Part 6 — Punjab
This is a part of a series of blog posts about our bike trip to Kashmir from Kerala. The travelogue is split into several blogs. You can find the intro and the link to all blogs here
Day 14(28/04/2017)
Jaipur — Halwara
Distance: 662km
ODO: 4549km
Since we didn’t have to dismantle and pack-up the tent, we were able to start a bit early than usual. Vishnu came to us to say goodbye before going off for work. After having breakfast which was room served for us, we left by around 10 am. Our next destination was Amritsar. We were planning to halt somewhere near Patiala and head to Amritsar the next day.
We must have passed about 100kms when I stopped to stand up and stretch for some time. Sree was ahead of me, so he didn’t see me stopping. While I was scrolling through my phone, I heard a loud horn and when I looked up, I saw a small boy, probably around the age of 15 in the middle of the highway. He looked mentally challenged and was not looking at oncoming vehicles. A car passed by him just missing him. It was a pretty good highway and the vehicles were cruising in 80–100kmph. A truck had managed to brake and stopped behind him. I quickly went there and waved my hands wildly to grab the attention of oncoming traffic. When some of them slowed down, I went ahead slowly walked him back to the roadside. He looked scared. I asked if he was OK, but he did not reply and started walking away. I watched as he walked away checking if he was walking back onto the road. Some woman walking by was scolding him for being careless.
Just as I started again, after a few 100 meters, I saw him again, in the middle of the road. This time I understood that he was trying to cross the road. I stopped again and went to him. This time when I grabbed him, he jumped up scared. I held him tightly and walked him to the other side of the road. When I reached the median in the middle of the road, a police officer passing by stopped and held the traffic. I walked him to the other side of the road. The police officer thanked me for what I did.
While I was riding I was thinking of the chances for me stopping there. It was the first time that I felt tired after just 100kms. I could have stopped anywhere. Usually, when Sree or I wanted to take a break, we usually catch-up to the other and then stop together. If I had tried to do that, I wouldn’t have stopped for another couple of kilometres. I felt that God was giving us a chance to repay the kindness we were given the previous day.
Meanwhile, one of Sree’s schoolmate Navneeth who was working in Halwara, offered his place to crash in if we were passing by there. When we checked, Halwara wasn’t way off our route. We thought we’ll see how the day goes and decide. I was a bit unsure since that would be more than 600 kilometres for the day. I was also feeling a bit tired after lunch. We agreed to see how we feel at dinner time and depending on where we have reached decide if we should continue.
In between, we crossed Karnal. It is said to be founded by Karna. Sree being a huge fan of Karna got Goosebumps when he saw a board as we crossed Karnal.
We had covered about 500kms when we stopped for dinner at 8. We were around 170km away from Halwara. I was not feeling that tired, so I agreed to head to Halwara, and Sree was always ready. So we quickly wrapped up the dinner and continued by 8.30. We reached Halwara by about 11.30. When we called Navneeth, he was not picking up. I urgently wanted to use the washroom so we found a petrol pump nearby. Even though it was closed, luckily the bathroom was not locked. Sree kept trying to get in touch with him but failed. By then we were so tired. We had already ridden for around 650+ kilometres. Finally, we decided to pitch the tent there. There was no one to seek permission. But we were too tired to bother about that. But as we pulled out the tent, a few people came from nowhere and asked us to leave. We didn’t know what to do, but we left. But just then, Navneeth called back. It was so relieving. He guided us to his place and by about 12.30 we got into his room. We stayed up late talking. Navneeth and Sree shared childhood memories. Sree and I shared stories from our trip thus far.
Day 15(29/04/2017)
Halwara — Wagah — Amritsar
Distance: 223km
ODO: 4772km
We were really tired and woke up late the next day. We left for Wagah border after lunch. We were quite tired that day and had to take a couple of stops during the 170 km drive. We passed through some beautiful villages of Punjab. Small roads that went through the paddy fields. There were farmers drying the paddy on the road. We got to see some countryside views of Punjab. By the time we reached the parking lot at Wagah, a guy told us that the ceremony was over. We were sad and regretful that we didn’t leave early from Halwara. Since we didn’t have any other plans for the day, we decided to walk to the stadium and see. When we got there the ceremony was going on. There was a board outside saying the stadium is full. There was also some people standing outside. Then we noticed a group being escorted into the stadium through another entrance. We innocently followed them. There were quite a few of them, so they might have lost count or something, but we managed to get inside. We noticed that the stadium was far from full. The ceremony was going on and People were cheering loudly. But there was something missing. It was not at all how we expected it to be. We had heard stories of this and we had seen videos, but this was nothing like that. The stadium was under renovation, and there wasn’t enough seating. People were walking around, some were leaving, some were coming in. There was chaos. The ceremony got over soon. We decided that we’ll come back to see it again someday.
