Amritsar: The Antithesis of Agra

1/21 I arrived early morning into Amritsar in Punjab. And I wondered if perhaps I had taken a train out of India. I had gotten used to the India that is Varanais, Agra, and Khajaraho full of touts and people trying to cheat you. Well Amritsar is the home of the Golden Temple, a major pilgrimage site for people of the Sikh religion (I was first introduced to this in Burma on the trek with Harri and his brother). The first thing was that there was a free shuttle bus from the train station to the Golden Temple. Once there, they have tons of rooms and dorms for all the pilgrims and a special dorm area for Westerners. They lead you right to this westerner dorm (which is free!) and get you settled in. After checking in a man at a place giving out free purified water called me over. At first I ignored him, thinking he was a tout, but he said he wasn't. So I walked over and he explained to me a bit out the Golden Temple and told me that if I had any questions or needs just to feel free to ask anyone. Most of the people working there were volunteers and he gave me some very helpful information like where to find different busses and such things. Once I had talked to this guy, I deposited my shoes at a safe storage area (though who would want my torn up shoes), again for free and was given an orange bandana to cover my head (again at no charge, which in most places in India they would be taking full advantage of these services), and then walked into the Golden Temple after washing my feet in warm water. The temple was also free (compared to the Taj which was 18 dollars per entry, so even in one day if you left for lunch or a drink you had to pay 18 again to get in!), which was great b/c it meant you could come and go when you want and view it at different times such as sunrise, sunset, daytime, and nighttime. The main temple, which is covered in brilliant gold, sits on a little island in the middle of a holy pool in which pilgrims come to bathe in. You then walk clockwise around the pool gazing at the temple and also the fancy buildings around the little pool. The floor is marble, but they provided a carpet pathway to keep your bare feet from freezing. At different parts along the path, people call out and invite you in for a big bowl of free chai (different tasting than the chai I had been used to). I did a couple of circumambulations around the pool and then went to the giant cafeteria. Supposedly this 2 story huge building serves 60,000 pilgrims a day (more during festivals). You walk in grab a bowl for chai, a bowl for water, and a plate. You then are directed into the huge building where everyone is arranged in lines on the floor. Then people hurry along filling up your bowls with chai and water and then others come by with chapatis (there is supposedly a chapati machine there that can make 19,000 chapatis per hour), a sweet yellow rice, rice porridge, dal, beans, vegetable curry, and other punjabi foods. Again, all this is free. So for breakfast, lunch, and dinner you can come into the temple for free meals. I was finding Amritsar to be the complete opposite of Agra not only in terms of all the free things, but everyone there was so genuinely friendly and full of hospitality. And the whole area was so calm with no touts, guides for the temple, etc bothering you. Holy men were in these little booths in the temple singing calming scriptures which added to the mood as you walked around the pool. And this music was sang around the clock 24/7. Just such an amazing and unbelievable atmosphere after being in Agra!