Absolute LOUD

As much as I thought I would remember, I was still surprised with India noise. The honking, screeching, yelling, banging, bubbling, clashing and crashing, the barking, baying, beeping and just general overwhelming ear pollution surprised me - again. Delhi round three was a quicky and not overly exciting. After an ungodly departure hour from Bangkok we arrived with a few winks of sleep after a flight on Antarctica only to have to deal with the North Indian Rail reservation system that told me that there were two tourist quota seats left on the train to Amritsar but you had to pay in foreign currency.

"Well, I was robbed and have no foreign currency"
"Yes yes whichever you like, dollars, euros pounds"
"I don't have any of those"
"Oh well, this is the only way, I can put as (tap tap tap)...number 76/77 on the wait list"
"There must be a way you can issue me those seats"
"Oh no madame, for a foreign seat you must have foreign currency"
"Ok, well, we've gone over this. I don't have foreign currency - only rupees. How else can I get a ticket"
"Oh well well yes. Did you exchange money? Do you have a receipt?"
"Yes. Here"

A few more tappy tap taps later I handed over some rupees and cursed myself for coming back to this country. Why does EVERYTHING have to be SO difficult?

We killed the afternoon with an hour and a half of internet and three power cuts, some fresh chapats and paneer masala, book shopping and me in awe of all the missing cows. I mean literally: the cows are gone! Only a few months ago cows and cow patties littered the lanes and boulevards of Delhi but now there's new metal barricades up, and the streets aren't covered in veggie ends all the people provide for the cows, the dogs and rats that eat the veggie goods and of course all the cows! Amazingly the rotten produce and cow shit smell also went along with the cows. My guess would be that this has to do with the slow but ongoing preparations that Delhi is taking on in order to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Who's idea it was to let Delhi home this event is beyond me - Mumbai or Kolkatta or Bangalore would have been a more savory choice but alas - apparently their working on it.

We took the very classy and comfortable (Indian comfortable) Shtabdi Express train up to Amritsar in Punjab state where, when we finally arrived around 11pm, we proceed to sleep until 4pm the next afternoon. Amritsar is one of those Indian citys of just over a million that's typical India in every way and the only reason to make a stop there was to a) see the infamous, second only to the Taj, Sikh Golden Temple and b) head out to Attari to take a peek over at Pakistan and see the totally bazaar Indi-Paki guard stomp off.

We abated by all the rules of the temple by washing our feet and covering our heads (Aaron looked especially cute with his Golden Temple orange bandanna) and hit the heat and the crowds all lined up to pray to the temple, touch stuff and all the rest. The temple complex was amazing and surrounded by over 300 rooms that are offered free to not only Sikh pilgrims but anyone who is in need of a place to stay. We opted out of waiting in the 4hr plus line-up to get inside the actual temple seeing as we're not Sikh and it didn't mean the world to us but instead we chilled out under a tree and watched the action from the shade. Also attached to the temple and the free accommodation is a free kitchen where mass production of chapattis and dal and chai are in order. Anyone can eat at any hour and hoards of volunteers cook and clean and serve which is humbling to say the least. We lined up with the masses and ate on the floor and for such quantities of food it wasn't too bad at all. After eating we invited ourselves to check out the gigantic chapatti machine - only THE coolest thing I've seen in India thus far. Bags of flour and hot ovens miraculously pumped out chapats like nothing else! Amazing!

The Attari border show was a scene. A few thousand roudy Indians jumped and hooted and bollywood danced before the 20 minute stomp-a-thon of the Paki-Indi guards. Honestly I couldn't see anything, I don't think anyone could. It was so loud and the whole time was spent watching people jump out of their seats and stand up to see and then having the crowd control guards bleep their whistles and push them back to a sit. It was hilarious and probably more entertaining then the actual ceremony. Of course their was no "personal space", everyone wanted to take our picture, and the utter lack of self control exhibited by the Indian was so explanatory of their culture it made me laugh continuously.

So that's what happened. We jetted out of Amritsar on the most horrible local bus-bus combo that took us 12 hours in total - 6 of the hours I spent barfing in a bag due to India's sanitary standards and finally we are in McLeod Ganj, I'm better, the weather's fine and life goes on.