Amritsar, Saturday

1229 Finally dragging myself out of bed. Woke about 7 feeling crap. Seems like loads of shit to do today - go buy train ticket, then go to border, then see temple at night - and all slightly difficult and leaving little convenient time for food. Anyway, got to get on.

1354 At Brothers. Just ordered. Not sure if going to make the border and trying to contain a sense of urgency; if I don't make it it's not the end of the world. Chap yesterday told me to be in that place 230-3 for taxi IIRC, assuming I can find it that will probably work. Wikitravel makes it sound nightmarish, but WTF. Definitely want food first as I suspect if I do get there I could be hanging around a lot.

Massive queue at reservation office. No availability in CC - chap said I should go by bus, which would have thrown my already hurried itinerary for today right out - but after slight confusion managed to get reservation in non-AC. It's OK, weather isn't hot and if it's cold I can wear my jacket. (I have been wearing long-sleeved shirt a lot here, esp at night, it is relatively cool.) At least it only cost INR110.

1422 Food good though bit stuffed. Bill 345, will make it 400. Prob be back here tonight anyway.

1433 Sat in back of tuktuk somewhere down a back street waiting to go to Wagah border. Not paid yet. Guy says we will leave at 3pm. May be too late but if so can't be helped, I have tried. I could have paid 600 (not sure if one way or not) to go solo but am paying 100 each way to share. I might guess it would be 600 both ways on the assumption there will be three of us in the back. I feel a bit safer going with a group somehow. I hope they get some more people soon. I was milling about in street outside Jwhatsit Bthing (massacre place) and a chap asked 'Wagah border?', which was more or less what I expected to happen. Slightly worried is going to be a bit cold esp on way back but I have a T-shirt on under my long sleeved shirt so it should be OK and being cold for maybe half an hour isn't going to kill me. Wikitravel rather confusing about exa

1444 Got moved over to front left seat of a white tuktuk (this one has a steering wheel, which is unusual, and three car-like pedals and a car-ish gear stick on the dashboard, which is probably unusual but obviously I don't normally have the same view when I'm in the back - dashboard says 'Mahindra') which took me round corner where we picked up some people who are sitting in back. I hope we are not going to squish an extra person in front. I am not quite sure why we haven't gone yet, though from awkward glances over shoulder I might be wrong in thinking we have three people in back, though it looks like it.

I went and bought a bottle of water aftering say yes to the chap in street - some difficulty making him understand why I wanted to pop off - but as per wikitravel do not have a bag since apparently they are not permitted. There is apparently a tourist area at the border which I hope I can get into to avoid worst of crush. 1448 and we seem to be off.

2017 Back at hotel after being present at (but not really seeing) the border ceremony and a circuit of the pool at the Golden Temple after dark. Have booked a hotel in Chandigarh and going to leave laptop uploading some photos while I go gorge a second time at Brothers. Was tempted not to go out for food but sod it. It's vegetarian at least. May try to get over to Crystal for lunch tomorrow.

2031 At Brothers, ordered veg hot & sour soup, jeera rice, mushroom mutter, plain naan (Brothers, dinner).

The ceremony. Incidentally it was a 4 wheel vehicle, though only noticed on return. I got shoved in between driver and his mate both ways, so I had my arse a bit on each of their cushions and basically by the end of each journey it was quite painful.

We basically got there too late; so much for my assumption being with a group of Indians would avoid this. Not my fault given I was there at 230ish and we didn't leave til 3ish and then we kept touting for business as we went and stopped a couple of places.

A young man who I assumed to be an adult at first and his brother sort of started talking to me once we disembarked and were walking to the border. I gather most of the group (oh, it was really pile em high in the vehicle, people sat immediately behind me facing backwards, etc) was this boy's family - turns out he is in year 10, dunno what that equates to but once I stopped assuming he was a small adult I'd guess he was about 12. His English was very bare bones but we could communicate a little and he and his brother to a lesser extent shepherded me through the crush of checkpoints. However, when we got to the border the general seating area was already full. I did see a sign for the foreign tourist bit but it would have felt shabby to ditch them at that point. Plus I did see one European-looking woman with us in the crowd at ground level so maybe it would have been full anyway. As far as I could tell the ceremony had started already when we got to border.

2121 Bill 370. Waiter chappie said "This bill very clear. Indian man cheat, very unclear bill. This bill clear." (or words to that effect) The bill has always been clear here before, why he would feel the need to slag Indians off I don't know. Pretty sure this is not a ploy to get bigger tip. Anyway, will make it 450. Stuffed, didn't quite finish the rice.

Meh, change was 'fixed' (to be fair, it's a natual way to pay) - got 100+3x10 from my 500, so left the 100. Not a problem, still cheap and place has been pretty good etc.

2153 B

2257 Been having chat with reception guy (Harpreet), the aborted entry was when I got back to my room after initial chat and he called me as he was having trouble finding me on facebook. Slightly odd chat and I don't know if he was trying to get rid of me at the end (but of course I didn't want to be seen to be wanting to get away from him) but still, quite interesting. He is a Sikh so I found out a) you don't have to wear a turban if you're a Sikh (he doesn't, which is why I asked when he said he was - I don't know *exactly* how this works or if all Sikhs agree with that, but still) b) most of the people in Amritsar are Sikhs, despite my assuming it was about 50% based on turban-wearing c) it is true that all Sikh temples are equally holy d) the wikitravel claim that all Sikhs are required/expected to volunteer for a week at the temple here is not true. All of course subject to him being right (he probably is) and me not having misunderstood. His English was pretty good but by no means flawless, though since the problems were mainly on him understanding me my accent may be partly to blame (tho my general theory on such things is that listening in a foreign language to a native speaker is much harder than talking to one). Won't attempt to note down everything we said but he did say his mother tongue is Punjabi but the first n years of school are done in Hindi (so he is fluent in it) and apparently no one finds that objectionable (on regional pride type grounds).

Anyway, just re the border ceremony, the son who was helping me got on his brother's shoulders and took some photos for me. I also did get to see the two country's flags being lowered in parallel. It was a bit not-quite-scary-level push-and-shove-y up by the gate/steps to the seats, but after a while we stepped back and five or ten metres away it's busy but not crazy.

0041 Fuck me it's cold in this room. Weather forecast says 10C out, it showed 16C on sign in street earlier. There is a draught from the door to the balcony. Maybe I'm just ill but I think it is a tad nippy.