Our next destination was Amritsar. This was not a night train, it took about 4 hours. We took the Express, which is renowned as one of India’s nicest trains. We were fed (well) and it was very comfortable. We arrived in Amritsar at night and made our way to our hotel, the Sharma Guest House (400 rupees).   At night it was 15C in the room (59F)  – thermal time.  The hotel has a fairly large rooms, but the bathroom was rather cramped.

The reason we visited Amritsar was to see the Golden Temple, the largest Sikh temple in India. Our hotel was just a short 5 minute walk from the temple, and is spectacularly lit up at night. We went to check it out. Before entering, we had to leave our shoes (and socks) with a guard – but unlike every Hindu temple we visited, we didn’t have to pay. The temple itself was absolutely spotless. At the entry, there is a foot washing pool (with heated water!) that everyone must go through.  The temple is beautiful, and very peaceful.  We were made to feel very welcome and comfortable.

The next morning we headed back to the temple to check it out during the day. We were able to enter the temple itself, via a walkway. Worshippers seemed genuinely pleased that we were there – multiple people stopped to explain to us parts of what we were seeing.

We also visited the langur, which is a communal free dining hall in all Sikh temples. It is open to all people.  Sikh founder Guru Nank created the kitchens to promote the concept of equality – the highest caste sits next to the lowest caste, and the rich next to the poor.  We sat down in rows facing each other, and people walk around serving out delicious Dahl and bread (chappatis) onto your plate. They keep feeding you until you can not possibly eat any more. We wanted to leave a donation for our free lunch, but believe it or not we had a hard time finding the donation box!  The bin has writing only in Hindi, and we weren’t sure if it was a garbage or a donation box!  We waited to see someone else dropping money into the box.  We spent some time watching the kitchen/food preparation area. It’s a very organized, efficient operation staffed by volunteers from the temple.

A short walk from the Golden Temple is the Jallianwala Bagh. This is the site of the slaughter of 400 Indians when British troops fired on 10,000 unarmed men, women, and children who were protesting (and trapped) inside the square.  The memorial is tastefully done, and nicely kept up and clean.

We did some shopping and walking around the very busy town, before heading back to the hotel to get our bags and head to the train station.