Pakistan - India Border Crossing

Having seen the Pakistan - India Border Crossing ceremony on Michael Palin's excellent Himalaya series, it was something I was really looking forward to seeing.

Rather than mess around on the bus – I decided to go by share jeep, and it turned out to be an interesting experience. Sharing the jeep with me were four sisters, their grand father, and the husband of one of the sisters. They quickly adopted me, and we ended up chatting during the one hour journey to the border.

We arrive 30 minutes early, and the stands are already packed. On the Indian side, men and woman are in the road dancing away to India style dance music. People are shouting, clapping, whistling, and the warm up guy doesn't have much to do to get the crowd going.

Soldiers getting ready for the ceremony, and the warm up guy on the left:



Packed stands at the border crossing – Pakistan is on the other side of the big gate:



In a few days time – India will be sixty years old – and people are hear to celebrate. The crowd getting worked up on the Indian side of the border - click to watch:



Looking over to the Pakistan side – it looks subdued – the seating obviously segregated: women on one side of the road – men on the other.

While on the Indian side – people are going crazy. And then the ceremony begins, and soldiers march around in the most comical way...click to watch the video:



There are two sides to the border crossing (pun not intended :-).

On the one side – it's fun - Monty Python's Ministry Of Silly Walks, crossed with the changing of the guards. On the other side – the ceremony shows the split between these two countries.

I hear some men shouting something about Pakistan, and when I inquire I'm told they are shouting “down with Pakistan”. When I looked surprised the man I asked responds: “well we are at war with them”.

And it really does feel as if there's something behind the aggressive posturing. It really does look like there's no love lost between the soldiers on each side.

And the border ceremony throws up the differences between these two neighbors. In India – women are free to dance in the street. In Pakistan – they are separated by a road from the men – and there's no dancing.

I did wonder whether it was my imagination that things looked subdued on the Pakistan side. But when I've talked to other travelers – they all had the same impression.

One other rather bizarre observation: on the Pakistan side the wind was blowing, making the flags flap in the wind; on the Indian side there wasn't even the slightest hint of a breeze.

Click this link for Michael Palin's overview of the ceremony from the Pakistan side.

From the ceremony we headed back to town - but rather than head back to the drop off point, the family requested that we go to the Silver Temple – the Hindu equivalent of the Golden Temple.

Getting ready to head back into town:



And I was so glad when they took me along with them. I'd already been there in the afternoon and felt like an observer – while in the evening I felt more like a participant as they took me around the temple.

Silver work in the Silver Temple:



Rock and Roll Guitar avatar:



While I'd only gone to the middle bit in the afternoon – they took me round the full thing. Half of the family were Sikh, while the other half were Christian – so it was an amazing experience following them around a Hindu temple.

The Silver Temple – taken during my afternoon visit:



And after going around the temple, we stopped in the dining room and had dhal and chapati – just like with the Golden Temple the food is free – with donation boxes on the way out.

It was a really great trip out – thanks to the kind family who adopted me for the evening.

Amritsar - Part 2

Perhaps one of the strangest experiences I've had in a temple so far is the visit to the Mata temple in Amritsar.

It's a Hindu temple in memory of Mata Lal Devi Ji who is revered for her spirituality – although it wasn't immediately obvious why :-)

After leaving my shoes with the shoe keeper and walking through the feet cleaning pool, I follow the crowd into the main temple. From there I'm ushered up some stairs and begin to follow the corridor: up stairs – along balconies – past shrines.

Eventually after climbing a small flight of stairs, the path is obstructed by what can only be described as what looks like the entrance to a small cave.

After ducking down and crawling through on all fours, the roof opens up again, and I follow the corridor along another balcony and another flight of stairs.

Even stranger still, after turning a corner the way is blocked – this time requiring everyone to clamber over a three foot obstacle. On the other side – is a narrow “cave” with ankle deep water and shrines on the walls.

On the other side, holy men are handing out what looks like sweets. The way continues through kitsch looking rooms with tiny mirror tiles and even more shrines. Eventually after walking down a flight of stairs everyone is returned to main temple.

A rather bizarre experience – but kind of fun – a bit like a Hindu Fun House at the fare. The children of the family I followed around it certainly had a lot of fun.

Unfortunatley I forgot to take any pictures - it was that strange I got distracted just walking around...

:-)

I also visited the Silver Temple – but I'll leave that for next time...

Amritsar - Part 1

Amritsar is a great city – with lots to see and a really great laid back vibe. It's the home of the famous Golden Temple – the most holy of Sikh Temples.

The Sikhs are incredibly inclusive and welcoming – and provide free accommodation and food for anyone who visits the temple – regardless of religion or ethnicity. They have donation boxes – but no one asks.

