Our train was almost 2 hours behind schedule -- shocking. So instead of arriving in Amristar at 1000, we arrived at noon. This really set us back, because we were on a strict time crunch. At least the train was fun; I downloaded the Game of Life on my iPad and we played for the first part of the trip, which ate up about 2 hours of the 14 (jk 16) hour train ride. Then we slept, I couldn't sleep anymore so I read -- finished Girl on the Train, good; started Gone Girl, awesome. The people in our little cubby of 6 stayed the same which was nice since we all know each other pretty well now.
Anyway, we arrived and were crushed for time for lunch and showers, but showers were so necessary because we sweat so much yesterday but didn't have time to shower before boarding the train (we had checked out of he hotel at lunch time) so we were double gross. It may have qualified as the most glorious shower I've ever taken; I don't know that I've ever been that dirty. Or at least never felt that dirty.
After lunch we headed to see Jallianwala Bagh, which is a garden in which 1500 innocent Indians were killed, because a tyrannical Brittish ruler (governor? Not sure his title but he was a guy so not the queen) thought they were gathering to plan a protest to try and establish independence, when really they were just chillin in this garden because it very well may have been the only green patch in the city, at least today it is. After that we got comfortable in our vans (super downgrade after the A/Cd busses we had been in, but I guess it was a smaller group of people so just different) and we headed to the Pakistan border. So, apparently this has been on our itinerary all along and I just never read it thoroughly, because I was super caught off guard by this and honestly pretty nervous about it. Because if we were going to cross the border, I don't know that they'd want any USA residents there. But when we arrived, I saw that I worried for literally nothing (typical). It's a huge spectacle they perform every night, where the India border patrol guards and the Pakistan border control guards "battle" (more like a dance battle, making poses and circling each other) through closed gates and they only opened twice, the first to keep "battling" and the second for when they took down the flags for the night, at exactly the same time. It was very interesting to see, and there was so much camaraderie and country pride, each side cheering and chanting, it was fun to see. Interesting side note - India was all mixed together, except because we had passports we got to sit in an international VIP section ~*~ohhh ahhh~*~ but the Pakistan side had all females on one side all males on the other.
At this point it was getting kind of late but it didn't matter because we still needed to see the Golden Temple. At first I wished we had gone in the day to get its full effect, but once we arrived I was so glad it was night time.
The Golden Temple isn't one of the 7 wonders of the world, but it should be. The temple itself rests on a lake(pond) of holy water where you can swim in it and cleanse yourself. The queue to go inside was over an hour long (we didn't wait), and surrounding the lake is places for people making the pilgrimage to sleep, and a free kitchen for them to eat, entirely run by volunteers and donations. The bangin business they run there is incredible! The humongous pots the cook in to feed thousands of people at a time, crazy. In order to go inside the complex you have to wash your hands and feet in this little stream thing outside, and have your head covered, even the boys. Fully covered clothing, the works. While it is the main pilgrimage site for the Sik people, it was built as a place of unity and togetherness, so people of all religious and spiritual backgrounds are welcome to visit. It wasn't always gold, the plates were added in the 17th or 18th century (I don't remember now) but it was built 200ish years prior. It was crowded as anything but everyone respectful, just everyone doing their spiritual thing. Plus in the night, it was all illuminated and the light against the gold just made it shine so bright, it was magnificent, definitely worth the wait.
Having everything pushed back like this though did have a consequence, we didn't eat dinner until 10 PM. Also, I guess people had complained to the organizers (RC) that we weren't going out at night, so they got a DJ for us and he was in the little club/ballroom thing next to our dinner hall. However, tonight might not have been the best night -- we have to be downstairs at 0330 to make our train to Delhi in the morning.
After dinner a bunch of us went to the pool, with intentions of going to the party after relaxing and washing away the grossness of the day in the pool (it was the hottest and sweatiest day to date). However, when we made to go downstairs, they had shut down already because no one showed up. Most people wanted to get what little sleep they could after getting back so late and having to be up so early, but the core group I've been hanging out with most of the time all agreed that we would sleep through the train if we tried to sleep for just a few hours, so we stayed up the whole time. We hung by the pool, had some life chats, got bit by Mosquitos, moved the life chats inside, had intentions of playing cards against humanity but never got to it because we just kept talking, some stragglers changed their mind and went to bed, but me and two guys from Austria and a girl Steph from the U.S. Kept the party going until 2 AM when I went inside my room to shower and change and head downstairs. We are heading to New Delhi (I don't think there's an old Delhi, it's all just kind of Delhi I thing) in the morning and we have almost 2 whole days before taking a 27 hour train back to Hyderabad to fly home. It's been quite an interesting adventure but I am excited to be back in Florida. Can't get too set yet though, still have 2 days!!! I have to make he most of them. For now I'm going to take a ZzzQuil and pass out on this train -- it's not a sleeper so I'll be sleeping in a seat