Travel stories & other things I like: March 2012

So I finally decided to start a blog... I've been thinking about it for ages and thought it was about time now when I'm back in India for the 2nd time and got a lot of time to do whatever for 1,5 month. I still have to figure out how I want the layout for my blog but at least it's up and running. Charanti is a sanskrit word for move, wander or travel, and I like the sound of it and the meaning of it so I decided to call my blog for Charanti! I actually think it is a pretty good idea for a tattoo as well but for some reason my parents didn't agree on that one...

I arrived in Amritsar yesterday after a very long trip; Stavanger-Copenhagen-Bahrain-Delhi-Amritsar. The second the plane hit the ground in Delhi 40 guys where up from their seats switching their mobile phones on, shouting and grabbing for their bags while the poor flight attendants where announcing over the speakers; "please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened until the seatbelt sign is switched off". Did anyone bother to sit back down? Nope... It feels so good to be back!

Todays plan was to see the Golden Temple but I was told there's a strike in all of Punjab and everything is closed and for some reason it would be better to see the Temple later (it could have been a scam but there really was a strike), so I decided to go and check out the India/Pakistan border closing ceremony. On our way there we had to stop at a petrol station but as even petrol stations are closed, some guy had pulled his truck up next to the road and was selling diesel from it to what I assume was a lot more than normal price. I guess he would be sticking around until the petrol station opened again to make some easy money.
The ceremony is called "lowering of the flags" and it was pretty cool watching. When I arrived they just started playing loud Indian music and people got up dancing and cheering before we were told to sit down so the ceremony could start. The guards came out and lined up while one of them was doing a sort of "warrior scream" on the microphone, and when he finished they did the same on the Pakistani side of the border; it sounded like they were trying to scare each other off with the longest and highest scream. While this went on two and two started marching down to the gate doing these crazy kicks up in the air, and apparently they do exactly the same on the other side, before they lined up in front of the gate. After the marching, kicking and screaming had gone on for a while they opened the gate so they could raise the flags and then lower them again, all this while they were looking very very serious...

The atmosphere at the border ceremony was great; the Indians on their side singing and cheering definitely outdid the Pakistani's dance-moves! Even though it is chaos and it can be very intense and hard travelling here it feels good to be back; there really is something special about India and I think I will keep coming back for a long time. Tomorrow I'll go and see the Golden Temple. Very excited!