Having made my way to the Golden Temple I find the building in which people are housed and find that Westerners are all put in what is effectively a large single dorm room crammed full of beds. Luckily for me, someone is just leaving one of the smaller side rooms that has only three beds in, and I get assigned my home for the next three days.

It's basic – but serviceable.

Clothes drying in the courtyard of the dormitory building:



I end up feeling slightly guilty staying here - while I'm sleeping on a reasonably comfortable bed with a fan – there are men and woman who must be in there 80's sleeping on the floor in the courtyard outside. It doesn't feel right somehow...

After dropping off my bag, I decided to head straight out to see the temple. I've heard a few people say it's very under-whelming – but I was really impressed by it. It's clearly a religious site, which includes everything that goes with that – but it feels very relaxed – people are clearly enjoying themselves as they walk around the large pool chatting away.

The Golden Temple:



After a quick meal – I head back in the evening to see the temple at night. It's an impressive sight – and given that it's fairly quite – I take the opportunity to cross the causeway into the small temple in the centre of the pool.

A video – taken at night – complete with singing and people chatting in the background (click to view):



I join the queue to cross the causeway, and join the hundreds of pilgrims – some singing along with the music, others waiting in silence as we shuffle ever closer to the temple. There's none of the pushing that a queue in India would usually entail.

There's a solemn religious fervor – but it all feels very relaxed as we near the door that leads into the small building.

Inside is a small room where a band is playing music and singing words from the Guru Granth Sahib: the Sikhs Holy Book. People linger – respectful of the place and each other. I'm surprised at how small the room is - just enough room to accommodate the band, and fifty or so worshipers.

Walking out of the main room towards the back of the small temple people are drinking the water from the pool - Amritsar means “The Pool Of The Nectar Of Immortality”.

Upstairs – people are sitting on the floor in a beautifully ornate small room reading the Guru Granth Sahib.

As I leave – at the end of the causeway – a man is handing out Kara Parshad – a special food offering given to everyone who visits the temple. Not wanting to intrude I try and sneak out – but the man calls me over and shows me how to receive the Parshad.

The Golden Temple – the large building behind is used to store the original copy of the Guru Granth Sahib:



The white marble entrance into the complex:



And a close up of the clock tower:



It's certainly a memorable experience.

After a rather good coffee and a wander around I head to the communal dining room for lunch – where I discovered that there actually is such a thing as a free lunch.

I queued up with the rest of the people and take a metal tray, spoon, and cup, and follow the crowd upstairs to the second of the two large dining halls.

Everyone sits in rows on the floor, and men walk around with large metal buckets filled with Dhal , vegetable curry, or rice using huge ladles to fill the plates. Steaming hot chappati are handed out and everyone digs in. Seconds are readily given out, and I have to stop my plate from being continually topped up. After the dhal is gone a man comes around handing out sweet rice.

As we eat upstairs the downstairs dining room is being prepared for the next round. The scale and organization is impressive - the dining hall feeds up to 40,000 people every single day, and the kitchen is run on an industrial scale with the largest pots of curry I've ever seen.

Once everyone has eaten, we stream out and head down to the washing up area. Plates, spoons, and cups are handed to a gang of men who sort them and then send them down the line to where they are washed. As I walk out – pausing to wash my hands at the large bank of taps – people are chopping garlic and onions for the next round of diners.

The professional approach and organization is impressive. Even late at night people are being fed here. And no one asks for a single Rupee, although there are donation boxes. As I discovered, the “menu” changes every day – and the food (while simple) is nutritious and tasty.

The Road To India

Having had a reasonably late start, I set off to make the four hour trip across the border into India.

Just like every other border – the changes are quickly obvious. Pakistan seems brown – while just across the line in India everything looks green. I still can't work out why things always change at borders – or why things are suddenly different just because someone draws a line on a piece of paper. Nine months on, and a dozen borders crossed and I still don't have an answer.

The border itself is quiet, with minimal formalities – although the X-Ray scans on the way out of Pakistan seemed a bit excessive. I did end up chatting with the guy who did the scans and he let me look at the monitor which showed a picture of just about everything I own (OK – maybe not quite – but that's how it feels).

On the Indian side the border guard wants to know what drugs, bombs, and guns I've got with me. The banter continues as we go through the formalities and I get stamped into India.

As you walk through the actual border area there are stands where the border ceremony is held – of which more later. But with four hours until it started I decided to head straight to Amritsar and The Golden Temple...

Sufi Night - Lahore

I headed back to Lahore on the bus feeling much better than I have in the last few weeks.

