Hi everybody,
Here is how our travel went from Rishikesh to Amritsar. We left Rishikesh at
10:30 from our relaxing hotel with great yack cheese sandwiches and took a bus to a train stop. We got on a train then
transferred to another train. I remember saying this is going to be an easy
travel day but, there is no such thing as an easy travel day in India. When
we got on our first train we had sitting couches which at home would mean 3
people to a seat, here it means 4 to 5 people. Some are small people, like
really old women. So on the first train, all of a sudden I saw a little boy
being carried by a train of people. Then the little boy sat down in an aisle
and projectile vomited all over the floor and a little on Ole’s backpack. Of course Ole being a doctor just sat there calm and gentle patted the little boys back. The vomit sat on the floor and next a blind teenage boy who was begging for money walked into the area and started to walk down the aisle, when he almost got to the vomit everyone including us Americans started yelling STOP!
The other train was a sleeper train which made it better but it was 3 hours
late! So we did not get to Amristar until 2:00 in the morning. We went
straight to the beautiful Golden Temple which is the holiest site of the
Sikh religion. Where you can hear them sing or chanting from the holy book through out the day and night from the inside of the temple.
Simone was so sure there would be free rooms in the area around the golden temple, but there were none. So our group slept on the granite tile floor for 3 hours because we didn’t get to sleep until 3:30 am. Once we got found are sleeping place Kat and Bri went to go get some free chai and cookies in the very large dinning hall. At the Golden temple the Sikh people serve 40 to 60 thousand meals a day free to anyone. The meals change, my favorite was the rice pudding with large slices of dried coconut and lots of milk also the yellow sweet coconut rice is pretty good. Sleeping was short lived though because the guards go around to all the sleeping people at 6:30 am with their sticks and poke them. So after that, 4 other girls and I have been staying in 1 hotel room close to the temple where the others are all sleeping on 1 bed surrounded by other beds with people from all over the world.
Love the group,
Mariah
P.S. I will try to get some photos on as soon as I can. The computer keeps crashing on me well trying to post this blog so bye.