Upon arriving to Amritsar, we were told that we could not leave without seeing the "famed" changing of the guards at the India/ Pakistan border at Attari. Now, my impression of this event was that it was going to be a strict and stiff stand-off between the two rival nations and possibly a show of military arms. Luckily, I read a short paragraph about it in the Lonely Planet and knew a little bit more of what to expect, which was definitely not anything I could have conceived, and it still outdid my most outlandish visions of what it might be.

We left from just outside the Golden Temple in Amritsar in another crazy rickshaw ride with an older man who looked like a jolly, Indian Santa Claus. Along the way we stopped and picked up several other Indian tourists and also stopped at a couple of the free Sikh drink stands. The border was only about seventeen miles away, but it took us an hour to get there because of all the other Indians going out to the event.

We finally arrived about ½ mile from the border, and set up alongside the road were people selling popcorn, cotton candy, Indian flags, t-shirts, and banners to the masses of Indian tourists that had come out to witness this event which takes place everyday. It was not all that different than going to a football game because people were yelling and screaming with pride, there were tailgaters, and people with picnics, and we all walked in mass toward the border gate, which is complete with stadium seating, loudspeakers, and an MC. They even had a VIP section into which they funneled foreigners and wealthy Indians.

When we arrived at the gate about 1 hour before the ceremony, the stadium was already almost full and people were chanting "Hin-du-STAN!" along with some other Hindi words that I did not understand. After sitting there for about 15 minutes, the stadium erupted into a Bollywood rave when the MC put fast-paced Hindi music on the loud speakers. People began flowing out of the stands and into the street dancing and singing while occasionally yelling profanely in Hindi and shaking their fists over at the Pakistanis, who actually were very orderly and were calmly sitting in their seats chanting "Pak-i-STAN!" The guards tried to contain the crowd with constant blowing of whistles to no avail, and the MC encouraged the excitement by bringing out big Indian flags and sending people running to the gate with it and waving it at Pakistan.

I was already in disbelief of what I was seeing, but then the ceremony began and the Indian soldiers dressed in brown, bright red and gold uniforms with twirled mustaches and hats that looked like they had a bright red Chinese fan sticking out of it came out high-stepping at a running pace. They all stopped together and then with a painful-looking, quick kick above the head each one would high-step quickly back and forth in front of the loudly cheering crowd before marching out to the gates that are flung open followed by another high kick toward Pakistan, which Pakistan returned, and they marched back. Finally, the commanding officers of either side marched out to the gate, gave a brief handshake, and a salute; then the flags were lowered and folded simultaneously in order to be diplomatic; and the border was closed for the night. Afterwards was followed by a mass of cheers and yells and, of course, the people selling post cards and souvenirs were there in a flash.

After this amazingly entertaining and most extravagant display of country pride, we went back to Amritsar with our Indian Santa Claus driver blaring Bollywood music and turning on his blue and red flashing Christmas lights to keep the mood alive. The next day we settled down for a calm day on the bus headed for the edge of the Himalayas, Dharamsala, and some relief from the continuous noise and heat.