And my last night in Pakistan was going to be one I'll never forget - it was Thursday night – which means Sufi night.

In the afternoon we were taken to one of the mosques, and shown down into the basement where bands took it in turns to play Qawwali music. It was reasonably sedate, and didn't really match the band I'd seen at the Regale the week before. But still – it was an interesting experience, and while we watched the bands, people handed out sweets and showered the bands with money.

At 10pm we were taken by Autorickshaw to a Sufi shrine where the main Sufi night would take place. The night comprises of three men playing drums, while Sufi devotees dance to the rhythm with the aim of reaching Wajad: a feeling of oneness with God.

After about an hour of waiting in the scorching heat the drumming finally started – and it was really amazing stuff. Perhaps some of the best drumming I've ever seen.

We were really lucky – tonight the famous Saeen brothers were playing. The brothers are said to be perhaps the best traditional “dhol” drummers in the world. Remarkably – the eldest of the brothers was born deaf, and was taught to play the drums by his father who would play out rhythms on his son's back. Gonga Saeen now “hears” the drums by feeling the rhythm through his abdomen, where the large drum rests.

Sufi Drumming (click to view video):



The brothers are incredibly well respected amongst Sufi devotees – and are believed to have a special skill given to them by God. As if to underline this – while we are watching them play in the scorching heat and airless night, a cool wind suddenly starts blowing and the temperature drops by at least ten degrees in a matter of seconds.

A huge cheer erupts from the crowd. I later ask why the crowd cheered and was told that this is something that happens on a fairly regular basis – and that God causes the wind to come when the brothers are drumming and reach a state of Wajad.

The first three hours – while amazing – did seem almost like a performance. But then – like it does five or six times a day in Lahore – the electric went off and it went dark.

It was the best thing that could have happened.

Things went crazy. The rhythms took off in a new way, and suddenly – where only ten or so men had been dancing, the square was packed with people spinning and jumping around. And it seemed that everyone was starting to get into the driving groove. It was so infectious that it was impossible not to get involved.

And then – a guy we'd been chatting with earlier – a police man who is a Sufi devotee, pulled a few of us into the middle of the square.

It's dark, and there's these amazing driving rhythms, so loud you can't hear anything else, and people are really going for it. It was like being in the front of a really really lively rock concert (The Hives springs to mind for those who were there).

I'd like to say that I reached a state of Wajad – but some guy stamped on my foot after a few minutes and I decided it was better to leave it to the experts and enjoy it from the safety of the sidelines :-)

And it went on – all night.

When we finally left at 4:30am – I felt like I'd only been there for an hour or two at the most.

Here are some videos - click the picture to view the video:

At last – I find some people who dance worse than me :-)



Check out the guy in the green top – after spinning around for ages he manages to walk in a straight line:



Amazingly – even though people are spinning around – no one crashed into anyone else and there were no accidents.

Gonga Saeen – playing the most increidble drum rythms while spinning around at high speed:

Islamabad – Hospitals and Commissions

I had to head back to Islamabad to pick up my passport from the Indian High Commission. But I don't really remember the bus journey back as I felt so lethargic...

I managed to make it back to the same hotel I'd stayed at before, and after a rather worrying additional symptom (I'll spare the details) realized that after a week of really bad pain and constant diarrhoea – whatever was causing me to be so ill wasn't going to go away on it's own. I'd also been feeling so nauseous the whole time that I'd hardly eaten anything in the last two days which wasn't helping.

When I woke the next day I felt even worse, so decided to head off to find a hospital.

I paid 5 rupees to see the doctor at one of the clinics – but it was what you'd imaging a third world hospital to be like. The place was packed with people, and the doctor was having three or four conversations all at the same time.

She told me to go to room five for some injections, but when I asked if they would also give me some antibiotics she just repeated the instructions.

Room 5 turned out to be something out of a horror movie.

There were people taking up every available space, and used medical equipment - including bandages with blood on and used needles - were lying around the place.

Despite feeling really ill, I decided that I needed a second opinion - the thought of injections in room 5 wasn't doing it for me.

So I headed to one of the other hospitals – and after paying 10 rupees I was shown in to see the doctor who sat and listened to my symptoms and then asked a load of questions.

His diagnosis was that I was really very sick and needed immediate medical treatment – including intravenous antibiotics. I wasn't sure whether to call the Travel Insurance company, but by this point I'd got past caring, so decided just to go along with whatever they suggested and sort out any problems later.

I was shown to a room with a bed and told to lie down while the nurse stuck a needle into a vein in my arm - and then for the rest of the afternoon I had two courses of intravenous antibiotics and a bag of re-hydration fluid.

