Déjà vu in the Punjab

Déjà vu in the Punjab

The final stop in India.

Five years ago our class from the university visited Amritsar to see the golden temple and the famous Pakistani border crossing at Atari.

I took it upon myself to see this once again, I crossed much more of India than I anticipated on this trip, but this destination was always in the back of my mind. And finally I made it!

I arrived and stayed at a small guest house close to the bus station in Amritsar, for two bucks a night it wasn’t half bad. I met a crazy Aussie guy, Jiffy, to whom was also on his way to Pakistan and Iran, so we swopped details and made plans to cross the border.

Amritsar was much busier than I remember, but it seems like most of India seems to be that way, I am sure they have added another 100 million people since I visited last in 2007. I visited the golden temple, had lunch there, adventured around this crazy city and took in my last tastes of delicious India food. I had to stick on the vegetarian train, as I knew that upon going to Pakistan and Afghanistan I would once again become a carnivore.

The border ceremony was a hit, a tad more exciting than my visit five years ago, as the Indians seemed to be much more into it on this go around. Chants of HINDUSTAN! Women dancing around, showing off all the colours of the subcontinent, dancing to bollywood’s latest hits and marching their flags at Pakistan was quite something. I saw a fantastically familiar site on my way back to Amritsar, the sign that says “India, the world’s largest democracy welcomes you”. A kinda screw you to Pakistan and their troubled political history since the countries split in 1947.

The next day I arose, grabbed Jiffy and we made our way back to the border, to go through all the formalities and watch the border ceremony on the other side. We made one final stop at a beer shop to grab one final beer before entering Pakistan, a country where drinking Alcohol is largely Illegal. Jiffy was soundly ripped off at first, as is the case in India, leaving once again a fine impression of the Indians. But hey, if one expects honesty, good hospitality, cleanliness and organization, they best go to Germany and not India.

The border was intense, as to be expected. These two nuclear armed enemies take their security very seriously, but we made it through pretty straight forward. I exchanged the last of my Indian rupees, got across the customs on the India side and walked across the same border where we had sat the night before watching the show. We managed to snap a shot with one foot on either side, and the border guards from both countries had a good laugh at these two wacky adventures doing what only so few that travel India would dare to do, see the other side of the subcontinent.

Welcome to Pakistan and the other side of Punjab.

Details to follow soon.

Cheers,

William Delaney