Beating Retreat - Beautiful Spiritual Patriotic

Hi,

We were there in Amritsar for just a day and now I deeply regret that why I didn't spend some more time there.

Me and my two friends started our weekend trip on Saturday 3rd Dec, 2011 with a train journey from New Delhi station. We reached Amritsar at about 7:00 in morning. There we used sleeper waiting room(a good decision that saved both time and money for us ;) and left station at about 8:00 AM.

Outside station we made our second good decision of the day by hiring an auto for a full day, driver promised to make sure that we may not miss any of the important destinations of this city.

Journey Begins...

Mata Mandir Temple
This is at around 2 Kms from the railway station.

	This temple has idols of several hindu god and godess but the major attraction is replica made of Mata Vaishno Devi Cave Temple. This is a very good to be place in Amritsar if not must.

From here we went to Sheetla Mata Mandir

This is said to be 700 years old temple and is dedicated to Maa Sheetla. Please don't go with this pic, when deciding on 700 yrs :)

Our next stop was Durga Mandir

	This you can call a miniature of The Golden Temple. Its made in same elegant style as that of golden temple itself. A gold laden temple between a blue water body, a very enriching experience.
"Bhagwaan ke sahare,       Bhakt bhagwaan ko uthaye"

Punjab aaye aur lassi na pee to kya khaak punjab aaye. For those who don't know about Lassi, "Lassi is a traditional yogurt-based drink", for more details check wiki page of lassi :)

Our next destination was The Golden Temple

	One word, magnificent. Gold laden temple glittering in sun shine situated between blue water body with colorful fishes, its shadow floating on water making you feel simply mesmerized.  There were thousands of devotees in queue to get inside the main building and several thousand other roaming in the sprawling campus.
A very good thing here was no restriction on photography, which I loved a lot.	Sitting calm, hearing chants of bhajan is special in itself. I can spend whole day sitting like this here.
Its said that there are no free lunches, but that's not the case here. Here free food is served to lakhs of people daily and the way its prepared, served and maintained is a story in itself. Even with this huge number of people to fed, you won't get a single improperly cleaned plate to eat.

There's a lot to tell but I feel this good enough for a glimpse.

From here we went to Jalian Waala Bagh

	This is a landmark in history of Indian Freedom Struggle from british rule, a place in close vicinity of a holy shrine and an evidence of probably one of the greatest crimes in history. This place is such, that can invoke any mind in an instant. Below image(right) shows signs of a barbaric crime done here.

From here we hurried on to our next stop Wagah Border

From what I know till now, this is probably the only international border that is such a crowd puller. The day I visited, there were around 2-3 thousand people from Indian side alone.

Wagah Border hosts a military ceremony that takes place every evening before sunset. It starts with parading soldiers and then involves students in it, who run with national flag in their hands and dance on patriotic tunes. Charismatically dressed soldiers, national anthem and patriotism in air, these are all awe inspiring.

From here we headed straight back to station to catch our train back to delhi. This ends our trip to Amritsar - Beautiful Spritual Patriotic.