So after leaving the Golden Temple we found our friendly bicycle rickshaw driver again who we had decided to hire for the day and he drove us over to the “Jallianwallah Bagh”. This garden serves as a memorial to an attack, in 1919, by the British on citizens of Amritsar engaging in a peaceful demonstration against a new law by the British. The British, without warning, opened fire, and almost 400 people were killed. This attack really galvanize India against the British and the land was turned into a garden with a memorial. Unfortunately my friend and I were pretty much the only westerners around so the tranquility of the garden was a bit disrupted by all the people non-stop trying to take our picture.
Then a quick stop at the “Hindu Golden Temple” which is just what it sounds like; a smaller version of the golden temple for Hindus. We took a quiet stroll around before moving on to one final temple…this temple was in the guide books and our rickshaw driver said “Mata Temple?” so I figured we should go. When we got there I was a bit under-whelmed…then a man pointed us up a stairwell. We went up the stairwell to find ourselves in a maze; we walked up and down and around; crawled through a small tunnel to find ourselves in a mirror-mosaic room with a series of statues of some of the gods; then down another stairwell to a hallway with a little cave where you walk through ankle deep water and then down the stairs and out.
Not entirely sure the purpose of it but it was fun.
After that we were hungry and ready to eat some good food. We had asked at the hotel for a recommendation and so headed to “Brothers Dhaba”. It was a simple little place and was quite busy…always a good sign. We had heard that the lassis in this area were good so that was a definite; we picked the “specialty” off the menu and then asked for a recommendation between two dishes. The Lassis came first and it was hands down the best lassi EVER. It was frothy and light and just perfect. And then the food; two veg curries that were so flavorful. One was a mushroom dish and one was with paneer; with some rice and garlic naan; we ate so much we felt like we were going to burst. Delish!
So, all in all, I loved Amritsar. Loved our very cute hotel; loved the food; loved the sights; loved our little bicycle rickshaw driver; loved it.
Tomorrow...trains
But for now... pictures. The top picture is the memorial at the Jallianwallah Bagh; and the bottom is some bicycle rickshaws (taken from our rickshaw) in Amritsar. The one on the right has 3 passengers...we barely fit the two of us on ours!
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