Seeing Amritsar on a Sprained Ankle
Amritsar, 18:07hrs local time on 26-June-2009. So, on the way to the bus station down the hill in McLeod Ganj, I unexpectedly fell down. That was 2 days ago. My ankle, thank goodness, did not brake or have a fracture, or so the Punjabi lady doctor whom I paid a visit to yesterday. If anything had broken, she went on to explain, then I would not be standing, let alone hobble. So it is some ligament or twisted muscle. My right ankle is about 1.5 times the size of my left ankle. It is black and blue and I have to wrap it tight for support while I hobble during the day. So, I have become known in the last 2 days as the hobbling tourist in Amritsar. I have taken rickshaw rides the last 2 days. Today I found out that I was overcharged for the rides. I should have been paying 5 Rupees instead the drivers were asking for 10, which I stupidly paid. Day 1 I got here, my ankle had not yet swollen to this glorious monstrosity I hobbled over to the Golden Temple for dinner. Yes the Golden Temple runs a 24 hour soup kitchen, which I first saw on Michael Palin’s Himalayas series. True to what I saw, you get handed a metal plate, a spoon and a bowl. The kitchen feeds approximately 30,000 pilgrims a day, or so I am told. You then head upstairs and sit on the floor in lines with other pilgrims (not that I am a pilgrim). On this fine evening, I appeared to be the only tourist among the hungry. The food servers meticulously come down each row of people and dish out lentil dal onto your plate from a huge metal bucket. Then the chapatti fellow comes and you are supposed to hold out your hands cupped in the air for him to place the 2 pieces of chapatti. But of course I didn’t know this and got yelled at when after he just threw the 2 chapattis on my plate. The woman next to me who appeared very poor and who slept on the streets at night, as she tried to tell me (or at least I thought that’s what she was saying) showed me that I had to place my hands out in the air in a cupped position. Anyway next came the water which they pour from a huge metal bucket into the bowl. The water is for drinking and washing your hands and mouth after eating. I didn’t drink the water (as usual, not knowing If it was tap water) so I just used it to rinse my hands off after dinner. Then came the rice. Again served out of a huge metal bucket. I have to say the food was very tasty and FREE. I am told that there is a chapatti machine somewhere which spews out hundreds of chapattis around the clock. I could not find this. I took my pictures when later I was told that I was not supposed to and that I could only take the photos around the Pool of Nectar outside. OK, so out of respect I refrained from further photo taking and was content with the low quality photos I took with my cell phone (since I didn’t have my camera on me). After dinner you walk down the stairs, where one fellow takes your spoon. Then you hand your bowl and plate to 2 rows of Sikhs who form the cleaning system. Your utensils get washed in a huge tub of water, meticulously, and then sent down the line. You think with feeding 30,000 people in a 24 hour period the cleanliness is not quite there. Quite the contrary, the utensils are spotless. They really clean the utensils. I had contemplating staying a night in the free tourist dorm for free in the Golden Temple. But with my hobbling I wasn’t in a position to move from my hotel. I need to rest and honestly I have not seen as much of Amritsar as I would have liked or of the Golden Temple just because it is so painful to hobble around. Yes, I am literally hobbling with a cotton wrap around my right ankle. The locals got to know me and all giving me a supportive or sympathetic smiles. So I got my photos of the GT on Day 1. On Day 2 took an overcrowded van to the Attari –Wagah Indian-Pakistani border to watch the closing of the border. There were more people on the India side than the Pakistani. The Indian guards have a red oriental fan as part of the hats and they are all rather tall (see photo of me). I got dropped off a distance from the actual border and caught a rickshaw which charged me 10 Rupees up to the gate. Then another rickshaw fellow demanded 50 Rupees to walk the remaining 1 Km to the border. Bullshit I said. Screamed at the rickshaw driver and said 10 Rupees. This is India for you. Take advantage of a stupid tourist. I am getting rather sick of this and am looking forward to Nepal, I hear from other travelers that the Nepalese don’t appear to squeeze every dime out of every tourist. And so I hobbled the 1 Km in the heat, dust and among the hurried Indians. At first I sat in the women section. Then moved to the Tourist Section or VIP Section! I was seated way up there and ran into a couple of travelers I had chatted with the day before and another couple who were on my van ride from McLeod Ganj. Really you couldn’t take good photos from where I was sitting so I asked the guard if I could sit on the road side on the opposite side. He asked why and I pointed to my wrapped up ankle. OK, he said, me only, special permission. So down the steps and across the street I hobbled. I did get really good photos! Right before the actual