of the border, apparently the trucks cannot cross the border. �And in the left corner, in the Blue Trunks, weighing in at Nuclear capabilities and a billion populace � Iiiindia! And in the right corner weighing in at Nuclear capabilities and Religious Fundamentalism - Paaaakiiistaan (see picture).
We had met the members of the Encounters overland tour truck at the border and took their advice and headed for the same guesthouse they were staying at. Mrs Bhandari�s Guest House is as colonial as one can imagine (without tripping over sunburned redcoats!), We had a very lazy afternoon chewing on Veg Pakora and downing many Kingfishers, whilst boring the other Overlanders to tears with our tales of woe (�tis a hard life!). Drinking went on to about 2am - a very late night by our recent standards.
We awoke to knocking on our door (sorry no tents quite yet) only to find that in my drunken stupor last night I had left my credit cards lying in the middle of the garden � Liz, a member of the Encounters group, recovered them. We subsequently joined her and others for a quick tour of the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
The Golden Temple is the holiest temple of the Sikh Religion; it is a very beautiful structure set in a holy pool. For entry into the compound one needs to cover one�s head and remove one�s shoes. (See pictures)
Tomorrow we head for Delhi (hopefully we will make this during daylight � and in one piece), this seems quite daunting compared to sunning it up in a sleepy border/pilgrim town. Time for a Kingfisher�
 The exchange of goods |
 We prepare for our entry into the Golden Palace |
 Absolutely beautiful Golden Palace |
 Some sexy pilgrims taking a dip |
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