Can I Snap With You?

I could write a novel on my first 3 days in India. At 4:30 AM on Monday, we headed to the airport in Kuala Lumpur. After 6 hours, we found ourselves in the Chennai airport with a few hours to kill before our connecting flight to Delhi. My first impression, while sitting in a café at the Chennai airport is that I had traveled back in time to the mid-80’s. Men here love mustaches. The music videos involve a lot of line dancing by men and what seems to me very cheesy story lines. I was reminded of the TV show Chips, specifically Ponch, for whatever reason. It was great. We arrived in Delhi late and as Gundula waited for our luggage, I went to the pre-paid taxi stand to sort out a ride to the train station – we had to catch a train in less than 1 ½ hours and traffic in Delhi is supposedly horrendous. I bought our ticket and left, but realized about 15 minutes later that the guy had taken too much money. I went back and said that I was afraid that in the rush/confusion of trying to figure out which train station, that he had actually taken 500 Rupees (about $11) too much money. I figured it was a lost cause, but figured it was worth asking about. His reply was, “no problem, ma’am. Here is your money. You are a guest in my country and I don’t want you to worry.” No questions, no argument. It was a great way to start off our Indian adventure.

We made it to the train station with just 10 minutes to spare…the taxi driver got pulled over on the way there! We climbed to the top of the three tier bed sleeper train and settled in for a 12 hour train ride to Amritsar. The people were very friendly and curious about the two Western girls who joined them in the second class. As soon as the train pulled away from the station, I put on my mp3, stood by the car door and listened to MIA’s Paper Planes song….I know it’s very cliche, but it was awesome to be riding through India looking at the shantytowns, the trash, the filth and the chaos listening to that song!

After 6 AM on Tuesday, we arrived in Amritsar – no where to stay, no map, only a goal of getting to the Golden Temple. We boarded the bus which was overcrowded by about 50 people. We each climbed in over the driver’s seat. I didn’t realize that my backpack was resting on the horn….there is a lot of noise pollution here!...until a lot of the locals started yelling and laughing at me. Oops. On the bus ride, a woman started a chant and the rest of the bus recited after her. Incredible. Luckily, the pilgrim’s dormitory in the Golden Temple had two beds left, so we gladly claimed them and set out to visit the Golden Temple. The temple, built in the 1600’s, is made entirely out of gold plates and marble and surrounded by a small lake. It’s breathtaking.

It was hard for us to walk a total of ten steps without being stopped by someone who wanted to ‘snap’ with us or who wanted to practice their English or who wanted me to hold their baby. The people are just lovely here. We ate lunch at the temple…did I mention that food and lodging at the temple are free? We sat on the floor, held our plates and men carrying dhal, curries, chapatti and rice scooped them out. We dined with literally 500 other Indians and were the only tourists. It is amazing how efficient the temple is – it feeds and houses people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – and most of the work is done by pilgrims who volunteer as part of their once in a lifetime journey to the temple. The Golden Temple was a perfect way to start our trip in India.

After a well-deserved nap, we boarded a taxi bound for the Mata Temple and the Pakistan-India border. At the Mata Temple, I felt like I was at a fun house – lots of monkey and elephant statues, lots of mirrors, tunnels to crawl through. I received a blessing of sweetened puffed rice (tasted almost just like Rice Krispies!) and an orange mark on my forehead. The temple is for women who want to conceive children…we’ll see if it works someday!

The Wagha border between Pakistan and India holds a ceremony at the end of each day to officially close the border and lower the flags. We got there early, so had plenty of time to watch the Indian women dance to techno music that was blaring on India’s side. Pakistan also blasted some sort of Arabic techno music…I actually liked theirs better, but no one was dancing on their side. I wanted to go down and dance, so I asked Gundula to join me and off we went down to the street (foreigners are ‘protected’ in a VIP area) but once we made it to the street, guards escorted us to front row seats literally 15’ from the border! Awesome! There was music blaring on both sides, chanting and shouting on both sides, lots of flag waving and patriotism going on. The Indian military guys were all very tall compared to their peers and could do high kicks that would put most women to shame. They did a lot of kicking, knee raises, and stomping during the ceremony. Also, both the Indian soldiers and the Pakistani soldiers wore tall feather-like things in a mohawk shape on top of their helmets. It was a great thing to witness and as close to Pakistan as I’ll likely ever get.

On Wednesday, we went inside the Golden Temple. It was beautiful to hear the sheiks performing the mantras and to see the very ornate temple and the people reading their scriptures all over the place. We dined again in the temple and spent the afternoon walking around the city of Amritsar.

Thursday was a travel day – 7 hours in a ‘semi deluxe’ bus to Dharamsala, just south of Mcleod Ganj, the home of the exiled Tibetan government and the Dalai Lama. I spent a considerable amount of time on the bus pondering what part of the bus would have been considered deluxe. I never figured it out. We arrived hot, dusty and sweaty and excited to be at the foothills of the Himalayas…saw the snow-capped mountains on the ride up…amazing. I’m sitting on our balcony right now looking at the mountains, drinking a Kingfisher beer and listening to the Germany – Serbia World Cup game that Gundula and our new German friend Petra are watching in the room. We missed seeing the Dalai Lama by two days…despite that, life in India is very good. I hope that life is good wherever you are reading this too.