Pakistani border crossing ceremony

We had a three day weekend so we went to Amritsar - I wrote about the rest of our experiences in another post - this one is dedicated solely to the border crossing.

After lunch on the first day, we rested for a little bit then met the Turkish woman in the lobby at 2:30.  The hotel arranged a car for us.  It cost 750 rupees (about 15$) for him to drive us to the border, wait for us, then drive us back.  It took 4 hours. Good wage for him, cheap for us. 

The drive was nice- there is lot of wide open space here and we were on the best road we've ever been on in India. There was a huge line of trucks trying to get through the trade border.  They had makeshift tents set up so I think they were going to be there awhile.

trade line- it stretched for over a km

this is a school bus full of boys - they kept waving and one blew a kiss at me

I never thought i'd be here

boar feeding on garbage on the side of the road

we got Indian flags for 20 cents.

Pakistani side

The border crossing was unreal.  We laughed so hard.  There were tons of people there.  They have a separate line for foreigners and they let us and women in first.  Even though we were foreigners we had to get in the women’s line – they had guards on horses keeping us in a very tight line – hundreds of women being forced to walk in a very tiny area.  Jordan and the other foreign men were wandering in wide open road doing whatever they please!  We stood by a separate gate and watched the women come in, the watched the men run in from behind and pass them.  So polite.  We sat in stadium chairs and had Indian flags to cheer with.  The Pakistani side had far less participants but they were very enthusiastic. 

Indian side- crazy outfits

men's line waiting to get in

Before it started they had indian women run the flag back and forth, the women were dancing down front.  It was a lot of fun.  When the ceremony started the men kicked their legs up really high and looked ridiculous. 
Information on the ceremony
border closing video - upclose you can see how aggressive it is

I have some of my own videos, but blogspot and I are having a disagreement.  Hopefully I can get them up soon.

Amritsar, India

The other math teacher, Jordan is moving this year so he’s trying to see as much of India as he can so we headed off to Amritsar this weekend.  The school driver picked us up at 4am for the airport. We flew to Delhi and stayed on the plane while new people boarded.  OMG.  Indians boarding a plane is a nightmare – pushing shoving etc.  but Mumbai is a little more civilized so it isn’t too bad.  Those people getting on in Delhi – horrible.  Getting off was just as bad – this guy kept laying on me to get his luggage instead of just waiting until he could get in the isle.

Amritsar is a small town – 1.3 mil near the Pakistani border.  The pollution is better, the weather is cooler – we got to wear jackets!  We both got rooms in a  hotel  called Hong Kong Inn – Jordan thought it had good vibes since that is where he is moving to next year.  It’s kind of loud, but it has hot water 24 hours a day and the people are nice. 

We got in around 10am on Friday so our rooms weren’t ready. While we waited in the lobby, we met a Turkish woman who was traveling northern India on her own and she wanted to share a ride to the border ceremony that night.  She went off to see things and we went for lunch.  I had garlic naan and garlic chicken so you can probably smell me from where you are and Jordan had butter chicken and butter naan so you can probably see a greasy sheen on his skin in pictures :) We took a nap and then met the woman to go to the border - I will write a separate post on that because it was such an event :) 

When we got back, we went to visit the Golden Temple - the most holy place for Sikhs.  Here is some info on it. Golden temple info It is lit up at night.  You have to walk through some crazy streets to get there and it was dark and we didn't know where we were going.  We live in Mumbai so we have a lot of tolerance for dangerous roads, but this scared us a little so we did something we thought we'd never do - took a bicycle rickshaw.  Poor guy had his work cut out for him try to pedal two big North Americans through the streets!!  We got to the temple and there were tons of people there, but it still felt peaceful and religious.  Not all religious sites do.  You have to take your shoes off and walk pretty far through streets to get into the temple area.  It was cold and lots of puddles from when it rained this morning.  There are some mats laid down to help people keep from slipping on the tiles and mats on the roads so you don't hurt your feet too bad.  It was cold and uncomfortable and we kept making jokes about athlete's foot.  Once we got into the temple area we didn't have to walk through freezing water so  my feet were a little warmer.  The view was amazing.

My friend Paula said I looked good in scarves :)
Good because I wear this a lot in rickshaws

Even the men had to cover their heads

It is pretty spectacular

We got some pizza on our way home and called it a night - after we scrubbed our feet!!

The next day it rained.  and rained.  Now that we knew where were going and it was light out, we walked to the temple.  We stopped at a coffee shop on our way there and ran into some Americans who worked in Delhi.  The temple looks different in the day and there were a lot more people there.  I am glad we went the night before so we could actually go in it.  I didn't take a lot of pictures today because it was so cold and miserable.  The barefoot walk to the temple was miserable.  It was so cold we could see our breath and we were walking in ankle deep water at some points.  We went to see where they feed all the people daily - that is in the link I put above.

Next we went to the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre site. It was a short walk, but by this time, I was soaking wet and freezing cold.  I took very few pictures today because it was too wet to take my phone out.  My shoes were soaked through - my only pair! so I will have a wet ride home tomorrow. My jeans were soaked to the skin.  We decided to take an autorickshaw to the hotel.  I got some video of the flooded roads, but am having trouble uploading them :(

I took a nap and did some school work.  We went to dinner at the same place we had lunch yesterday  - crystals. I had tomato soup and a cheese omelet.  Yummy. and warm!

I usually travel with a poncho - extra shoes etc. but it never occurred to me that it would rain in India in February.  It was good to be out of Mumbai for awhile, but I have a lot of work to do when I get home tomorrow.

Back to running

Most of you know that once I was in remission and my doctor gave the ok - I started running.  Thanks to TNT in 3 years I ran 5 full marathons and about 15 half marathons.  I ran very slow, but got the same medal the first place finishers did!  I have only run one half marathon since moving to Mumbai and I didn't train for it at all, it is very hard to run here.  There are no trails, you can't run on grass on teh side of the road - there is no grass!  There isn't even asphalt.  My running surface choices are bricks, tile, and cement.  Makes my back and knees hurt :(

This has been a very stressful teaching year so I felt I needed to get back to running.  I don't know how far I'll get to take it - depends on how my back and knees go.  I haven't done any cardio but walk since August.  9 days ago I tried to jog and lasted 10 minutes.  I jogged twice this week for 35 minutes each.  Today I decided to try for 45 min.  I lasted an hour!!!!  not bad for 9 days!  Now I'm a slow runner to begin with, but even slower in Mumbai - I had to swivel my head every nano second to avoid obstacles and had to frogger waddle across intersections.  So in 60 min I made it 4.4 miles - please don't do the math!!  it is really slow!  but I am going to try that same route for the next few weeks and see if I can improve my time :)  People always say "I could never run that long"  blah blah blah.  If you can jog 5 minutes you can eventually jog 5 hours.  You just keep going.  That's it.  The refusal to quit has gotten me a lot of medals and I have finished every race I've ever started.
 - I finished a half in Chicago even though I was vomiting so much they had to call a medical team.
- I finished races with blisters the size of huge jelly beans.
- I have ran races in sweltering heat and freezing temperatures - had the beginnings of frostbite once.
- I have ran three half marathons with bronchitis.  luckily I don't run fast enough to strain my lungs too
   much. :)
- I have run up gigantic hills cussing the whole way.
- I have finished countless races crying.
 - I have been miserable for entire races and only finished because I chanted "I will not quit" about
   10,000 times in my head.
I have also enjoyed many runs and finished with a great sense of accomplishment.

I hope to feel that again.

Now if only I could put that steely willpower into my food choices  :)  I'd be a skinny mini instead of a chunky monkey.