Ludhiana

Travelled via train north of Delhi to Ludhiana. Upon arrival, we went to a friend's house. Ludhiana appears more suburban than Delhi and the house is more of a compound than a house. :)

I think in the end I preferred northern India as it didn't seem as cramped and teeming with people as the other parts of India I travelled through.

The next day, travelled even further north near the Pakistan border. Went to a town, Amritsar, to visit the Golden Temple. The friend's family is Sikh and the temple is the holiest temple within the religion. On the way to Amritsar, there were two 'adventures.' The first was navigating the highway and experience Indian concept of passing. We even played bumper cars with another vehicle. Luckily, the rented car suffered the only damage and the driver took off immediately.

The second event was the random checkpoints to Amritsar. The state is under military control until elections are over. During this time period, the army is trying to eliminate all individuals from carrying guns to prevent any violent reaction the election. I thought Texas was into personal protection but the Indians take it even further. Once they saw we were foreigners, we usually got waved on since we don't understand the language and be suggested to give the guards bribes. I was told it was common for the guards to want money to continue on your trip.

At the Golden Temple, we were able to practice the rituals that Sikhs do when visiting the temple. We walked around the perimeter and splashed holy water on our feet. We also offered a degh offering to the temple and saw the priests chanting and praying. As part of the offering, the handler always cut the degh, a wheat based pastry, in half and give back half to you. On the way out, you are also given a handful of degh to eat. As a description, degh is like a sweet risotto like food.

On the way back to Ludhiana, stopped at Haveli which is a vegetarian Punjabi restaurant. The family ordered the food so I don't really know what I exactly had. I did recognize naan but that was basically the only thing I could identify. The food was excellent and I didn't miss the lack of meat in the meal.

Once we were back in the city, grabbed some beers at The Brewmaster. It was supposed to be a pub but it was more club like. For $10USD, you could get a three liter beer bong. That's cheap! The finger foods on their menu was also pretty tasty.

The next day, we were going to head back to Delhi. Before getting to the train station, went to the local stores to buy traditional clothes for some of the wedding festivities. Bought a couple of Punjabi outfits even though I needed only one. The outfits we bought were "on rack" but it still requieres a tailor to fit you. It only takes a few hours to alter the outfits. If I had more time, I could have customized the Punjabi outfit and maybe a sari too.

While waiting for our clothes, the friend took us by the village their family was from. They have donated a school in the community and we went to check it out. The experience was interesting to see the dichotomy of developing India versus rural India.