During the afternoon the doctor came to check on me, and I was prescribed two courses of antibiotics. A few hours later the chief consultant appeared and reviewed everything and said I was going to be OK...

It took a few days before I started to feel well again – but the antibiotics worked more or less straight away and the pain had gone by the evening.

I think that I picked up Amebic Dysentery from some Chicken Kebabs in one of the best restaurants in the city. The second case of food poisoning in two weeks – all caused by contaminated meat – I can't wait to get to India and switch back to a vege diet :-)

The next day I negotiated my way into the “Embassy Enclave” (and yes – they made me promise to “call in” at the British Embassy. I can just imagine how that would go: "How are you old chap? Gin and Tonic? :-). After queing for a fair amount of time, I was finally allowed to approach window five, and collect my passport. They've given me a six month double entry visa...

So much for us living in “difficult times”...

Lahore - Part 2

The next day I felt just about OK and decided to head out with Ziggy, who I'd met at the Regale, to see the Old Town. We made our way through the tiny streets and after about 30 minutes it started to rain. As the water level rose, the streets started to flood, and we ended up taking refuge in a shop front.

The owner insisted we sit down and even gave us free drinks – we ended up sitting for an hour watching life go by waiting for the rain to stop.

Street in Lahore:



Buildings on “food street”:



A woman watching the rain:



A horse waits it out, while the owner takes shelter:



This man was throwing water from a balcony, catching unsuspected passers by in a surprise deluge – much to the delight of the watching crowd:



Water logged street in Lahore:



We ended up wading through knee deep water, trying to find the Wazir Khan Mosque, stopping to ask locals the way as we made our way through the maze of the Old City.

Pics of the Wazir Khan Mosque:















Finally we ended up back at the Badshahi Mosque – and spent almost two hours talking to people – usually answering the same set of questions:

From which country is it that you are coming from?
What is your good name?
Are you married?
What is your monthly salary?

Even when surrounded by a group of ten people, each would take it in turns to ask the same questions.

Although I did end up chatting to a group whose English was pretty good:



As we walked back to get an Auto-rikshaw to the hotel, we passed through the red light district of Lahore. As it was early it was pretty quite, but we did see some men with beards wearing sari's which was a bit of an odd sight.

When we made it back to the hotel a Sufi night had been arranged by Malik – but I felt entirely drained and the stomach cramps had returned so decided to call it a night.

Lahore - Part 1

Lahore is a great city to visit - there's plenty to see and lots going on.

The only problem: I was hit by really bad food poisoning.

On my first day in Lahore I spent the entire day zoned out in bed, making frequent trips to the toilet across the courtyard – with the temperature hovering around 45 degrees and no air con.

Over the next week I would go from feeling just about OK, to feeling totally lethargic and unable to do anything. To make matters worse I was suffering from excruciating stomach cramps.

Despite this, I was able to see some of the city.

The two highlights were the Badshahi Mosque and the Old City that surrounds it.

The Badshahi mosque was built in the Mughal period in 1673, and epitomizes the style of architecture of the day. Until 1986 it was the biggest mosque in the world, able to accommodate 110,000 worshippers. It's scale is certainly impressive.

The Badshahi mosque:



Looking back towards the entrance:



One of the corridors in the hallway that runs around the main building:



These two chaps were guarding the mausoleum of the man who is said to have first raised the idea of a separate state of Pakistan. They couldn't have picked more opposites if they'd tried:





The scale of the mosque can be seen from this photo:



From the mosque it's a quick walk to the Lahore Fort – which is a bit of a disappointment as it's mostly in ruins. Completed in 1605, it was built at the height of the Mughal Empire. The only thing of real interest was the Sheesh Mahal – The Palace Of Mirrors.

The main entrance of the Fort:



And another showing the entrance which was big enough to accommodate elephants with riders:



And inside the Fort:





Amazing wall paintings;



And the Sheesh Mahal:







View of the Mosque from the Fort:



And some random shots from the Old City:







Liver, heart, and kidneys – ready for the barbecue:





I stayed at the Regale Internet Inn – which is where all the travellers stay. It's a great place to meet people, and it was fun to hang out with people in the main courtyard area – just wish I'd been feeling a bit better.

The owner is a member of the Sufi sect, and arranges Sufi “nights out”, and a band at the weekend. On Friday night the band was one of the best Qawwali bands in Pakistan, and the music was amazing. The setting is very intimate, with the band literally a few feet away.

Here are some videos of the band in action (click to view the video):





You are my king, you are my life - Qawwali lyrics translated into English, reflecting the spiritual and devotional nature of this amazing style of music. Click to view the video:



The band: