Amritsar and the Pakistan-India Border

The Golden Temple was a memorable experience and worth the seven hour detour to see the famous SikhTemple in Amritsar. We stayed at a hotel quite close so we could walk there. Head coverings were needed for entry and bare feet. 

The Harmandir Sahib, also Darbar Sahib and informally referred to as the "Golden Temple", is a prominent Sikh Gurdwara located in the city of Amritsar, Punjab, India. It was built by the fifth Sikh guru, Guru Arjun, in the 16th Century. Wikipedia

The Golden Temple is set in a man made pool where the Sikh faith bath, men in the open and woman in a segregated private area. We also noticed people drinking the water and bless themselves - it wasn't fit for drinking but to the devout it has special properties. The temple is very ornate, gold and inlaid with semi precious gems and paintings like wallpaper cover the internal walls also. The temple is surrounded by a rather grand complex which houses the Sikh who live here. They provide food, chai and a place to sleep at night free of charge if you wish to stay there, regardless of religious belief or nationality.

In the afternoon we were lucky enough to hire an excellent taxi driver come guide to drive us to the Pakistan - India border for a border crossing ceremony at 5pm. The approach to the border was high security and foreigners are separated (segregated) from the local population. We had to walk about a kilometre up a two lane road by ourselves while the Indian nationals, which there were hundreds walked up the other side of the road. Thank goodness for security as it was quite unusual. After going through a security screening we were seated in the foreigners section with only 50 or so others compared to up too four-five thousand Indians in their area. 

Then the 'show' began, there was singing, dancing, chanting, people running up and down in front of us with the India flag. The soldiers or border security, who were dressed in ceremonial clothes began  marching in turns towards the closed gates between each country and stomped, postured, showed a manner of displays of power and oneupmanship, whilst the same was going on on the Pakistan side. Each side, crowd included trying to outdo each other with song and cheering. What a performance! It was a cross between a rock concert, sporting event and a Haka. Difficult to put into words. 

Jim is going to add a link with the photos.