Delhi-Amritsar-Chandigarh (Part I)

Well, it seems that I am a bit behind with the blog in English… I have been quite busy, but I will try to catch up! I am going to tell you a bit about my trip to Delhi, Amritsar and Chandigarh, but divided in two entries, so that it is not too hard to read…

The bazaar we went through, seen from Jama Masjid.

Our first stop was in Delhi. After a night on the train, we arrived there at 7.30 and went to visit Jama Masjid, one of the biggest mosques in India. We had to walk through bazaar streets until we reached our destination. The mosque is not the most beautiful thing we have seen, and we had to pay to get in because we had cameras and nowhere to leave them! But it was alright.

Jama Masjid

Jama Masjid, inside.

The bazaar close to Jama Masjid.

India Gate.

 After lunch we went to India Gate. That was nicer, especially because of the gardens in the whole area. We also visited the house of the president and some other buildings of the government. It was so quiet! There was almost no traffic… It had nothing to do with the bazaar we had been in in the morning.

Myself, in front of India Gate.

By India Gate.

The gardens in India Gate.

An elephant in Laxmi Narayan Mandir.

Then we went to a Hindu temple called Laxmi Narayan. We couldn’t get the camera in, but it was worth visiting. It’s quite big and it’s formed by rooms connected at different levels. It looks like a small village with all the houses joined together.

Laxmi Narayan Temple.

In Laxmi Narayan's garden.

Dusk at Laxmi Narayan Mandir.

In front of the Golden Temple,
where you have to be barefoot and cover your head.

 Next day we took the train to Amritsar and, there, we visited Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple. It is a sikh temple, so you have to be barefoot and cover your head. To get to the centre of the “pool of nectar”, where the temple itself is, you have to queue (as you can see in the pictures) and it took us an hour to get in. 

The Golden Temple on its pool of nectar.

"Small" fish in the pool of nectar.

In the Golden Temple.

About to join the queue to get in the Temple.

Representation of the British shooting at Jallianwala Bagh.

After that we went to a park close by, Jallianwala Bagh, in which the British killed many people in 1919 because they were asking for independence more and more. You can see the representation among the bushes. There is also a well where many jumped and died to avoid the bullets.

The well at Jallianwala Bagh

Hands coming out of the earth at Jallianwala Bagh.

From room to room in Mata Mandir.

Next day we went to Mata Mandir, a temple where women pray to get pregnant. It is quite impressive. It seems small, but then, inside, you go from room to room, sometimes through tiny entrances. At some point, you even have to walk on water, and it is all covered with mirrors. From there, we saw some people covered with some kind of powder… 

Getting into a "cave" with water,
to follow the path in Mata Mandir.

In Mata Mandir.

Colourful people...

And I will leave it here for today! I will finish the story about my trip another day, so that you don’t get too bored. Hopefully, it will be this week. I hope you enjoy it.