Visiting the Attari border - not what you expect

You'd thinks it's grand, pompous and dignified. But the closing ceremony at Attari border (30 km from Amritsar) between India and Pakistan is anything but. In fact it's more like a daily fiesta.

The ceremony itself probably is rather serious business. The marching and stomping soldiers make grim faces at one another while the flags of both countries are taken down. Or so you hear.

In reality the ceremony is so popular among Indian tourists that your chances of seeing a thing are pretty grim. I don't know how early you would have to be there to get proper seats for the 6 pm event, but I'm assuming at least 2 hours before. And that's along wait when there is no way to hide from the blazing sun.

But it doesn't matter! What's really worth seeing here are the Indians going crazy with national pride. For about 45 minutes preceeding the ceremony school girls and boys make quite a spectacle dancing on the street leading to the gates between the two countries. They jam to the latest Indian tunes - to me it sounded like music from Bollywood movies, but heck, what do I know, the songs could have been Punjabi just as well. The only word I could catch was "Hindustan" - which made the crowd go absolutely nuts. The Hindustan theme continues when the actual ceremony begins. And what a beginning it has! A man with a marathon runner's lungs just screams to the microphone for as long as he can. "Oooooooooooooooooo" And the crowd cheers. Then begins the marching accented by some silly looking kicks.

The cheering of "Hindustan" lasts all along during the ceremony. The crowd is as extatic as if they'd just win the world cup. It's funny and scary at the same time.

So yeah, I'd go and see the ceremony, even if it's quite different from what people tell you. At least it offers one insight to the relationship between India and Pakistan.

If you decide to go, here are a few tips:

1. Leave your valuables at your guest house or at the Golden Temple, if that's where you are staying. Bags are not allowed to the ceremony, something that no one seems to remember to tell you when you go.

2. By far the easiest way to make it to the border is by a shared jeep. The running price for a return ride is 75 rupees. If they try to charge you extra for parking, turn to another jeep. You don't particularly have to go look for a jeep in Amritsar. You'll be offered the trip to the border to an annoying extent. These touts are the single one bit I didn't like in Amritsar. A public bus goes there as well but apparently it takes about 75 minutes one way whereas the jeep only takes 30 minutes.

3. Be prepared to be pushed around - and I mean seriously pushed around. This ceremony is not for the claustrophobic, although I assume they would not come to India in the first place.

Read more about Amritsar and the Golden Temple here.

Travelling across India on a ricksha - these guys did it!

Ever joked about buying an auto ricksha and making your way around India driving on your own? Well it's no joke anymore. Charles and Stuart from Canada have travelled all across the continent from Kerala up to the north on their own three wheeler, for which they payed 30 000 rupees (about 450 euros).

I met them in Amritsar, where their auto ricksha was parked on the grounds of the Golden Temple's - with a permission from the friendly people who work there of course.

Charles told me it has taken them nearly two months to make the 3000 km journey with side trips to wherever they wanted to go. They can't make it much further North however as the mountains are too hard to tackle for the little engine.

I specially admire them for driving around the frenetic streets of Mumbai even though Charles admitted is was, well, awful. The distances they've done in a day are quite impressive too. The longest single drive was about 500 kilometers, which is about as much as you could do on a bus in a day.

The ricksha has broken down a few times but the guys tell me, it's not a problem despite the fact that neither of them is equipped to repair it. They say there's always a three wheeler mechanic around and the other ricksha drivers are more than eager to help. They've had the ricksha repaired for as little as 50 rupees - if it needs new parts the price might go up to thousand rupees.

The ricksha has a 25 liter tank and it uses about one liter of petrol on 8 kilometers meaning that they get 200 kilometers from one tank. Petrol isn't as cheap as you could imagine though. It costs about 90 euro cents per liter, so most of the time at least the government busses could be a cheaper way to go. But hey, how cool is sitting hours on end on a rusty bus that's late again when you can ride your own ricksha?

Buy the way, as the guys are soon about to leave India behind, the trusty ricksha is up for sale. If you are interested in buying it, contact me, I'll forward your message.

Read more about Amritsar and the Golden Temple here.

Read more about Mumbai here.

Next post: Unforgettable journey from Amritsar to Srinagar.

5 best of Amritsar: Good times for free!

I seriously don't understand why the Taj Mahal is considered to be the number one attraction in India - at least if we are talking about buildings. That notorious title ought to belong to Amritsar's Golden Temple. But thankfully it doesn't. Now Amritsar is visited by a relatively small amount of foreign tourists and thus has very few qualities off a tourist trap. Here's why:

1. You get to stay here for free. For foreign tourists the temple offers basic accommodation in a few small rooms of three people and one bigger dorm.

2. You get to eat here for free. The food at the dining hall is basic dal, rice and chapati, but hey, rice and dal never stopped being tasty.

3. The turban wearing guards are a great source of information on sikhism and the history of Golden Temple. Not only are they extremely knowledgeable, most of them speak really good English. They are so friendly as well! One of the guys I spoke to had a good laugh when I asked him if I could be a sikh and then he went on explaining how sikhs welcome all. And you know what, I think these guys are kind of hot too! I would not have guessed I was into turbans.

4. I'm not even streching it: Amritsar has the nicest ricksha wallahs in the whole of India. I intended to walk from the railway station to the temple when I arrived, but then bumped into this sweet sweet bicycle ricksha wallah. The man was so nice that I figured I might as well take the ride. I negotiated the price down from 40 rupees to 20 but ended up giving the guy 50 - he was just so genuinly helpful. So if you ever bump into Surinder, who can be reached at 97-809-15869, do ride his ricksha. Or if you've got friends at the UN, give them this man's number. His doing a world of good to the itchy relationship between backpackers and ricksha drivers. Lesser men have been awarded the Peace Prize.

5. Other wallahs and shop keepers understand the meaning of "no thank you". They just let you be!

Previous stop: Delhi.

Next stop: Srinagar.