Ludhiana - Amritsar - Wagah

We took our first family vacation in over a year to go to Ludhiana, Amritsar and Wagah during the Dussehra weekend.

It was a fun trip.

We left Delhi at 4PM only to arrive in Ludhiana at 10:30PM. The traffic was really bad, especially around Kurukshetra. I recommend leaving in the morning or early afternoon to avoid the traffic.

We spend the next day in Ludhiana at Dhall chacha's place. We ate Baba's chicken for lunch and had dinner at Yellow Mirchi. The food was ok. Nothing to write home about. The next day, we left for Amritsar at 12PM. We reached Amritsar at 4PM.

We had just enough time to check into our hotel and then leave for Wagah to see the change of gaurds. Wagah border was extremely crowded. It was only because of mummy's enterprising nature that we were able to get into the VIP area. Once there, watching the ceremony was a piece of cake.

I took the camera and the camcorder and stood about a meter away from the border and took a lot of pictures. I tried to get Ketaki and Anya to come with me but the police had asked them to move into the stands (for general public).

Ketaki was able to get out of the stands but left Anya with Dhall chacha hoping he would come with her. To her and our surprise he did not. Ketaki kept looking for Anya and chacha in the crowd and was very worried. She was not able to enjoy the ceremony.

The crowd was unruly. The police had to tie and hold a rope so that people to respect the boundaries drawn and would not try and rush onto the tarmac, where the actual change of guards was taking place.

There were atleast 5000 people on India's side. Pakistan's side had maybe 7. It was an odd contrast. Everyone was shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai. This was the closest I'd ever been to Pakistan.

We left Wagah and went straight to the Golden Temple (aka harimandir sahib, Sacha Darbar). We was a group of guys trying to get there pictures taken with foreign tourists (actually just with the great looking girl in the group) - it was amusing. I did feel bad for the girl but she didn't seem to mind the attention.

We spend about an hour and a half at the temple. I know that given a choice, I will never take my car to the golden temple area ever. The drive to the gurudwara was sad, slow and surprisingly irritating. Things were calm and clean once we were inside the gurudwara.

Mummy and papa both like the golden temple. It is their favorite place of worship.

We left the gurudwara around 8:15PM to have dinner at a local dhaba nearby. Even though chacha highly recommended it, we all hated the extremely oily food. This was no great punjabi meal in Amritsar. It was a disaster. We did not eat much.

We relaxed once we were back at the resort. The resort was nice and calm.

The next day was eventful. Everyone wanted to get a massage. Mummy decided to give up her spot so that Ketaki could get one. Neha had already had one and briefed Ketaki on the do's and don't and what to expect.

Any how.. the massage was fun for everyone. We ate breakfast around 12PM. It was difficult for mummy and I to handle Anya, disinfect her water bottles and keep some boiled water for her milk all to be done within the hour.

The quality of water was so bad that the bottles came up white with salt once they were put into the boiling water and taken out. We had to discard those bottles and the boiled water. We ended up having very little water left for Anya's milk and decided to call it a day in Amritsar and rush back to Ludhiana so that we could get enough milk for Anya.

We left at 12 and reached Ludhiana around 4PM. The breakfast in the resort was quite an event. It took them forever to serve the 8 of us. Some of us were at the breakfast table for over an hour.

Once in Ludhiana - we decided to take a nap before heading out for dinner to the local 5 star. I think it was called Park Plaza. The chinese restaurant there was ok. We paid about 4000/- for 10 of us, which is fairly cheap for a 5 star considering we had two bottles of a sweet californian red wine (Rose).

We headed back to Delhi at 5aM on Monday. We reached Delhi at 9:30AM.

Bangalore

Who would have thought that after a gap of 10 years, I would get to go to Bangalore twice in 10 days.

I was in Bangalore for IDF this Monday thru Wednesday and at a customer visit last week.

As it is getting a hotel in Bangalore is'nt easy, IDF did not help matters much. I eventually found a room at the Royal Palms Hotel and Spa. This is a recent addition to the hotels in Bangalore and is owned by Sanjay Khan.

It is a nice property but way too far from Bangalore. It took me over 1 hour just to get to IDF and back. It took 565/- Rs and 1.5 hrs to get from the Airport to the hotel in a pre-paid taxi. I retained the taxi driver for about 1000/- Rs a day so that I could get to IDF, see a little bit of Bangalore and get dropped back.

The commute to and from the hotel was so long and arduous that it left me no time to relax in Bangalore. The traffic in Bangalore will keep any rational person away from Bangalore and will soon prevent people/IT companies from opening shops there.

The only good thing about Bangalore is its cleanliness and the open ness. It is also a great place for couples. It is still more expensive than Delhi for everyday things.

Expenses:
12,040/- for the room at Golden Palms (2 nights)
799 /- for a 499.00 Rs dinner and 300.00 Rs bottle of Corona.

8600/- for the room at Royal Orchid (1 night)
This was clearly the most expensive beer I have had to date. The volume to rupee ratio for this beer completely pissed me off.

I was happy that I was able to buy some Indian and German wines from "The Wine and Cheese" shop on Brigade road. Hopefully I will get a change to enjoy them sometime this weekend.