Amritsar

Golden Temple

I made the 7 hour train ride from Delhi to Amritsar. My first stop was to Jallianwala Bagh, the memorial garden to the Indians killed by the British on 13th April 1919. It is a maintained garden with a little museum with the history, which was very interesting.


Jallianwala Bagh Memorial

Next door is the Sikh Golden Temple where I went for sunset. The complex is white with the Golden Temple sat at the centre of water. I joined the que (well, more mad crush) for an hour to go inside the temple itself. I am not Sikh, so didn't really understand what was happening. If you are visiting you will not be missing out on too much if you just view the temple from the outside. The crush wasn't really worth it, but it is pretty inside. At 7pm they have prayers which was nice to see. You have to leave your shoes at the shoe house and make sure you cover your head to go inside.



Golden Temple by night

The next day I visited 2 Hindu temples. The first was Durgiana which is a smaller scale version of the Golden Temple. It was a cute little complex and pretty quiet with a free shoe house too. I then went to Mata Lai Devi Mandir temple. This was amazing and words/photos don't really do it justice. It had cave entrances and tunnels and is something you should go and see if you are in Amritsar. You start off by going upstairs on the left and follow the one way system back round. It is full of beautiful decorations and was an experience in itself.

Inside Mata Lai Devi Mandir

I also spent a lot of time in the markets. I wanted to buy something similar to an Indian suit but a lot of places sell them unmade, so you need to spend extra on tailoring. I went to a shop that sold them ready made and bought a gorgeous dress (if I can call it that) with leggings for 850 rupees. There are 3 main market areas - the one around the temple, a fabric market and a shoe market. The latter is each a labyrinth of its own, but occasionally a rickshaw appears if you wish to escape. There are so many beautiful clothes on sale there.

 

The train was also interesting. Being in an air conditioned chair class, with a hot meal each way. The food was like poorer quality airplane food, but you do get a free 1L bottle of water. It is definitely a relatively cheap way to travel - just take an anti-bacterial wipe - the tray tables are super dirty.

 

I would definitely recommend an overnight trip to Amritsar if you are ever in North India. The temples are beautiful if nothing else.