How I spent my 4th of July

I realize that this is kind of late, but I wanted to share about how I celebrated Independence Day by visiting Amritsar and the border of Pakistan. We all wanted to go see the Golden Temple (the most holy place for Sikhs - the guys that wear turbans and don't cut their hair).


We took an overnight train and arrived early in the morning. This is a typical street in Amritsar. It's pretty similar to the rest of India, noises, stray dogs, dirtiness, but, since it's the Sikh capital, there were less roaming cows, and I think the people there are generally larger (Sikhs are known to be strong fighters because of the struggles they've faced).


Here's a view of the Golden Temple complex, millions come on their yatra (pilgrimage)


Here's a close up of the temple. The temple has been attacked by the British and the Indian army, but they've done a really good job of restoring everything and keeping everything clean, unlike the Hindu holy places I've visited.

After seeing the temple, we went to a museum, and afterward, headed to the movie theater to watch a Bollywood film. It was all in Hindi, but I think we understood what was going on, and it was nice to get away from the heat. Indians really love their Bollywood. Personally, I think a lot of their stuff is over the top (random dancing and singing every 10 minutes), but the movie we watched was alright.

Here we are, posing with random people. Foreingers are mini celebraties (kind of awkward....). And as always, the Indians don't smile or show their teeth in pictures.

What we were forward to the most was visiting the Pakistan-India border. Everyday before sunset, the border potrolmen on each side put on a little "border closing show". Since hardly anyone uses the border post, might as well make some use of it, right?


On the Indian side, there was a huge crowd. Luckily, we foreigners got to sit in the VIP section, which was not nearly as crowded as the Indian section.


Here's a look at the Pakistani side. Less people, more tame, but from what I could tell, thier appeance and clothing was pretty much the same as the Indian side...


...but, I'm guessing they don't know how to have fun like the Indians do. And of course there has to be some music and dancing.


They were also taking turns running the flag to and back from the border gate.


Here's a border patrol/ policeman in his funny looking costume. They put on a pretty good show, though.


And afterwards, thousands of people tried to leave at once, the Indian way. India's definitely lessened my homophobia (two guys holding hands or locking pinkies are normal...), but I still don't like having several men press their sweaty bodies against me in an attempt to get out 10 seconds faster.

Since we were away on July 4th, we decided to celebrated on the 5th. We grilled some MEAT and fired off some fireworks (more like mini bombs). Altogether, it was a fun weekend, but I did miss the nice American fireworks, red meat, family, and friends...