Amritsar

Arrived safely into Amritsar at 1am and after waiting what seemed like an age for my bag, was quite rely relieved to find my driver waiting patiently by the exit holding a little board with my name on it. It was about 20 minutes drive to the guesthouse and I was in bed 10 minutes later!

So I got up at 9 and wandered through the grounds. One of the staff spotted me and ran across to ask if I'd like some breakfast. Fresh fruit cocktail and cheese omelette later, I felt almost  human again!

The rest of the group arrived at lunchtime -- just 6 more, which was much less than I had expected, especially for Easter time. And, surprise, Cathryn from my Ethiopia trip was there! Three of us decided to do an independent trip to see the border retreat ceremony Waggah which is one more thing that Michael Palin did on his travels. What an adventure! Must have been 60,000 people there altogether on both sides of the border. It's quite scary actually reaching the location, you have to park about a mile away and walk with good natured but boisterous crowds to the grandstands. You're frisked 3 times and eventually corralled into a special foreigners enclosure. There's patriotic mystic playing at full blast and cheer leaders whipping the crowd into a frenzy. When the music pauses you can hear the other crowd chanting "Pakistan " from just 50 yards away. Then the soldiers and border guards start to march up and down, doing a short of John Clsese silly walk. After a lot of theatrics the gate is slammed shut for the night.

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, we went to the Golden Temple in the evening. Our driver didn't arrive so we found ourselves hurtling through the streets of a Amritsar crammed into a couple of tuk tuks!

Now it's Monday evening and we've had a busy day and a long drive. But hopefully more about that tomorrow.