My brother and his wife had planned a two-day trip to Golden Temple, Amritsar right after the wedding. But something got into them and they asked all cousins on both sides to accompany them. They insisted, and the party got extended by two more days.
We were 20 people in four cars ready to drive all the way to Amritsar on 24th morning. A very eventful road trip, it had accidents, flat tyres, loud music, lots of laughter, even more sleepy heads, chaat, lassi, punjabi radio, crazy bus drivers, crazier truckers, insane video recordings, and endless drama.
Both ways the drive took longer than expected because of various reasons. One obvious one being way too much coordination required between all the cars.
For a few scores of kilometres, while my cousin Nidhi drove one of the cars, I exchanged places with Swaroop and sat in the seat next to her. The drama that followed led to me showing the finger to one of the many assholes that didn’t give way or acted crazy simply because we were two women in the front. Other ways of getting back at them included not giving way after overtaking either. š
It was my first visit to Amritsar and to the Golden Temple. As expected, there was a great rush and no peace. We stayed there till the time Guru Granth Sahib was ‘put to sleep’, and then headed out for some nice dinner. The restaurant we ate at, Crystal, also had a bunch of typical punju boys celebrating a birthday over food and drinks. From a distance itself they met the stereotype so beautifully that it amused us. The ‘pangebaaz keeda‘ in me was itching to have some fun but I succumbed to pressure of behaving in front of family members. š
I did not see the Wagah Border, didn’t have any Amritsari kulche or papad, or even buy any punjabi jutti. But I do not know if I’ll ever go back there again. Way too much chaos to handle!
One good thing – my monthly tripping is going well. I would like to tweak last month’s entry in the list by putting a Pune-Delhi trip on it. š
Rest is all good!
Oh oh… while we were going from our hotel to the Golden Temple, I saw a man on a cycle-rickshaw enjoying a can of Carlsberg. His wife sat next to him. š
Fuchsia 
My thoughts exactly on the traffic situation in Punjab…I told my dad that we Punjabis are the parallel of Rednecks in north America…everyone wants to have their own way on the roads and no one wants to relent!
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Did you try Amritsari fried fish?
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Jas,Hehe..Swati,Hum to veggie hain! š
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Road trip is always fun to have with friends and family. Great post by your side, useful one. Thanks and keep updating. Hotels Amritsar India
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