The Golden Temple

The Golden Temple (aka Harmandir Sahib), Amritsar, Punjab, India

Happy Vaisakhi. Happy Songkran. Happy Puthandu. Happy Boisakh. Happy Bihu. Happy Vishu… Too many to name them all, what the heck, Happy New Year to the myriads of people celebrating their new years this weekend in South Asia and Indochina!

I know a post just for this! Here goes – photos of our stopover at the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest shrine. Have a blessed New Year celebration to all those celebrating.


The alley outside our cheapo hotel, Hotel Swaran in the congested area north of the Golden Temple. What the heck! What sort of place did we book? The hotel looked decent in the photos on the booking site, and it was CHEAP. Yup, and that was exactly what we got, CHEAP! The people here have no sense of cleanliness, at all. Dust to them is no big deal. Nuff said


OK, let’s go. Gosh, this place is a maze of small alleys crammed to the brim with shops, filled with honking bikes, autorickshaws, you name them. Hey, watch out!


Whew, the Golden Temple! Let’s hide our shoes somewhere there (hope they don’t disappear like what happened in the Balaji Temple in Tirumala…)


We’re in! Look at the crowd! And this was 2022 March, when COVID-19 was still prevalent and we had to make a hundred declarations just to fly


What COVID?!? We're the only ones with masks


A dip in the holy pool


No, we did not try to enter the Golden Temple itself… Look at the line!


Blessed are you


Family pic, Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab, India


Here’re some other views of Amritsar – the Partition Museum


One of the statues outside the Partition Museum – Hey, where’s his sword?


Oh, this chap took it! Just kidding… Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s statue on a roundabout

Ta, till next time. Gotta bet back to the pesky audit work (don’t the Head Office have better work to do???)