At the parking lot, we met a few other riders. One was travelling from Jammu to Delhi and two others who travelled from Delhi to watch the ceremony. We talked over a cup of tea and parted our ways.
The ride to Amritsar was tricky. There were a lot of bugs flying around and they were constantly crashing onto our helmet visors. At one point we had to stop and clean the visor. Somehow we managed to continue. We reached Amritsar by around 8pm and found a parking spot near The Golden temple. We asked the guy there if it was ok to keep our bags on the bike itself. First he said it’s not safe and suggested that we take it with us, but that was not going to work because we cannot take them inside the temple. Seeing our confusion, he said he’ll take care of it. He got some blankets and covered our bikes. He was so helpful. After securing our bags containing our belongings including my laptop with a blanket, we went to the temple.
We walked around what appeared to be a huge building trying to figure out where this thing is! We walked through an entrance and there it was!
The first unexpected sight of The Golden Temple was mesmerising. for a moment we stopped awestruck seeing the beauty of it. We had heard of it, we had seen photos of it, but seeing it in real for the first time, at night, illuminated by all the lights and those lights reflecting off the water surrounding it. There were some bhajans being played in the background. All-together, it was an out of the world experience. We slowly walked towards it and stood there enjoying the beauty.
I was brought back to reality by a group of young boys asking me something. It took a moment for me to come back and understand what they were asking. They were asking me to take a photo of them. I said yes, dropped my camera and let it hang on my neck. While I stretched my hand to take his phone, he was standing there stretching a memory card at me. I looked confused for a second and then realised what he wanted. I removed my memory card from my camera and put his card in. They didn’t have to think of what pose to put on. In quick succession, he put on 5–8 different poses and I clicked all of them. Then one by one all of his 4 friends came up and repeated the poses after him, In about 2 mins, I took about 40 pictures for them, they took the memory card, thanked us and left.
We slowly walked around the temple. The Golden Temple has four entrances in four directions. None of these entrances has a door. It represents that the temple is open to anyone irrespective of religion. Similar to any other Gurudwara, you need to cover your head while you are inside the temple. Scarfs are usually available at the entrances.
The Golden Temple serves food to 50,000 to 100,000 people every day for free. This Langar by itself is fascinating. The langar runs round the clock 7 days a week. It is mostly, if not fully carried out by volunteers, including cooking, serving and washing the utensils. It is carried out in a systematic and hygienic way making it truly amazing.
By the time we came back after langar, people had started to lay down on the sides of the walkway and we understood that they were gonna sleep there. We didn’t need further persuading to decide to join them. We went out, got our sleeping bags, came back in and found a spot on the sidewalk. We laid down and I watched the beautiful Golden Temple until my eyes closed and I drifted off to sleep. We were woken up by volunteers cleaning the walkway at 3 am in the morning. People were still working there, the langar was still going on. There were also people sleeping around the temple. We moved to another spot and went back to sleep.
Day 16(30/04/2017)
Amritsar — Mandi
Distance: 317km
ODO: 5089km
Woke up at about 7 in the morning. We took a dip in the pond to freshen up and got out. The next destination was Jallianwala Bagh. It is close to the golden temple. so we kept our bike at the same place and walked.
Jallianwala Bagh gives a lot of emotions. We have been hearing the stories of the incident several times from our childhood history classes. When we hear the story, we have a mental image of the incident from the descriptions our teacher gave us or from the representational images. Now standing there, you apply that image to the real place and you can visualise Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer standing at the entrance with a troop and firing. You can visualise people running for their lives, people trying to climb out of the wall and falling dead, people jumping into the well. To support your visualisation, there are bullet marks around the park.
We spent some time there remembering the lives that were lost and paying a tribute.
After a bit of shopping, we left for Mandi. As per our initial plans, we were to travel to Leh via Jammu from Amritsar, but according to the latest report, there is still heavy snowfall in the North. We will be stranded in Srinagar if we go now, So we decided to visit some places that we had planned to visit on our way back.
The ride to Mandi was scenic. We were entering the Himalayas for the first time. These were the Shivalik regions of the Himalayas.
We stopped at a viewpoint of the Gobind Sagar Reservoir. After a few stops for rest, lunch and tea, we reached Mandi by around 7 pm. We were planning to trek to Parashar lake the next day and we had to keep our bags safely, so we decided to take a room. We told them that we were trekking to Parashar lake the next day and will return back to Mandi the day after that. So they let us keep our bags at the hotel while we were off. We slept early to get some good rest as we were to do an 8km trek the next day.
