Amritsar the closest major city to the Pakistan border was our first stop after the chilly heights of McLeod Ganj. We took a taxi to the Wagha border closing ceremony where every night India and Pakistan close their borders in grand style as each side tries to outdo each other in terms of outlandish showmanship. Before the main event the Indian crowd were encouraged to dance to blaring Hindi music in front of the border and members of the audience run with giant Indian flags. The Indian guards wear brilliantly pluming red hats, a military brown uniform, white socks and shiny black boots (they also have AK47’s) and march with such force and vehemence towards the border gate stopping just before it to kick a leg so high in the air towards Pakistan that it nearly touches their heads making them look like they’re doing vertical splits. This goes on for a while as each of the guards have a go and Pakistan do a very similar thing on their side both getting loud cheers from the crowd. The gates are slammed shut and then re-opened again to lower the flags, a very quick handshake, blink and you’d miss it, between Indian and Pakistan then the gates are slammed shut again then everyone heads home. A ridiculous spectacle but extremely entertaining!
The next day was a Sikh festival celebrating a former Sikh guru’s birthday so there were lots of processions in the street, with music, sword fighting and fire breathing going on. Everywhere in India a festival always seems to creep up without us knowing about it! Before our night train we went to one of the most sacred Sikh sites called the Golden Temple which floats upon a holy lake. It was a marvel to see and the atmosphere was relaxed with lots of space to enjoy slowly walking around the lake taking in the temple and the individuals and families praying.
The night train to Varanasi would be our longest train and for more reasons than one, at 22 hours it was never going to be fun but unfortunately Kat was sick all throughout the night. We arrived to find out it was the Hindu festival Deepavali meaning busy traffic jams but lots of fireworks lit up the skies that evening.
Varanasi is all about the Ghats. The city itself is busy but the Ghats (steps that lead down to the river Ganges) has little pockets of peace as you walk along them. We also did a sunrise boat trip, enjoying being nosey from a distance. Each Ghat has a different use such as the most famous being the burning Ghats where families cremate their dead; our favourites were the washing Ghats where Indian’s beat their colourful clothes clean in the water and then hang them out to dry. Kids are flying kites, holy men are blessing people, cows are being bathed, Indian’s are having a holy dip or a full wash in the Ganges – the best thing about Varanasi Ghats is that it’s just everyday life for these people and it’s fascinating.
To break up the journey back to Delhi we stopped at Bandhavgarh National Park. In the guide books it’s mentioned as an almost guaranteed tiger sighting destination, we saw no tigers after two 4 hour safaris, it was expensive and the National Park didn’t have that much other wildlife in it. To make matters worse we very nearly missed our last train of the trip as a three hour bus journey turned out to take six hours! Luckily we got to talking to some really nice Indians who helped us out and let us join them as they got off the bus early and shared an auto-rickshaw (11 of us piled in, plus the driver!) to make it to the train station in time.
We’re now back in Delhi, Kat’s still not feeling well but we’re both excited to catch our flight home tomorrow.
See you all soon!
Love Chris & Kat xxxxx
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