Stepping off the edge

We drove for about 30 minutes from our hotel, higher up in the mountains to a tea plantation.

The tea is planted in neat rows, like hedges. Some tea grows in shade and some in sun.

This fellow showed us how they picked the leaves with a scythe for our guide Chime and us to smell. They smelled like fresh leaves. 😆Chime is from Darjeeling, another tea producing area.

They sell many different types of tea and make Kombucha as well!

I tried this Kombucha and it was refreshing! Not too sweet and not carbonated like what we get at home.

We drove for several hours through road construction. There are new roads and bridges being built across India. They will make travel much faster however in some cases they will go over the local towns, shops and cows! We witnessed the front of houses completely ripped off for the road. Apparently, those people have been well compensated to rebuild in a new location. It seemed like we would just get on a new, smooth road then we’d be back on a bumpy, dusty unpaved road!

We finally arrived in Amritsar, the home of the Sikh Golden Temple. We walked around the walled city and bazaars.

Families gathered, since it was Sunday, shopping and buying ice cream and other treats. It was hot, 38C!

Amritsar was founded in 1573 and means “pool of nectar” which you can see from the photos below.

In the 18th Century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh consolidated the warring Sikh groups to create the Sikh empire here. Amritsar was also at the forefront of India’s struggle for freedom from the British.

We approached the temple, Sikhism’s holiest gurdwara, and the reason we are here! Like the Sikh temple in Delhi we had to remove our shoes, cover our heads and wash our hands and feet before entering.

Also, like the Delhi temple there is a hotel and kitchen that serves people food and offers accommodation free of charge. And the Guru Granth Sahib (see Old Delhi post) is here in its bedroom!

The gold gilded temple is unbelievable in its beauty, especially as the lights went on at dusk. Women and men, in separate locations, bathe in the water.

People sit around the water’s edge and just meditate on the beauty while listening to the call to prayer by the muezzin’s chanting projected from the minarets.

People arrive the day before to get in line to go in the temple. We didn’t have the time to do so. Next time…maybe!

Did I mention it was hot!? So we ended the evening with mango ice cream from McDonald’s! Yes even in Amritsar!