Amritsar is known for its food. In the morning we noshed on kulchas at Chungi.  A good meal to prepare for a day working in the fields…

Above the owner/chef of Chungi poses with Cory, John, Padam and our wonderful Amritser host Gaurav.

After the Golden Temple Cory and I shivered at the thought of food, but really enjoyed the thali with desi ghee paranthas at Barava Da Dhaba.

After sitting out at the Wagah Border we regained our appetite and devoured keema naan and tandoori chicken at a street shop.

Despite sitting for three hours in the blazing hot sun, the Wagah Border flag-lowering ceremony has been one of the highlights of the trip so far.  Only about 30km from Lahore, Pakistan, this is one of the only working land border crossings from India to Pakistan and every day at sunset thousands of Indians and a few hundred Pakistanis fill the stands of their respective sides to watch the spectacle.

Cory and I had to sit in the foreigners section which comprised of about 30 Europeans, Americans and Aussies–and later filled in with Indians–but was the closest section of bleachers to the border.

The ceremony starts with girls and later guys running the flag back and forth to the border.  There is music blasting from loud speakers, competing with music from the Pakistani side; some people brought ear plugs.  Around 6pm there was a girls only dance party on the street.  Finally, as the sun is setting the border soldiers begin a series of loud calls back and forth and then stomp the yard.  The gates open and there are a lot of angry glares and adjusting of fanned hats.  The flags are lowered, gates are closed and there is a mass exiting from the stands where you really realize how many thousands of people have come to watch.

The Golden Temple is a must visit when you’re in NW India.  Located in Amritser, Punjab the gurdwara is a mecca for Sikhs and we were told it receives 300,000 pilgrims and tourists a day.  Supposedly the food is great too and they feed tens of thousands of people, but we were full from a heavy Punjabi breakfast–more on that later.

After a nice stroll around the pool we waited in a crowded line (pictured above) for an hour to take a walk through gilded temple.  Almost as beautiful as all the gold is the marble walls which have intricate inlays of flowers and script.  In the pic below we posed with one of our Amritser hosts, Ashita at the gurdwara entrance.

We went back at night (pictured below) to marvel at the gold in lights.  Many pilgrims sleep there over night to help with clean up in the morning and watch the sunrise.