Sublimity.....agony.....enchantment......& simply bizarre!!!!

Somethings it seems were put on this planet for the purpose of pure admiration & beauty: football, Argentinean steak, Stella Artois & Joss Stone in the Cadbury's Flake commercial to name but a few. The Taj Mahal ranks equally alongside these, if not a few steps ahead. As always being the cynic my first comments from our hotel rooftop were that it appeared smaller than had imagined. However any building or monument which you find yourself staring at for hours upon end knowing full well that nothing will change or happen is fairly aweinspiring & this all before we made it into the grounds.
Was tempted to refuse the Rs750 entrance fee to view the Taj at its best, but once stepping into the grounds it all felt worth it, even if at times a little like a theme park. Without viewing with your own eyes the only way to describe the Mughal mausoleum is as love inspired architectural masterpiece, simple, spectactular & sublime all at once. A great shame that its creater, poor Emperor Shah Jahan, was imprisoned by his own son only a few years after building was complete. As always in this country nothing makes sense, especially the constant request for photos of Martina & I, which we are most flattered by. However when in touching distance from one of the worlds most fascinating landmarks we could not help but wonder why two dirty sweat soaked albino monkeys would be more appealling to the locals. Guess that we will never truly understand....???
The Taj Mahal & Agra are a little like steak & salad....you eat the meat & the rest is a waste of time, so we chose the brave option of a 16 hour train ride to Amritsar in the state of Punjab. As exciting as train stations can be, 7 hours waiting turned out to be a little too much. Never to fear though, it did arrive & we set off around 10pm, with just enough time to get a couple of street onion bhaji's into the belly to combat any morning hunger. This however proved to be not the brightest of ideas as 2 hours in & the floodgates opened.....puking.....shits.....walking incapabilities.....more fever than Ella Fitzgerald & still a good 14 hours to go......great stuff. Fortunately I made the executive decision to wake Martina & allow her the pleasure of suffering with me (Note that she had previously turned down my offer to share the bhaji!). But what a fine nursing job she did.....running to fetch water, improvising with socks to cool down my head & muscles, temperature checking, although could not understand why she chose not to join me during my toilet visits. It seems that all Indians are doctors too, offering remedies & advice from drinking Chai tea (which I took but detest & brought straight back up), chopping up & sniffing onions (politely declined), & a concerned Sikh lady's idea that kissing a Rs1 coin, pressing it against my forehead & donating it to a train begger should solve the problem.....nice thoughts & good memoris at least. So after finally arrving in Amritsar, a swift visit to A&E, a ridiculous amount of medicine, one day in bed watching 80's movies & all was solved, no worries.
Amritsar is home to another of Indias finest splendours The Golden Temple.....Sikhisms holiest shrine & for me, so far, the most fascinating sight. The welcoming spiritual atmosphere is as enchanting as a 7 year olds first visit to Disneyland, with 1000's of pilgrims idly chatting around the complex & bathing in the pool surrounding the temple itself, Darbar Habib, accompanied by the continuous hypnotic Gurmukhi chants by the 4 priests inside. Being open to all 24 hours a day, from dawn till dusk hoards of colourfully turbaned & headscarved people can be seen creating the organised chaos around the nearby streets, adding to the magnitude of the sight.
30km west down the road however is a scene of something verging on the ridiculous at the Attari (Indian)/Wagah (Pakistan) border crossing. Whoever had the idea to build footballesque terracing either side of the border and then invite all & sundry to come sing & dance to Bhangra pop whilst awaiting the military choreographed clsoing ceremony to begin is an absolute genius of entertainment. And the ceremony itself is as much bizarre as entertaining which can only be described as a scene combining & inspired by Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks & We Are The Champions.....here is a sneak preview although not the best.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW_vf1ONQKM. We did also manage to purchase a feature length DVD for those interested in seeing more.
So our time here is done & on we go again with the next stop Dharamsala & McLoed Ganj (Central Himachal Pradesh) where I shall endeavour to offer some kind advice in keeping the peace to a certain Dala Lamai.
Enjoy. X.