border closing ceremony there was a big party on the front where the Indians were dancing to some music being played through some loud speakers. There were some Indians who ran with the Indian flag down the road up to the border gates and back. A couple of tourists did it also. All in all it was very ceremonious and patriotic. At the end again, I was let out early before the crowds because of my ankle. Trying to find the driver in the madness of the crowd and dusty road was a nightmare. After calling the driver on my Indian cell phone and having my location explained (after waling for more than 1 km outside) he finally picked me up. To cut a long story short I was in extreme pain with my foot. But what other choice did I have. I had come all the way to see this and the Golden Temple, which I paid another visit to today. I queued with the Sikh pilgrims and stood in line for an hour in order to walk around the Golden Temple itself. To enter the temple grounds you have to go in barefooted and cover your head. They provide free scarfs in bins at the entrance where you get one. There are shoe deposit booths on both sides of the main entrance which is quite a way from the main temple entrance. You have to walk over the hot pavement to get to the entrance without your shoes. You have to wash you feet before entering the temple. Because of this I had to remove the wrapping off my ankle. Boy, was it painful to walk without support. But anyway I suppose I am now a full fledged Sikh since each Sikh is encouraged to make a visit to the Golden Temple once in their life. At the Golden Temple itself, one of the Sikh staff helped me pour some holy water over my head. At the water’s edge up by the Golden Temple there were gold fish feeding. The temple is overall very clean. Having spoken to other travelers who stayed at the free tourist dorm, I was told that conditions in the beds, baths and toilets are very clean. The Sikhs are cleaner than the Indians. You get this impression when you walk inside the Golden Temple and eat at their dining hall. Again, I hear this from other travelers who have slept in the tourist dorm. All I can observe is from being inside the Golden Temple and eating in their dining hall. Not only did I enjoy the Golden Temple, but I was a feast to mosquitoes. My neck and upper arms looks like I have chicken pox. Unbelievable how many mossies that were out!
Tomorrow I go back to McLeod Ganj and onto Manali the next day, and then north to Leh. The bus ride will take 2 days overnighting at Keylong, the go up to an elevation of 5328m, and then down again to (this being the 2nd highest motor way in the world) to Leh at at elevation of 3505m. I will be on the lookout for AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness).
Tomorrow. Sat 27-Jun-2009 Morning. So I took the rickshaw to the hotel where the 9 seater van was supposed to leave to McLeod Ganj. The ride was going to run Rs. 600. Ok, about USD12.00 for a 6 hour ride direct with not stops unlike the state run bus. I get there and they tell me that there is no bus going but they can put me in a private taxi for Rs2800 (usd57). After being on the phone with the owner of a Cititravel he assured me that the next van was running on Sat 27th June. Hell, no way I was paying Rs 2800 (not that I couldn’t afford it but it defeats the purpose of backpacking, then, right?). The fellow at the front desk tells me that there is no bus going to Dharamsala (near McLeod Ganj) and insists that I have to take a taxi. After some yelling back and forth with my insistence that there was a bus, I just took off to the bus terminal. Riding the rickshaw to the bus terminal with my pack, day pack and bag of groceries (for the long ride ahead) going over pot holes was something. Each time the rickshaw went over a pothole ( and there are more potholes than there are road) either me or the bag of groceries or the day pack would almost fall off. The rickshaw got slammed into by an autorickshaw, and the driver and my driver got off and had a tiff about it. Hot, dusty and in pain, I was in no mood to sit and listen to their squabble. The rickshaw eventually dropped me off at the bus terminal where again I had to hobble my way to the terminal itself with my 18kg pack, 12kg daypack and groceries on my body. Can’t even begin to describe the pain in my foot. But I eventually find the bus to Dharamsala from where I will taxi to McLeod Ganj. The long bus ride with stops at every corner and the taxi to McLeod Ganj from the Dharamsala bus terminal (in the middle of nowhere and no taxi in sight) took all in all about 8 hours and cost only Rs. 180 (usd3.40, a big difference from usd57.).
Today. Sun 28-Jun- 2009 1705. Found another kind backpacker who would help me haul my pack to the bus leaving for Manali. The fellow working at the hotel I am staying at in McLeod Ganj was very kind to give me an elastic bandage wrap for my ankle. So I tossed the grotty cotton one out. Of all days the monsoon rains have hit McLeod Ganj today. I guess I will have to squeeze my swollen foot into my shoes to avoid any skidding on my part if I wore the flip flops. Yippee. How fun. Yeah right.
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