Golden days

Day one (27th): anyways, so when we woke up the next day i went with the english guy and french girl again to look around. we first had breakfast (chipatti and dal) and then headed to the temple to look inside.

we bought some sacramental food to feed the gods of the temple (about 20c) and then joined the que to get in. about 10 000 people enter the compex every hour but the line moved remarkably quickly in spite of this. 20mins to get in maybe?

at the entrance you hand over your food and they take half and give you half back. you carry this round with you and then when u leave the temple they give u a top uo so it is full again and then u get to eat it. weird huh? it was a sort of brown pudding. kind of like rice pudding but made with couscous (texture / size wise). it was sweet and nice and came wrapped in leaves.

inside the temple is an amazing work of art too design wise but sadly i don't think i truly appreciate this as it doesn't really do it for me (architecture). the roof is also made with 750kgs of pure gold! and inside there are also four holy men reading constantly from their holy scriptures to whom everyone donates money (for the temple - except me).

i just wandered around bowing to all sorts of gods, not having a clue who anyone was but figuring it's the act (not thought) that counts in this case. they have 10 guru gods i think and one main guy above the rest. after the temple we visited the museum which told of the sikh history - bloody, bloody and more bloody - before heading for lunch (chipatti, brown dal, yellow dal, some bitter pickled fruit thing and you also get water and chai if you want with meals).

not sure what else we did. the days just kind of passed us by. a lot of them was spent relaxing and talking i guess. we also visited the nearby temple and pool that night and, ah of course, we went to the border (a german guy Tim, israeli lady Segull, aussie chick Aya and myself).