Heyyyyyy! Hope you guys are doing well. This post is dedicated to the city of the Golden Temple - Amritsar in Punjab. I made an impromptu plan for the weekend from Delhi to Amritsar and took my sister and mother along - and I was definitely not disappointed!
We started from Delhi to Amritsar by train, early in the morning on Saturday and reached by 2pm, the same day. We had already booked our stay at “Nutz Backpackers” hostel (the room was clean and quite budget friendly. The person running the hostel was quite helpful and friendly too.
The only issue was the location - every single shop was shut by 8pm!). I’ll drop a link and contact number at the end if someone needs it.
We quickly got dressed and left for the show stopper of the city - The Golden Temple. Quick trivia: Also called Harmandir Sahib / Abode of God is one of the most important Gurudwaras (Holy shrine) of the Sikhs. It is surrounded by the Amrit Tal (hence the name Amritsar or ‘pool of nectar’). It represents a unique amalgamation of Muslim and Hindu architecture. Apart from spiritual importance, it has socio-political significance in the history of India too. If you know, you know 🤷♀️
The temple was absolutely stunning. Words won’t do justice to the beauty I witnessed. Serene. Beautiful. Soothing. The temple is super crowded 24*7 but still manages to instil a sense of peace within you.
We got back to our room and ordered some yummy food from a local restaurant. The next morning, we got dressed and visited the temple once again! We entered at 5am and managed to physically enter the main shrine only by 8am (not kidding when I say it is super crowded all the time!) but the wait was worth it.
⬆️ This is how crowded it was at 5am!! Apparently, devotees start lining up from 3am itself. In fact, I even witnessed multiple people fainting in the queue 😆
Can’t believe I woke up at 4am and managed to shower and dress up. The temperature was around 11 degrees 🥲
Then, we visited Jallianwala Bagh (famous for the massacre that happened during the British rule) which is located very close to the temple itself. Being super hungry after all the sight seeing, we had typical Amritsari food from “Brothers Dhaba” (hands down, one of the finest parathas I’ve eaten in my life) and left for the Wagah Border.
The highlighted squares are holes in the walls due to gun shots. Over hundreds of innocent people were massacred and the event is considered to be a black dot in the history of Indian Independence to this day.
If you ever happen to visit Amritsar - you wouldn’t want to miss the Wagah Border. I wish I could put to words, what I felt there as an Indian. You see two countries (believed to be brothers at war) so close yet so far- separated by a gate.
Each side having its own citizens who are celebrating their Nation and its very existence. The entire flag ceremony (including BSF protocols and dancing sessions for women on the border) lasted about 2hours and these two hours give you literal chills every three seconds.
The border is quite far from the main city for obvious reasons and we had Raj Bhaiya who took us around in his auto rickshaw. He was an absolute sweetheart and genuinely helped us when we were clueless about things. I’ll drop his number at the end too.
That was the end of a very beautiful trip. We boarded a bus on Sunday at night and reached Delhi by Monday morning to get back to the blues! Amritsar does justice to its name not just because its temples are golden but also because its people are gold hearted! If good food, great people and the perfect balance between serenity and adrenaline is what you’re looking for in two days - you know where you need to be!
Until next time. Cheers!❤️
NUTZ BACKPACKERS: +91 99888 62442 / https://www.instagram.com/nutz.backpackers / http://www.nutzbackpackers.com/
Raj Bhaiya: +91 94177 97556