The (Pakistani) Wagah-Attari (India) border crossing, 30km west of Amritsar (and the only border crossing between the 2 countries), was both amusing in a farcical way and scary in a “Zieg Heil” kind of way. A little too patriotic.
And with guards’ walks that could have been out of a Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks sketch!
Border ceremony photos: Indian border guards lined up; at the border gate (with Pakistani women’s stand in background); with an Indian border guard afterwards
Arrived in Amritsar late yesterday afternoon after a 5 hour bus ride from Chandigarh.
The Golden Temple complex is impressive (some liken it to the Taj Mahal in grandeur, but since I didn’t see the latter up close, I can’t comment). The walkway around the sacred pond is all marble with inlaid patterns.
Plus the little touches are nice: no fee to keep shoes (and no tip allowed!), and free simple meals (donation accepted) in the Langar, or community kitchen.
Off to the Pakistan border ceremony now…
Photos: Golden Temple at sunset; what time is it? (clocktower at the Golden Temple complex)
Top 5 reasons why the train is better than the bus:
It’s hard to believe I’m flying home tomorrow night already! (after my night train to Delhi, and a day, but not night, in Delhi)
More text to come…
Note my time was limited, and there were several sights I didn’t see that I should have.
The big highlight was getting to meet some locals from one of my online clubs…
See also my previous Mumbai entry including the Gateway of India photo.
Map of my India trip
note that some town names in my “flags” will have slightly different spelling (due to new and old names), but if it sounds close, it’s the same 
Here is the list of places I visited (with state name for the first time entering a state):
Surprisingly, my night train from Bikaner to Delhi was virtually on time (only 20 min late), and, after an auto-rickshaw transfer between railway stations, my fast train to Chandigarh was exactly on time!
I’m staying with a friend’s parents here in a leafy suburb of this modern, grid-like, clean, green city.
Will do sight-seeing mainly tomorrow (there are only a handful of sights here; it’s more about the visit).
I’m finalizing my last bit of travel as follows:
Mon – will take a 6-hour bus to Amritsar to see the (Sikh) Golden Temple and the nearby Pakistan-India border ceremony;
Tue night – will take the night train to Delhi
late Wed night – flying home!
No photo of my hosts yet, but here is the amazingly tasty home cooked lunch:
clockwise from top: rice, chana/chickpea masala, mutter gobi (peas & cauliflower), chicken curry, salad; not pictured: spinach/cilantro raita, chapati
(sorry, power outage kept it short; now at my next stop, there is no USB port and the Internet is slow)
Surprisingly the 6-hour day train from Jodhpur to Bikaner was on time (within 3 minutes, which is as “on time” as can be).
Through scrubby desert from one desert town to another. Hot and dusty.
The 1-day, 1-night camel safari was very good – Rs1300/$32.50 (inc. food/water/tent) with www.camelman.com
I don’t think I could have handled a second day on the camel (bruises!). Dinner under the stars, campfire with live music, excellent food!
More details later when I do the “highlights” entry…
Photos: me on a camel; Nicole on a camel, plus the camel cart in background; musicians by campfire (note the accordion-like instrument on the left)
While I’m glad I went, the rat temple was a little disappointing because I was expecting hundreds if not thousands of rats – more like 100 if that.
It’s a 40 minute bus ride (Rs10/$0.25 on private bus; Rs15/$0.38 on gov’t bus) south of Bikaner.
It’s supposed to be good luck to see a white rat (we didn’t) but a Belgian couple at the guest house did – it was more of a whitish-brown colour, not lab-rat white.
Also, a rat running over your foot is good luck too, which also didn’t happen – though a few rats came up and sniffed my sock!
Tip: bring socks you can throw away (e.g. those free socks on the trans-oceanic flights), since the floor of the temple is filthy with rat and pigeon turds.
Photos: Front of Rat Temple; rats drinking milk inside
Red carrots in the market in Bikaner (all over India, really; they are a little sweeter than back home):
I uploaded a video of the main Buddhist cave temple in Ellora – click on the “videos” link in the header
Sigh. The last three night trains have all been 4-6 hours late, which really cuts into the arrival day!
Tardiness seems to be a bigger problem in North India (at least in my experience).
So be forewarned – don’t count on swooping into a city in the early morning on a night train, then sneaking out again that night on the next one!
Update: my last (6-hour day) train left and arrived on time! (within 3 minutes)
Visited the fort which sits on a 130m/400ft rock outcropping above the blue-painted city.
The entrance fee (Rs250/$6.25) includes a great electronic audio guide which has just the right amount of info!
Very interesting, and well worth the visit!
Not much else to see here; the marketplace is so-so.
There is a living maharaja’s palace visible on a hill opposite the fort (i.e. south of the city), and the grounds/outer building are supposed to be nice, but I didn’t feel like trucking over there.
Interesting note: travellers coming from North India say Jodhpur is the cleanest city so far; we travellers coming from South India think Jodhpur is the dirtiest city so far! Yes, I like South India more!
Photos: Fort viewed from city; part of fort up close; blue city viewed from fort; clock tower in marketplace
I met up here with Nicole from Quebec (she had met up here recently with her daughter, who is travelling separately in India, for a wedding; her daughter got sick enough to go to the hospital but recovered); she’ll be going to Bikaner for the camel safari and nearby famous rat temple with me.
Sometimes Internet cafes will block the http://www.irctc.co.in/ website (presumably to make you book through their related agent!)
You can get around this by typing in the IP address for the web site, i.e. http://203.94.240.82/ which will bring up the same website and you can then use it as normal.
(IP address may change over time; if it’s wrong, type “ping www.irctc.co.in” in a command window to get the right IP address).