First class trains in India are dead boring. Our last overnight train journey took us to Rajasthan in western India Our berth mates on that trip were an Army Major from Jaiselmer, a woman traveler from Brazil and a couple from France who joined us at about three o’clock in the morning. We were in second class for that trip and from the moment we boarded there was activity and discussion and excitement all around us. By contrast, here in our first class cabin we have been speaking in whispers and it feels a bit like hanging out in a library on wheels (except for the uniformed guard standing in the hallway holding an Uzi).
Tonight, on our fifth wedding anniversary (the assigned gift for which is wood
but I don’t think their will be any gifts of that nature on this train) and we are off to Amritsar, in the Punjab region of India. Amritsar is the home of The Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine and a major pilgrimage site. The Golden Temple was on my must-see list from before we left London but the thing that prompted me to submit this trip to “Mrs. WMG’s Travel and Adventure Calendar” was the Wagah Border. Here, at the only open border crossing between India and Pakistan, they have an amazing and elaborate flag lowering ceremony every night as they close the border. I know what you’re thinking, “whoop-de-do”, but think again, think John Clease Ministry of Silly Walks on steroids and you’ll be on the right track. This is going to be so cool.
We haven’t met the gentleman with us in this carriage, he doesn’t seem to want to chat, but he looks like maybe a civil servant who likes to play golf. Oh, and I’m publishing this blog from the train – how cool is that?
Its beautiful place. Trains are painstaking though.