Back from Amritsar

We left for Amritsar on Friday afternoon with Diane, Tony and Brett. It was a 6 hour train ride, however the train was not bad at all, with individual seats, airconditioning and food/water provided. The hotel driver met us at the station in Amritsar and took us to our hotel (Ranjit's Svaasa). It was a heritage hotel and spa, and the rooms were very clean and comfortable. We enjoyed breakfast at the hotel before starting off to the Golden Temple. It was unbelieveably hot! We had to walk carefully on the marble, avoiding the black pieces (as we had to leave our shoes at the gate). We also visted the site of the sikh massacre. It rained quite a bit while we were having lunch at the hotel, so it was considerably cooler when we set off for the Pakistan border to enjoy the flag ceremony. We felt like we were at a soccer game! The crowd was almost out of control with excitement, and exploded in spontaneous dancing and yelling. The guards (from both India and Pakistan) performed their well practiced marching, and lowering of the flags. It was then back to the hotel for dinner, and wine out on our private deck. We were up at 4:00 Sunday morning to catch the train back to Delhi, and enjoyed Club Canada in the afternoon (swimming, flying kites, playing pool and ping pong)! We are relaxing today trying to figure out our next trip to Leh. We just booked a flight up, leaving Thursday morning.