27th January: Sunset on the Golden Temple

After a copious breakfast in a South Indian restaurant (yes, another one!), we walked to the Sri Durgiana temple, dedicated to the Hindu goddess Durga. Again our attempt at walking around Amritsar turned into a fiasco when, to John's frustration, the directions given by various people on the street turned out to be contradictory; so we just hopped on a cycle rickshaw instead.  The 16th century temple sits in the middle of a water-tank, like the Golden Temple. It also had a golden dome, but it is more famous for its silver doors. We then had a walk around a nearby park, but it was not particularly pleasant so we did not stay long. This time we managed to walk back into the old town and had coffee in a cafe close to our hotel.

Sri Durgiana Temple

The magnificent silver doors

Before going back to the Golden Temple we stopped by Jallianwala Bagh, the park where British soldiers had opened fire on unarmed Indians in 1919. To remedy unrest in the city, British authorities were given powers to put seditious Indians in prison without trial. Protests were held, which degenerated into riots. Brigadier Dyer, who was in charge of returning order to the city, ordered his soldiers to open fire on 5,000 (unarmed) Indians who were demonstrating in Jallianwala Bagh, a park surrounded by high walls. Impacts of bullets can be seen on the walls and visitors can also see the well in which some people dived to avoid being shot. There is a small exhibition with documents of that period. We also visited the "martyr" room, where we expected to see the names of those who had been killed by British soldiers during the 1919 massacre. Instead, it displayed the portraits of Indians who had assassinated British officials.

Jallianwala Bagh

It was late afternoon when we arrived in the Golden Temple and we strolled around several times to enjoy the various shades of light on the temple as the sun slowly sank below the horizon. There was a large crowd trying to cross the gurus' bridge to the temple, so we stayed on the marble walkways (pleased that we had managed to enter the temple when there were fewer people). We lingered for a while to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere, taking in the beautiful glow of sunset on the temple. By then we were pretty cold (walking bare foot on the cold marble floor is not particularly pleasant, especially in the winter) and it was time for dinner. 

Bright sunshine on the temple

The light deepens as the sun falls

The sky turns pink

Sunset on the temple 

Soaking in the all the colours (without dangling feet in the pool)

For our last evening in Amritsar, we decided to try another of the best restaurants in the city, called Moti Mahal Deluxe. This time we did not try to walk and grabbed a rickshaw, a wise decision considering the time it took us to get there (this also saved us much confusion from the fact that the hotel housing the restaurant had changed names). The restaurant was again fairly smart, but was rather more cosy than Crystal, the overbearing presence of mirrors being replaced by dark wood furniture. The food also turned out to be tastier, in particular the Paneer Pudina Tikka that we ordered as a starter. This delicious tandoori paneer was probably the best dish we have had in India so far. The main dish Khumb Buttha Methi Palak was also very tasty, but was slightly less refined and a little too butter.

Enjoying dinner in Amritsar