Days 181-92 – more India!

OK, I admit, I tried to be lazy… and not write nearly anything about India… but she doesnt deserve it, India took good care of me, so here we go again:

1. Getting there

I was requesting visas for India from Pakistan, which is already a disadvantage, but thanks to a few miracles and Umar who did the running around Islamabad offices, me and Jeremy got the visas right on time, actually we had to wait for them in Lahore as they came a day later… 3.300 rupees The only good thing was that foreigners dont get visas that say how exactly do You have to cross (train, plane, bus) and where (which exact border place), so we walked to Inda :O

Simply said – we took a taxi from Lahore, went to Wagha border, went through the Paki customs, walked to India, went through the Indian customs and than got a taxi to Amritsar… I know it looks pretty simple, and it would normally be, but not if there is a bus with fifty people who comes at the same time as You    It took us damn 3 hours to get from 1st to 2nd taxi!

2. Amritsar

Amritsar is the city closest to Lahore, it took half an hour from the border to get there. We had couple of hours before our train left so we thought we have no reason to hurry… but. First of all we wasted time at the border and than it took us 1,5 hour to get a ticket – wait in the line! The way how the ticket selling works is the TOP of unefficiency I have ever seen.

Anyways, we went first to the Golden Temple, as that was something Jeremy wanted to see… and I have to say, I am glad he did. It is a beautiful place, where there is lots to see… For any tourist it is also very good to know that the temple is open to any visitor, there is a place to sleep for free inside, the temple has a charity kitchen that serves hundreds of poor every day and most of all – its really beautiful.

3. Train ride

Was OK. If I say that it took 28 hours, I guess some of You will be scared, well, it was sometimes boring, but it was pretty OK and comfortable.

We spent couple of hours talking to a random indian guy – about everything: partition of India and PK, differences, history and even Kashmir. Result (can not say what is true and what not):
- people of both countries like each other, its the governments that do all the conflicts
- the Pakistani security services actually attacks India
- there is no way how India or Pakistan can accept that Kashmir is not theirs

4. Jamshedpur

Would be a small and unimportant town, if TATA Steel was not founded here – this is where the TATA empire has started. Btw, TATA is launching the “Worlds cheapest car” for only 2.500 USD … Apart from that the town is actually owned by TATA and has to be said, thats why its also called the cleanes town of India (eventhough by European standards it still has a long way to go). Generally its just an industrial town with not much to see except a Culture centre (founded by TATA) and schools were poor people learn handycrafts (founded by TATA), TATAs trainign centre (where the opening ceremony was) and TATA Steels factory (which we have not seen).

During the conference we had an Indian night, during which there was a whole program of different kinds of Indian music and dances, really nice

5. Kolkata

Where we stayed in a cheap (but really bad) hotel, as we had couple of days left before we had to go back to Pakistan. We saw some nice places like Victorias Memorial (but didnt go in, too expensive for foreigners) and Belur Math (headquarter of Ramakrishnas). As Kolkata experienced some riots lately (conflict between oposition and government) some places have been closed…

BUT what was the most important for us was the FOOD and TEA. Amazing lassi, potato chat, spicy tea and other random foods, that was the best part of the Kolkata stay

6. Way back to Lahore

Took two nights and one day   Not kidding, but it went fast… Got a few intesting sights, like a cow looking into our compartment, saw the holy river Ganga, and sunrise over the fields. Stopped again for a short time in Amritsar (we came before the border opened) and than walked back to Pakistan… The End