The Pakistan Border

 While we were in Amritsar we took a day trip to the border of Pakistan... something I had decided beforehand that I would never do.  Being American, we hear about wars and see lots of video/images of war in Pakistan so I instantly had the perception of it being incredibly dangerous, which was way off.
We bought a seat in a car to go with tourists and were told that it was an awesome experience of watching the two countries' flags come down, watching the soldiers do a fancy routine, and that we would have special seats just for the tourists... which later you will find out was completely a lie! We took a packed jeep of 13 people and found ourselves at the border 40 minutes later.

When we got out of the car it was utter chaos. We had no clue where to go, what to do and there were so many people there, like 3 baseball stadiums full.  Landon and I quickly got separated because as men & women, there is always separation, he went in one line while I waited in another anxiously not trying to lose eye contact with each other.  The woman's line went quickly and I was panicked because I lost Landon and we were separated at the Pakistan border and it was just a crazy, scary thought for me... a situation that I would have never thought to be found in!  About 10 minutes later I climbed up on a wall and found him...hallelujah!!... which is shown in the last photo... see if you can find landon...

Once we clasped hands, we tried to find a seat in the immense crowds of people.  There was no special seat for us special tourists like we were promised... big surprise... but we found one right in the front which was lucky. So as we waited for the flag ceremony the crowds were chanting "INDIA, INDIA!"and had their fists pumped in the air as if we were at a sports game.  They were so proud of their country and were unitedly singing in their Hindu language.  As the Indian soldiers got ready to go through their routine they had a man cheerleader trying to rowel up the crowd even more louder than they already were.  It suddenly became a crazy uproar of the men all jumping, yelling, and pushing each other; it was honestly like one huge mosh-pit with 100+ Indian men.  We were caught in the front and were trampled on and for the first time I felt unsafe.  They continued to get louder and more rowdy and we were stuck right in the middle of it.  I started pushing people and yelling but with little ol' me that did absolutely nothing.  I felt hands on the sides of my legs either trying to feel me up or pick-pocket me, either way it didn't go well with me. I started slapping their hands and yelling at them... Anyways, it was the longest 30 minutes of our lives. We were covered in 100+ other men's sweat and felt suffocated.  Once the ceremony was over we quickly ran to the middle of the street to get a fresh breath of air and bought ourselves a bag of popcorn. Whew what an experience!

But in the end of it all, now we can say we've been to the Pakistan border!

The Golden Temple

 Amritsar was the last city we toured through in India, and as probably most of you know or can see, Amritsar is where the infamous Golden Temple is.  The Golden Temple is considered holy by the Sikhs.  While we were there sitting on the side of the wall taking everything in, we were approached by a man that was so friendly to us.  He was a Sikh himself and wanted to answer all the questions we had about his religion.  We learned so much and it really opened my eyes to a new world.

As we approached the Golden Temple grounds we first had to wash our feet off at the entrance in little marble pools and then tie on scarves to cover the tops of our heads.  There was one walkway to the entrance of the Golden Temple and there was a massive line of people all waiting to enter shown in photo #3. We followed a few indians through the exit and got into the temple within 5 minutes.  It was a surreal experience being completely surrounded by men all wearing turbans with daggers and swords hanging freely on their sides.  It was breathtaking walking through the Golden Temple.  They had their holy men constantly reading their holy book singing with a repetitive rhythm, it was almost trancing.  The upper half of the walls were plated in gold while the lower half was hand painted.  The floors were all in-laid marble.  Everything was so exquisite and detailed, like everything else in the Indian culture.

There at the Golden Temple they also serve free thali (food) for anyone and everyone and also have free rooms for tourists to stay.  It was a first come first serve basis and I think that out of the 20 beds in one room there were only a few scattered left empty.  Landon and I decided to stay in our own place for our last nights in India but thought that it was awesome how open/generous the Sikh religion was.

Also I did a guest post over at Traveling Triplets blog, go over here to take a look!

Manali

 Here is 4 days squeezed into 1 post.  I am coming to an end on India and I think I have 1 or 2 more left? I am sad because I loved everything about India and I really loved reliving my time there through these posts!

So this is the beautiful city of Manali, a much colder climate and a nice change from the rest of India, I think we got there just in time before we melted away.  The 10 hour bus drive was beautiful, like right out of a dream fairyland, beautiful.  The culture was different from the rest of India which changed our plans to staying there longer.  The people were more asian influenced, wore wool and fun looking hats, and were very friendly. Manali offered lots of exploring and discovery, and was probably the city that we explored and hiked the most. It was beautiful with the Himalayas setting the background for each new experience.  And maybe my favorite thing about Manali were their delicious Himalayan oranges, I literally had 4+ a day and just thinking about them makes my mouth water.

On our favorite day there we splurged and rented a Royal Enfield (a motorcycle for us girls who don't know the language).  Landon has a passion for riding and bikes so we splurged a day for him to be able to drive his lady on the windy roads up to the Himalayas. I still remember holding on to him so tightly thinking that this really was a once in a lifetime experience.  On that day we hiked up to a waterfall, rode some yaks, ate yak cheese, bought yak shawls (the most expensive thing we bought in our travels) drove up every road possible, and found ourselves on a hidden hill where they sacrificed sheep and worshipped their gods.

Manali was so special because it gave us quality, quiet time to really reflect on our entire trip and spend special time together.  I loved that every night we were freezing and had to return to our hostel early, that will probably be the only time that I was grateful for cold weather.