This is quite a late post, because the trip happened this year in July. But I thought I should wrap up the year 2018 with a couple of posts on this amazing trip.
This trip was to celebrate Harneet's birthday and we traveled from Pune to New Delhi, from there we went on to Amritsar and then to Dalhousie and then back to New Delhi and eventually Pune. This post only covers our journey to Amritsar and our experiences there. There is a different post for Dalhousie.
This was my second trip to the Holy city of Amritsar, my last trip was on a bike with my friend Bobby back in 2005. This wasn't Harneet's first trip to Amritsar either, she being a practicing Sikh has been there multiple times.
In my earlier trips, I had covered the entire tourist circuit in Amritsar of the Golden Temple, Jalianwala Bagh and Wagah Border. But this one was different, it was a short one and I wanted to focus on the food while Harneet was in for the shopping. Of course we did visit the Golden Temple multiple times as it was the center of it all.
We had boarded a 2 AM flight from Pune to New Delhi and it got us there by 4 AM. From New Delhi it was an hours flight to Amritsar departing at 8 AM and getting us in by 9 AM. We were out of the airport with our luggage by 9:30 AM. Like all airports we had quite a few touts who offered to give us a ride to our Hotel. We normally prefer using Uber or Ola, the 2 major Taxi aggregators in India. Uber is not available in Amritsar, so we opted for Ola. However, there were no cabs available. We waited for a while and finally settled with a 6-seater Tempo Trekker. It was already quite hot at 10 in the morning, but the ride along the dusty road on the Trekker was quite fun.
We were putting up at the Hotel Sawera Grand which is located in Hall Bazaar and is about a kilometer from the Golden Temple. If your focus in Amritsar is The Golden Temple, there are no better options to stay than here. The place is within walking distance, you could also choose between an Auto Rickshaw or a cycle Rickshaw to get you to the temple at a nominal cost.
The Hotel is also located in Hall Bazaar which is one of the oldest Markets in the city with humongous choice of Juttis (Indian ethnic footwear) as well as overall festive ethnic wear for men and women. More of this coming up later. Along with these you have another thing close to this hotel. Lots of restaurant serving up delicious signature dishes or Amritsar such as Chhole Kulcha, Chicken Tandoori and Amritsari fish.
Once we checked in, freshened up (much required after the early morning flights) caught up on a quick power nap and a cup each of Hot Chai we were all set to explore the city, our first stop was The Golden Temple.
Do take into account that Amritsar has extreme weather throughout the year. July, which is in between the Summer and the monsoon seasons was simmering hot at least during the day with temperatures going up to 40℃. Evenings are fairly pleasant except for crowded or closed areas. On the other hand, winter days are fairly pleasant while at night the temperature can be as low as 2℃. So do carry clothes accordingly.
Once we hit the road, we realised that it would be impossible to walk the distance in the heat, unless we were looking forward to a heat stroke. So we took an auto rickshaw which took us through extremely narrow and busy by-lanes to get us to the Golden Temple in minutes. Outside the temple all you see is hustle and bustle of a busy commercial street, with masses and masses of people as far as the eye could see. But once you enter the Temple everything changes. There are still a lot of people, but very little noise. All you can hear are the soothing Kirtans (devotional songs) on the PA system.
Let me describe the structure of the Golden Temple which is locally known as Gurudwara Durbar Sahib or Sri Harmandir Sahib; it is a square lake (Sarovar) surrounded by a collection of white buildings on all sides, at the center of this lake is the Sanctum which is gold plated. It has four entrances, and once you enter you have a broad marble walk way around the Sarovar and Sanctum, used by Pilgrims to Circumbulate the Temple.
We entered the Gurudwara, circumbulated the Sarovar and then headed for the Sanctum. There was quite a queue and it took us a good part of an hour to get inside. Once we got inside, we prayed, bowed to Guru Granth Sahib and went back outside the Sanctum to get the Kada Prashad which here is Whole wheat Halwa soaked in ghee. It was delicious but is recommended in small quantities as it is quite heavy.
