At the Golden Temple

Our visit to Amritsar last weekend was as smooth as our previous trip to Agra was needlessly complicated. Indian Railways, it turns out, is stunningly efficient -- the trains leave right on time, and the departure is followed by a steady sequence of tea and snacks. After the five-and-a-half hour train ride, we arrived at 1:30, giving us just enough time for a quick lunch of Punjabi food before visiting the Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple.

The difference between visiting the Taj Mahal and the Golden Temple is the difference between being part of the spectacle and being a mere spectator. At the Golden Temple, even Westerners with only a rudimentary knowledge of Sikhism (like myself) understand that they are visiting a shrine of immense spritual significance to the religion's followers. Were it not for the welcoming nature of the Sikhs present, I would've felt uncomfortable, like an intruder. At the Taj, on the other hand, tourism is largely the point -- most of the people there have made the trip so they can cross it off their list of must-see Indian landmarks.

Unfortunately, we did not have time to go to Wagah, on the Indo-Pak border, to see the flag-lowering ceremony. That will definitely be one of my stops when I take a week or two off in the fall to see more of the country.

Pictures from the trip can be seen here. No trip this coming weekend. I am going to take Sunday to explore more of Delhi.

Of touts and the Taj

In my childhood home there hung in a guest room a silk-embroidered print of the Taj Mahal. My grandfather, Warren Corey, had been stationed in India during World War II, and, I was told, he described visiting the structure as the only activity that gave him any sort of peace during his tour.

For this reason, I was very much looking forward to the second day trip arranged by HT: a visit to Agra, which is about a four-hour drive southeast from New Delhi. As far as I know, I am the only member of my family to visit India since my grandfather, who died when I was very young, and I was eager to take in his favorite sight.

Photos from the trip can be seen in this Facebook album. Quite a few things went wrong during the course of the day: it rained; the drive took longer than we expected, forcing us to pass on the other attractions in Agra; the driver and the guide, not to mention the many touts who pestered us incessantly, kept trying to get us to buy tacky things; men kept trying to take pictures surreptitiously of Karyn and Michelle; and the grounds were far from peaceful -- swarming with tourists, actually, even during one of the weaker parts of India's tourism calendar. Despite all that, I felt genuinely spoiled the entire day, and pictures like the one posted above may offer some suggestion as to why.