We're hungry and we found a small road-side stall selling the famous 'amritsari-aalo-kulcha'. We hurried to eat. The Sardarji at the stall told us again.. to stay at the golden temple was the best option. We finised eating our 'aalo-kulcha', packed another 2 for my mom and decided to stay at the golden temple. We went back to the station, hired an auto and started for the golden temple. We had to bargain to get the fair from rs.100 to rs.60/- Later, we got to know the fair was rs.50
Golden temple was some 20mins away from the station. We reached the golden temple at something around 10:30am. We had a slight confusion for this was our first visit to the city and the golden temple premises had many gates. After wandering for something about an hour or so, we finally found Hari Niwas. We immediately booked an A.C Room for a easy tariff of Rs.300, and since it was already 12noon. We checked in. We took 1hour to de-stress and then started for the temple. In about half an hour, we were done with the darshan. Followed by our darshaan, we went to eat at the Langar. We kept strolling for about another hour at the streets nearby, looking at the small stalls.
We found many auto-drivers shouting "Wagah-border". We found that if you hire your family a car, they'll charge you Rs.800 whereas, if you agree to go on share.. they'll charge you rs.80 per head.
My sister somehow decided to not go to Attari for she felt sick. We kept strolling along the shops for a little while and then went back to our room. We took a quick nap and at about 5pm we entered Jalianwala bagh, which is about a 5min walk from the temple premesies.
It was supposed to close early and there was not much to see. So, I clicked some quick pictures and we got out of it. There was not much to shop apart from some "amritsari juti".. so i decided to hit upon the famous Amritsari Food.
I was quite excited about the Punjabi Food and i did quite some homework so, i had certain names in my head. I started with the unique 'Gol-gappe'.
We took an auto back to the golden temple area. We're amazed to see the 'papad-bazar'. We shopped for some ethnic 'patialas' and finally head towards the temple. My mom and my sister headed for our room whereas I ran towards the sarovar. I wanted to click the evening lights of the Golden temple.
It was about 9:30pm, when we decided to check out. It was 10pm when we hired an auto for the station. We asked him if we could have our dinner somewhere on our way. He recommended Crystal Resturant at the Crystal Chowk. It was on the way towards the railway station. We had kadai paneer, biriyani, amritsari aalo and butter chicken for dinner. And, I must say, The FOOD WAS AWESOME.
After our food was done, we headed towards the station to know our train was some hours late.
We had our reservations at Bhatinda-JammuTawi Exp(19225). The scheduled departure was at 1:10am. It arrived at 2:00am and departed at 2:10am. That is how the beautiful day at the north-western city of India ends.
Keypoints.
1. there are two train by the name hwh-asr. but dont get confused. follow the numbers. hwh-asr mail(13005) takes 37hrs and hwh-asr exp(13049) takes some 44hrs.
2. Pre-bookings are not required, rooms are quite easily available at the golden temple premises.
3. For people visiting GOLDEN TEMPLE for the first time, make sure you enter the temple through the 'Panitanki' gate or 'hariniwas', thats the place to stay in golden temple.
4. Start for Jalinwala Bagh early, we missed most of it, for it shuts down early.
5. We missed Oswal Factory Outlet. Yes, Amritsar has it. Do check it out incase you want to shop for winter garments.
6. Make sure you go to 'Attari/Wagah Border'. I have heard its a good thing to watch.
7.For people willing to eat at 'Surjit Food Plaza'.
+911835115606
+911833294334
Nehru Shopping Complex, Lawrence Road.
8. For people willing to eat at 'Crystal'
+911832225555
+911832229999
Crystal Chowk, Queens Road.
9. There are some 3 trains that go to jammu from amritsar. Firstly, the one that we travlled at. Secondly, the tatanagar one, and the other one is the rourkela one. In anycase if you are thinking of taking the next two, let me tell you they are long distant trains.. and would always be late from their scheduled time.
