Had a great 9 hour journey out of Sydney to Hong Kong after spending a quick but lovely time with mum & dad. We then had 4 - 5 hours in Hong Kong. The people of Hong Kong have extremely good taste in fashion... made me feel quite the peasant!
We then got ready to board our plane for Delhi on which we couldn't see one foreign face... they were all Indian! Davey was the only white face to behold! Had a very rough five hour journey to Delhi, we then arrived at 2am in the morning. As we had booked a train to out of New Delhi station to Amritsar at 7.20 in the morning, we decided to stay in the "meet & greet" section of the airport. We were both extremely exhausted by this stage so another few hours didn't help!
Davey and I both then decided to leave the womb and head into the world of India. Well, we got scammed from the moment we left the building. We had a prepaid taxi to go straight to the train station, instead a taxi driver said that we had to get our train ticket validated. So he takes us to an "approved" government agency to get it validated. The guy at the office turns on the charm and tells us that the train was fully booked and that there had to be another way to get us to Amritsar, when we asked for his suggestion (just out of curiosity) he told us a private car for the equivalent of $200.00! He said he'd get a couple of chai teas and then we would talk about it further.
We got up, left, and asked the taxi driver to take us straight to the station, which he did. And then we tried to find out more information on this train trip. The local station attendants didn't seem to help and after going upstairs to the approved International Tourist Bureau, the office was closed at that time of the morning and we were scammed for a second time! A guy who was in the station managers office said that he would take us to another approved govt agency that worked after hours. It was a repeat of the first scam. We were finally able to get an answer from the local officers who informed us that our tickets were indeed cancelled as there were too many bookings. rebooked another set of tickets on a first class sleeper that got us into Amritsar at after 9.00 pm. The train journey was fantastic! We got a bit of shut eye and talked with the two gentlemen whom we were sharing the berth with. It was late by the time we arrived, it was scary and we were thoroughly exhausted by the time we got on the train.
But the hotel was literally around the corner, and was lovely to get into our first decent nights sleep! Today we went to the Golden Temple and the Attari closing border ceremony. We walked 10 minutes to the temple and I bought a salwaar kameeze (indian woman's suit) along the way for AUD$7.50 and tailored within a few hours for $4.00! The reason why I bought one was because I have had so many intense looks since I've been here. It seems that none of the women wear boots, and I'm wearing my favourite pair of boots to the knees. So it feels much better to be dressed like the locals!
When we got to the Golden Temple we removed our shoes and wore head coverings out of respect. The amount of people that worship there is phenomenal! The temple itself is situated in the middle of a body of water and is gilded in pure gold. Men were bathing in it and getting there little kiddies to as well! We both enjoyed it immensely and it highlighted how many people have the desire to worship and they're trying to do it the only way they know how. The people we talked with there were really lovely. Both Davey and I really like the Punjabi people, they're lovely, polite and open to wanting to chat! The funny thing is how the kiddies love touching Davey without him noticing! They seem fairly struck with us as we see virtually no other tourists around here. I thought I'd blend in as one but apparently not! They've pegged me out as being a foreigner too. I'll post some photos soon.
We then went to the Attari closing border ceremony between India and Pakistan. Davey and I were late (surprise, surprise) and we were only able to get a glimpse of the ceremony from the side as it was packed to capacity. The Indians are extremely nationalistic and we going wild with Bhangra dancing and soldiers marching around with attitude! the men have been very respectful to us but we had a funny incident with Davey and some pushy women! We were standing near an open gutter filled with some kind of wastewater (don't want to analyse that too much) when one of the women decided she wanted to get out of the crowd and shoved Davey out of the way... his boot landed in the water and made a splash with which she was extremely annoyed about and walked away muttering! I think Davey was muttering under his breath as well, though :P
We then went back to our hotel and a rickshaw took us through the streets of Amritsar, really pretty at night and there's no better way of taking in the people and sights as our rider took his way slowly through the streets. We stopped off to get Gol Goppa's which is a savoury form of India snacks. It consists of a fried empty ball which the vendor dips in a spicy watery sauce. Can't say it's one of my favourites but the experience of eating like that was fantastic! Today was our first real taste of India and we're looking forward to more!
Tomorrow we leave early for Jaisalmer for a camel safari, we leave by train which will take us 28 hours before we reach our destination :S looking forward to a good rest tonight! Sorry the journal is longwinded. I'm trying to capture as much as I can so please press the fast forward button where needed!
