Varanasi to Amritsar

After Varanasi we went to Rishikesh via Hardirwar. Rishekesh was nice but we were all a bit under the weather so it could have been nicer.

Next we went to Amritsar

When we arrived in Amritsar we put our bags in left luggage and when to the golden temple. It was very nice but sooo bright and my sun glasses were in my bag. Oops!

We spoke to a guy at the tourist info and he said we could stay in the dorm or at one of the hotels the golden temple provides for families. We tried to get a room at the dorm but the four of us were expected to share three beds with two other people. We tried the hotel next but they all pointed us back to the dorm no matter what we said.

We found a proper hotel which was offering us a room for 700 rs that wasn't bad. Our bags were still in left luggage and the tourist info guy was right beside it so we spoke to him. He pulled some strings and we ended up staying at the N.R.I. ( non resident Indians) hotel which was slightly better than the one for 700rs and it was only 300rs a night.

Inside the small vehicle free area around the Golden temple there was a coke refreshment kiosk and they were selling one 300ml bottle of pop for 5 rupees or 12.5 cents. They also had a Nestle kiosk which had a glass of powdered ice tea for 10 rupees and masala chai (spicy indian tea) for 5 rupees each, not so spicy indian tea was 3 rupees, not so spicy tea bag tea for 4 rupees and coffee was 6 rupees. These drink stalls were in two places, one of which was right by our hotel the other one was in front of the dorms. These drinks were super cheap and it was sometimes hard to get to the front because everybody, even us was drinking it like water. (We had a lot of pop in Amritsar and I had a LOT of ice tea.)