Amritsar

I seem to be strangely reluctant to write today...perhaps I have OD'ed on internet usage having been on twice in the past 2 days.

We have been staying at the Sikh temple for the past 3 nights, and eating in the Sikh temple kitchens...all for FREE! Well, okay, all for a donation, but it's pretty civil of them, don't you think? Very reasonable. The Golden Temple is absolutely gorgeous, we saw it as the sun was going down and then late at night, beautiful both times. It glows.

Amritsar obviously isn't a popular tourist hub...I've seen 5 white people here, other than John and myself. This may explain why we have suddenly attained Celebrity Status...people randomly say 'Hel-lo-how-are-you' in the street, in a bubble-pop rhythm. We dutifully reply 'Fine, thank you' to which the inevitable response seems to be 'And where are you from?' John proudly jumps in with 'Iyerlaand!' which nobody here seems to recognise, compared to 'Ah, England! Yes: my son is working there/ I have a cousin in Newcastle/ My friend and I want to study there' etc. etc... and etc. It's nice though, to have some genuine conversations, beyond the tiresome jangled repetition of bazaar bargaining.

Walking round the Golden Temple, a small girl comes up to me with a serious 'Hello.' she waits patiently for my response as I look around me to try and source the voice (several inches lower than I expected). 'Hello' I respond. She squeals in delight, a big grin on her face, running back to her family babbling in excited Punjabi. They grin over at me and I at them. It is nice to know that children are recognisable the world over, their needs, their desires. This is an area that could unite the world. If we ever get there.

You can contrast this with the complicated ritual of trying to get a rickshaw for a fair price. Step one: Go ask an Indian with no motive to lie how much a rickshaw should cost to location X from here. 20 rupees, okay, no problem. Step two: 'How much to Ram Bagh from here?' '70 rupees' comes the reply. Step three: you get the picture. We normally manage to get it to a 1.5x rate of the normal price.

If you ever come to Amritsar, go see the Pakistani-India border ceremony. The patriotic zeal is both highly enlivening and quite disturbing, as is the entire ceremony... Both sets of soldiers proudly preen, and try and shout commands for a longer time than the other side can. It's not unlike watching two male birds in a dominance display during mating season. Very interesting to watch.