Back in India...

First stop: Amritsar and the Golden Temple

After spending two amazing months outside of India, it was time to go back to the country, which seems to be like a magnet for me. I’ve never been to the North of India before, so it was time to explore finally this part of the country.

I arrived in Delhi on March 17 and had my first couchsurfing experience; I stayed with a really nice Indian couple in Delhi for 4 days. It’s so nice to come to a big city and not to be alone. Delhi after all is not such a scary place as I first thought, yes it is big but if you stay there and explore it with a local person it is a very interesting city with lots of things to see.

But since I only have one month left in India I wanted to explore 4 more places: Amritsar and the Golden Temple of the Sikhs, Dharamsala – the Exile of the Dalai Lama, Rishikesh – the Yoga Mecca and Varanasi – the holy city on the Ganges.

So my first stop after my arrival in Delhi was Amritsar. I kind of had the feeling I would love the place but as it sometimes happens, if you have too high expectations you will get disappointed but not so in Amritsar. I arrived after a 6 hrs train journey and took a Rickshaw from the train station to the Golden Temple. 

The Golden Temple at day light

Everyone was very friendly to me, smiling and happy. I arrived at the Golden Temple and looked for a place to stay within the Golden Temple complex and was lucky enough to got a single room with bathroom for Rs 100,-/night (€ 1.50/night).

The food in the Golden Temple is for free or you can give a donation – I already loved the Sikh culture then, for a long-term traveller on a tight budget it is heaven on earth.

So after finding a room, having a free meal, I was ready to explore the Golden Temple complex and honestly, the Golden Temple is exceptional beautiful and you just want to stay there and sit and watch and sit and watch some more.

The Golden Temple at dawn

...just sitting and watching...

A Sikh warrior

I took so many pictures of the Golden Temple at different times of the day, it is just so beautiful that you can’t get enough from it. And the Sikhs, wow – they are so friendly; I was really feeling in the right place.

Father and daughter.

Taking a bath in the holy water of the Golden Temple.

The colors of turbans.

So time flew by and I learned a lot about the Sikh culture. The Golden Temple has 4 entrances: North, East, South and West – it means that everyone is welcome to enter it. The food is free, as mentioned before and you can sleep at the Golden Temple complex. If you don’t get a room, you are welcome to put your mattress for free anywhere you like to. The whole system of the Golden Temple runs by donations and volunteers. Everyone can volunteer and everyone does: men, women, children and visitors. Of course I couldn’t resist and although I favoured to put chapattis in the food baskets (I think that was the easiest job of all), I volunteered to clean the dishes with a lot of other volunteers (that wasn’t the easiest job of all and you had to be quite fast as well but I coped :). The dishes are cleaned six times, so you can be sure they are really clean. The food there, all vegetarian, was delicious and we had lots of fun while volunteering. I think not too many foreigners do it, so we were kind of an attraction to them :)

First we were trying to find out how we could volunteer until we found someone who told us, just to do whatever you like to do, there is no one who puts you in a job, you just choose something and start. The amazing thing for me was that it really works that way and they never run out of volunteers in one place. You can do so many things: cutting vegetables, preparing chapattis, giving out food and tea, cleaning the dishes and and and – it’s a big machine and it’s running 24 hrs. When you get tired, there is already someone waiting to take your place. In one day 500.000 people can get fed – it is just amazing.

...washing dishes, my job.

the chappati team

...to feed 500.000 people a day, you need big pots :)

...everyone helps - men and women work together.

Besides staying in the Golden Temple complex, I also explored and enjoyed the city of Amritsar and the ‘closing the border’ ceremony of India and Pakistan. Every evening, just before sunset, the Indian and Pakistani military meet at the border to engage in an extraordinary 20-minute ceremony of pure theatre. It's hilarious.

Last picture before leaving Amritsar: Miguel (Chile), me and Dean (GB) in front of the Golden Temple.

My Bali and Gili Islands road trip

After 10 days in Ubud it was time to hit the road again and explore the rest of Bali and the Gili’s, therefore my friend Angelique and I rented a scooter and started our adventure tour, which brought us to beautiful temples (Pura Luhur Batukau), lush hillsides covered with jungle; the Jatiluwih rice fields; fruit trees and coffee plants; lakes and waterfalls (Munduk), fishing villages and beaches (Tulamben, Amed) and much more.

As pictures sometimes speak louder than words – I won’t write much this time but show you images of my beautiful journey instead. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed this road trip. Here you go:

First stop one of Bali’s most spiritual temples: Pura Luhur Batukau. Please read who CAN’T enter the temple :)

The nature of Bali is amazing and diverse: rice fields, jungle, volcanoes, ocean…

Jatiluwih rice fields

Mount Agung

lush hillsides and ocean view

North coast of Bali

West coast of Bali

Gili Trawangan - is there a more beautiful place to celebrate ones birthday?

The people of Indonesia are super friendly, hardworking, funny:

Banana fritters - the best ever

This picture is for Tom-Justin: Justin, here the kids learn to ride a scooter with 9 years - you'd wish, mh? :)

old-style farming

 

 

even the cows get a shower

The little guy on the left side reminded me of Goran, don't you agree?

fresh fish for sale

temple offerings...yammie

A visit of a local market can’t be missed:

Of course I had to try the Luwak coffee – one of a kind:

Here I am trying different kinds of coffee's and teas from Bali.

Kopi Luwak coffee comes from the Indonesian island, an area well know for its excellent coffee. Also native to the area is a small civit like animal called a Paradoxurus. The locals call them luwaks. These little mammals live in the trees and one of their favourite foods is the red, ripe coffee cherry. They eat the cherries, bean and all. While the bean is in the little guy’s stomach, it undergoes chemical treatment and fermentations. The bean finishes its journey through the digestive system, and exits. The still intact beans are collected from the forest floor, and are cleaned, then roasted and ground just like any other coffee. The resulting coffee is said to be like no other. It has a rich, heavy flavour with hints of caramel or chocolate.

Indonesia has amazing huge trees:

find me in the pic :)

The last part of this trip I’ve done on my own and traveled to some small Islands. One was called ‘Gili Trawangan’ and the other one was called ‘Nusa Lembongan’.

Most people come to those islands to dive, snorkel, surf and relax.

I, of course, did lots of walking, biking and snorkelling and maybe some relaxing :)

Here are some pics of a little mermaid who tries to practise her free diving skills. The ocean here is really beautiful, full of fish, sea turtles and colourful corals.

In Lembongan 85% of the population work at farming seaweed and it’s fascinating to just be there and watch their daily routines – most of the seaweed is used for cosmetic products and the production of carrageenan – which is used to thicken ice cream as well as cheese and many other products.

In 6 days it’s time to say ‘Good bye’ to Bali and ‘Hello again’ to India, I am curious what India will bring me this time – I am going North.

I had a beautiful time in Bali, which I will never forget.

Hugs, smiles and kisses a last time from Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

...soon on the road again.

Yours Eylin