North Indian Sojourn – 2 (Amritsar)

 

…Continued from North Indian Sojourn - 1
Day 5: We reached Amritsar at 7:00am in the morning. Got fresh and headed straight to Durgiana temple which resembles the Golden temple. Built in the 20th century, it is a serene place having repository of Hindu scriptures.
  

Then after this we left for the Golden temple. The temple looked stunning from a distance with the Amrit Sarovar which surrounds the Golden temple. The upper part was built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh with 400kg of gold leaf. The temple of Harmandir Sahib is bustling with tourists almost throughout the day. The temple was initially built in 1574, and when the Mughal emperor Akbar visited the site, he was impressed that he gave all the villages in the vicinity to the Sikh Guru and the temple was started being constructed in the 16th century by Guru Arjun Dev.
We were approached by people selling Bandanas to cover our heads for Rs 10. We bought it and went inside. The winter morning in Amritsar was very soothing and people were gathering in huge numbers. A number of people could be seen bathing in the Amrit Sarovar. We had to spend around 1 hour in the queue before we could get inside the main temple. Offering our prayers, we came out and found huge fishes in the Sarovar which looked very nice.
We then came out to take the 'Halwa' as the Parshada. The experience at the Golden temple was memorable to be cherished forever.
   

Post lunch we visited the Jallianwala Bagh where the famous massacre had happened in 1919 when General Dyer had ordered began shooting at unarmed innocent civilians which left more than 1000 killed. This park has been developed in memory of the martyrs. Below is the picture of the well into many people jumped to escape from the gunfire and lost their lives.
       

We had to visit the India-Pakistan border at Attari which happens every evening at 4:30pm during winters. We went there in time and were surprised to see a huge crowd and the authorities had a very tough time managing the crowd. We somehow got a place to sit in the stands. Many patriotic songs were being played at our end and some enthusiastic people could be seen dancing to it. Similar scenes could be seen at the other end. The gates opened at 4:30 and the usual parade took place both by the BSF and the Pakistani Rangers.
     

We thoroughly enjoyed this and after the ceremony made our way to the Bus stand to leave for Chandigarh. We got a bus at 11:30pm to Chandigarh
Trip schedule: Dec 25: Started from Bangalore on 24th Dec by 12629 Sampark Kranti express at 22:10
Dec 27: Reached Delhi on 26th Dec at 10:30 am
Dec 28: Day Trip to Agra, Mathura, Vrindavan from Delhi
Dec 29: Delhi local sightseeing, departed for Amritsar 8:15 pm by 18237 Chattisgarh express

Dec 30: Reached Amritsar on 29th Dec at 08:30am; Departed from Amritsar to Chandigarh at 11:30pm by Punjab roadways bus
Dec 31: Reached Chandigarh at 04:00am
Jan 01: Chandigarh
Jan 02: Day trip to Shimla
Jan 03: Departed from Chandigarh to Delhi airport at 11:00 pm
Jan 04: Reached Delhi 3:30am, boarded a flight from Delhi at 07:00am, reached Bangalore at 09:30am

Comments

  1. Nice one Arun. Golden temple and Attari are two places which i definitely want to visit.

    www.rajniranjandas.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amazing pictures. I so want to visit Amritsar and see these places for real. Grt capture :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. nice travelogue with beautiful write up and photos

    thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful Captures...You remind me my Amritsar journey...

    ReplyDelete

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