10/7 - 10/9 amritsar, india

Our fourth stop in India was Amritsar in the state of Punjab. It’s in the north and borders Pakistan. The main focus of the city is the Sikh holy of holies, the Golden Temple. It’s where the original copy of their holy book is kept, and so everything there is holy, including the water in the complex and the fish that swim in it. Hundreds and thousands of visitors come there every day and they are fed and given accommodation—every person regardless of caste, religion, or ethnicity. Pretty amazing. And no one wears their shoes inside the entire complex, also pretty cool. We also visited the Indo-Pak border where they sing and dance every day as the sun goes down—quite the display of patriotism.


The golden temple, and my husband looking like a pirate. Arrr.
Now that is a lot of curry sauce.

Making paratha with the volunteers (nice beard!)
Setting out water for visitors
Another view of the golden temple, apparently washed with water and milk nightly...

We walked out of the temple and into a Sikh parade. Awesome.
A big part of the parade was martial arts demonstrations. This particular guy was dancing around an axe...
I don't know what this guy was whipping around, but Clint was loving it.
See? I think he wants one.
Me in a sea of turbans. Quite the crowd.

It says, "India the largest democracy in the world welcomes you." How sweet.
Indians at the nightly lowering of the flag ceremony at the Indo-Pak border. An exercise in weirdness, including dancing, shouting, cheering, and running a flag up and down the street, while a much smaller Pakistani crowd on the other side tried to match the display.
Golden temple at night.