Heading to Amritsar, Punjab

We arrived in Amritsar by car from Jammu. On the trip over, our driver informed us that punjab means five waters as there are 5 major rivers that flow through the region, owing to its lush fertile lands. Our first port of call was Wagah

Wagah, is on the border between Pakistan. It is the only foot crossing between the two countries and here every day at dawn and dusk, the border security forces of each respective country conduct a gate opening/closing ceremony to raise/lower their respective flags. In the past, these formalities were quite extravagant and hostile, but as relations have improved, the posturing has somewhat diminished with both sets of soldiers even shake hands these days. We got to sit in the VIP area which was great.

The huge crowd gets into the patriotic swing of things lead by an MC who whips the crowd up and leads the cheering

The border gates

An extravagant display of high kicking, marching and saluting.
After the gates are closed, most of the Indian locals head upto the gate for photos and to have a leer over at the Pakistanis.
The Border Security Force

The Golden Temple

The following day we went out to the Golden Temple. This is the holiest place in the sikh religion. The temple was built, destroyed and rebuilt on numerous occasions, with the current marble and gold incarnation being created during the early 1800's. The ground floor is made of white marble with inlaid stonework that uses the same techniques as on the Taj Mahal, while the first floor is completely gold plated. It was an amazing sight and truely serene to be within the complex grounds. The only rules we needed to observe was that we remove our shoes and keep our heads covered.

Buildings around the temple complex

Our stop in Amritsar was the Jallian Wala Bagh Memorial. This parkcommemorates the amritsar massacare of 1919 when British colonial troops opened fire on a peaceful demonstration killing 379 people and wounding over 1500.
From here we caught a train to Delhi. It was 5.5 hour train ride and contrary to the stock images I've seen on TV about indian trains, it was quite comfortable.