After having the Kada Prashad, we decided to walk back to one side of the Sarovar and sit there to soak up wonderful atmosphere. You see a lot of people sitting inside the Gurudwara, praying, meditating or just sitting there and enjoying the peaceful environment.
After about half an hour we went to Langar (Dining) hall of the Gurudwara to have a communal lunch. For those who have never been to The Golden temple, you need to know that the Langar is a big deal. On an average day 40000 people eat here irrespective of their religion or race. This count can go up to 100000 on religious festivals like Guru Nanak Dev's Birthday. The food served is vegetarian and consists of Roti (normally referred to as Prasada), Rice, Daal (lentil), Subzi (Vegetables in a curry), Salad and Kheer (Dessert). Everybody sits on mats laid out on the floor to eat. 90% of the people involved in cooking and serving the food are volunteers or Sewadars. The food is delicious and the produce used in the cooking is fresh.
After the Langar, we took a Rickshaw back to our hotel and rested for a while, waiting for the heat to cool down. We had another cup of wonderful Chai at our Hotel before we set out for the evening. Our first agenda was to shop, and shop we did. We headed for the Hall Bazaar which is right next door to the hotel. We started with shops selling Juttis and there we many of them, we tried some Chaat in between shops. Nothing like Delicious Samosa Chaat and Aloo Tikki Chaat to spice up the evening.
We went on to shopping for ethnic wear for Harneet, and found some amazing Salwaar suits. They even stitch it and deliver it to your hotel in 2 hrs time. After all the shopping, we headed back to our hotel to drop the shopping bags. We wanted to catch the beautiful Golden temple at night with all its lights on, so we headed back to the Gurudwara.
This time we decided to walk as it was much cooler and we also needed some exercise to build up an appetite. Once we reached the Gurudwara, we found 1000s of people sitting by the Sarovar and enjoying the mesmerizing sight of the Golden Temple with all the light switched on and the Temple itself reflecting in the lake. We joined these thousands while evening prayers were conducted in the Sanctum.
After the evening prayers were concluded, we headed back outside to search for a place to have dinner. We walked in the direction of out hotel and on the way we came across Bharawan-Da-Dhaba. I had heard quite a lot of this place, which is quite famous for its Chole Kulche. We decided to settle for this place for dinner. Both of us ordered for their signature dish - Stuffed Kulche and Chole. I ordered for mine to be stuffed with spiced mashed potato while Harneet's were stuffed with spiced ground Paneer (Cottage Cheese). We didn't have to wait for long for our piping hot Kulchas to be served. The place itself was packed to the hilt but the service is quite fast.
I tried my first mouthful of Amritsari Kulcha and was I surprised!! The Kulcha is Hard and crunchy outside while it was soft and mushy inside. I could taste the mashed potatoes spiced with onions, chilies, coriander seeds, Chaat masala, and various other masalas, all of which were bursting in my mouth like mini explosions. The Paneer Kulcha was less spicy but equally tasty. We chased these Kulchas with a tall glass of Lassi.
After this heavy dinner, we took a stroll around the area before we headed back to the hotel to call it a day. I wanted to wake up early the next morning.
The next morning I was up by 6 AM, freshened up and walked down to the famous Gyaniji's tea stall. I tried one of their Kachoris with a tall tumbler of their thick and sweet tea. They also make a good Omelette and toast if you are interested. After the light breakfast I walked back to the hotel to find that our friend Dalmeet had arrived. Dalmeet was to drive us to Dalhousie for a 2 day trip. Me and Harneet quickly freshened up, picked up our bags and got into Dalmeet's car.
Our first stop was Kulcha Land, where we to have my second and Harneet's first breakfast. We again ordered Kulchas with Chhole and a tall glass of lassi to chase it. Here the Kulchas were even better than the ones in Bharawan da Dhaba and ended up eating 4 of them!! From here we headed for Dalhousie which is covered in the next post.
The below video gives you a gist of our experiences on this trip.
