January 8
I enjoyed a lazy Saturday morning, complete with sleeping in and lounging most of it away in bed watching (really bad) movies on one of the two English language channels. In the afternoon Jerry from Singapore came by and invited me to tag along with a few people going to the Golden Temple, one of the two recommended travel sites in Vellore. Our group ended up being Jerry, Selena, and Kunlin (all of Singapore) and myself and Andy.
To get to the Temple we decided to take a bus instead of an auto rickshaw, and this choice led to one of our "true India experiences." Getting to the Temple by bus from where we are staying involves taking one bus and later transferring to another. The second bus ride was so crowded that I really didn't need to use my arms to maintain my balance while standing on the bus and there wouldn't have been room to turn around if I had wanted to! Then at one of the stops the bus broke down. In order to get it started again several of the men had to get off and push until the clutch caught like in the movie "Little Miss Sunshine."
When we got to the Temple there were people everywhere. Cameras are not allowed, so unfortunately I couldn't get any of my own pictures. (I will include several that I have found online though!) Shoes are also not allowed, so we checked them and bought tickets for 100 Rupees (a little over $2). Tickets are not required, but they turned out to be a wise investment as they later let us pass a lot of the crowd.
There is an enclosed walkway into the temple that is in the shape of a star if viewed from above. Along the path there are many inspirational sayings from many religions and facts about the good deeds that the Temple does for the community. One sign in particular read something like, "Why do we build a Golden Temple when tins money could be used to build schools or libraries? The inspiration received here is enough to lead people to build many more schools and libraries." I suppose their theory is something along the lines of the "pay it forward" idea, but I'm not sure that I really see the logic in their argument. The temple was really lovely, but it also probably was a waste of A LOT of money...
I enjoyed a lazy Saturday morning, complete with sleeping in and lounging most of it away in bed watching (really bad) movies on one of the two English language channels. In the afternoon Jerry from Singapore came by and invited me to tag along with a few people going to the Golden Temple, one of the two recommended travel sites in Vellore. Our group ended up being Jerry, Selena, and Kunlin (all of Singapore) and myself and Andy.
To get to the Temple we decided to take a bus instead of an auto rickshaw, and this choice led to one of our "true India experiences." Getting to the Temple by bus from where we are staying involves taking one bus and later transferring to another. The second bus ride was so crowded that I really didn't need to use my arms to maintain my balance while standing on the bus and there wouldn't have been room to turn around if I had wanted to! Then at one of the stops the bus broke down. In order to get it started again several of the men had to get off and push until the clutch caught like in the movie "Little Miss Sunshine."
When we got to the Temple there were people everywhere. Cameras are not allowed, so unfortunately I couldn't get any of my own pictures. (I will include several that I have found online though!) Shoes are also not allowed, so we checked them and bought tickets for 100 Rupees (a little over $2). Tickets are not required, but they turned out to be a wise investment as they later let us pass a lot of the crowd.
There is an enclosed walkway into the temple that is in the shape of a star if viewed from above. Along the path there are many inspirational sayings from many religions and facts about the good deeds that the Temple does for the community. One sign in particular read something like, "Why do we build a Golden Temple when tins money could be used to build schools or libraries? The inspiration received here is enough to lead people to build many more schools and libraries." I suppose their theory is something along the lines of the "pay it forward" idea, but I'm not sure that I really see the logic in their argument. The temple was really lovely, but it also probably was a waste of A LOT of money...
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| View when you first arrive at the Golden Temple |
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| Overhead view showing the star shaped pathway with the Temple at the center. |
The entry path into the temple is covered, and the covering has a lot of really intricate woodwork. However, no one seemed to appreciate it or be interested in looking at it. In fact, many of the people literally ran through this area. As we got closer to the temple we had to funnel through what felt like closed in cattle shoots. Thankfully, we had bought the tickets previously mentioned and we got to go through a special line that skipped ahead of much of the crowd.
The Golden Temple is set in the middle of a pool of water. It's entirely covered in gold with marble floors and crystal chandeliers. We went at night, so it was all lit up and glittered beautifully. I couldn't believe all of the intricate gold carvings on every surface of the temple! There was a small circular path that went around the outside of the pool and then up to the entrance of the temple so that you could see all sides.
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| The Golden Temple at night |
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| Detail on some of the columns |
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| Another detail shot |
For the ride home we opted to take an auto rickshaw. Our driver took back roads, so it was very bumpy. We had originally planned on going to Sun Min's (American student doing research in India for 10 months) house for a movie night, but we ended up cancelling because we were all too tired.
I spent the rest of the night relaxing in my room, although my relaxation was temporarily put on hold by this little guy! (Sorry it's so blurry!)
These lizards are all over the place, although this was the first one that I found in my room. He was only about an inch long from tip to tail, and he was crawling on our wall. While I'm sure that he is harmless, I really couldn't wrap my head around the idea of sleeping with him crawling on the wall over my head. I had to wait 45 minutes for him to come low enough for me to catch him between a piece of paperboard and an empty Ramen noodles cups, and then I took him outside and set him free!
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