Second time's the charm...

   

     18 months ago I stood on the platform of Amritsar station bickering with my travel companion Louise. We had taken the over-night sleeper train from Rishikesh and had been scheduled to arrive at Amritsar earlier that morning. Instead, we arrived at 4pm because the journey that should have taken 10 hours, took 16, due to, well, I am not really sure-- shame on us for believing anything runs smoothly in India. So there we were, minutes from the Golden Temple--Amritsar''s main attraction--arguing about whether to go or not.  But as we debated, our connecting train to Delhi had rolled in and our flight from Delhi to Nepal the following day had us tied to the train so we had to depart. Thus tired, hungry and upset we boarded the train, swearing to return to The Golden Temple someday soon.
      18 months later I was back, handing in my sandals (no footwear is permitted inside the temple) and queuing to enter the golden wonder. Sadly Louise could not make it this time around, but luckily my boyfriend Johnny accompanied me to temple, even though he hates temples.
     Within there was a feast of colourful characters bathing, praying and bustling about. Johnny and I set up camp under some shade and tried to enjoyed a morning of people watching, but it proved difficult. While observing the spectacle, we were bombarded by Indians who pushed babies into our arms, photographed us, starred at us and sat down with us to have very long chats . For us this was a great way to interact with the people of India and to be in many of their holiday snaps! 

                           

I hope Louise makes it here someday soon.

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