March 8

Awoke and readied for breakfast. When Jeff went to get hot water, he'd mentioned breakfast to the young man we've been dealing with at nine. By ten we still did not have anything. So Jeff went back down. The young man woke up again and really went to get our breakfast!! At many of the places we stay the “manager” sleeps on the floor at the main desk and pulls all shifts – meaning he is the manager 24/7.  Anyway, we had a great breakfast of stuffed (of corn, peas, and the tomatoes and red onions) paratha with a savory chickpea, red onion “chutney” (more like what we would call a soup). So good.

At noon we went down to meet our arranged tuk-tuk driver. And at 1210, our tour started. We were driven to our first place and given 30 minutes. We are at the Durgiana Temple. It's a Hindu temple and it was free. You enter through a walled gate, which opens to a square pool of water whose center is the temple. We walked around the pool's wide edge first. The temple is, obviously the prime center of attention, and accessible only by one promenade in and out of it. It's a showstopper!  With the sun glistening off of its 1/3 white walls; and 2/3 golden walls and roofline. Stunning! Around on the walkway are inset alcoves to various gods. Finally, we take the promenade up to the temple. It is carved, white marble on the lower part with large silver door entries into the temple. Inside is still a practicing Hindu temple. We walked around close by the outside walls, just admiring the marble and the contrast of the more intricately carved gold upper walls. It did take us 30 minutes. Loaded in the tuk-tuk and off to the next.

Our second stop at Fort Qila Gobindgarh. We arrived at 1240 and given one hour to one hour twenty. The paid entry here included a bunch of things: a 7-D show; a ride; a couple of free games; and entry to art gallery. We took the whole 1:20 minutes. The '7-D' show was about the history of the first Maharaja of this area Punjab in Hindi, but subtitles of English. We were given 3-D glasses. Our seats moved with the horses on the screen. Also we felt air puffs like the horses snorting or a sword slicing by our head; and a punch in our back if we fell off a horse. Anyway, the main history movie ended and with had a short of comedy. It was a kid going to school, with he and his dog, using jetpacks. We moved on and both rode a segway- both being our first time. It was harder than I imagined. The guy stayed with us though, so I think it would be different if you had to do it all yourself. We walked about the fort and on some of the walls. Now we went to an art gallery / museum. There was a room of pretty good paintings that were for sale. A second room of mannequins touting various turbans with descriptions of what color and different wrappings mean. The last and third room was history of the fort. From here we were done. Overall, it felt like it was Disney-equese venture. It was different. I'm still not sure about the whole experience. Of course, there were also costume shops to get your picture in an period outfit, and shops to buy souvenirs, and food stalls. So yeah, still undecided. We load up, left, and on to more of the tour. 

Third stop is a second temple – Vaishno Temple, another Hindu temple. This was like going through a house of cartoons or a fun house, but it involved Hindu gods. If I the fort experience was Disney, this I would have to compare to a carnival or a State Fair venture. We were herded all throughout up and down steps, crawling a couple of times through short tunnels, and going through a couple of 'mouths'' of snakes to various shrines. We spent 30 minutes here. At one shrine, someone gave us a red dot on our forehead. We were finally herded out. Some Indians were really taking the whole walk through seriously, praying to each shrine god and touching in passing. But others, especially kids were just about ringing the bells. We left after finding our tuk-tuk driver around two thirty.

Next, we were going to last part of tour (it's quite a ways), when we stopped for late lunch/snack. We stopped at Highway Nhai (Mini), getting a bag of chips, a bag of popcorn, and a coated/fried bread sandwich with a potato filling. Our first real street food and it was great. Now we arrive (at 1630) at the Indian (Attari) and Pakistani (Wagah) Border for the nightly, ceremonial flag take down.  Not even out of of our tuk-tuk yet, we were offered a face and hands painting, done with Indian flags. I was reluctant, but Jeff was allowing, and well why not. But when they finished, we realized it was for money! We had to pay 100 Rupees ($1.20), not much but… We should have known. Anyway, we worked our way to where we get in. There are lots of souvenir stalls lining the way and actually have taken over the road (which is some of why the tuk-tuks/vehicles can't get any closer). But it is a Country Border crossing, and not an easy one. We found some seats close to the actual border. Again we took some juice we thought was free… Needless to say, we had to pay for it. About five pm, the Pageantry started. I say this because it feels like that is what it is. The show starts with women in single file carrying an Indian flag, running and waving it then passing to the next woman in line to repeat the process. Next are a large group of women that start dancing to very loudly broadcast music. They really seem to enjoy themselves, Bollywood style! Anyway, I'm going to segue in here, today was International Women's Day (I found this out yesterday at a grocery store when workers wanted a picture of me). So women out there – dance!! 💃 On the Pakistani side is a man waving their flag, a man playing drums, and a third man spinning like a whirling dervish.

Now the soldiers arrive on both sides  It was a bunch of pomp and circumstance, and show of ferocity(?). Finally the gates open and after much more exchange of bravado the flags of each country is lowered, and the gates close back up. Wow! This happens every night and has since 1959!! We quickly head back to our driver, arriving by 1745. We loaded up and returned to hotel, watching sunset. Tour ended. We unloaded, thanked and paid our driver. We walked a bit around our area. It is so different at night and just took in surroundings. We did go through the walkway to the Partition Museum, catching a little of a light and sound display there. (We did not stay because was all in Hindi.)

Now we meandered back to our hotel. Up in our room, we ate a light supper and unwound. It was a different filled venture day, that is for sure. Bed by ten.