Delhi-Amritsar

So we are now in Macleod Ganj after leaving the Thailand paradise/scam for India once more. It was quite the journey. When we went to pick up our plane tickets, we were informed that the plane had been delayed and instead of leaving at 3:45am, it was going to leave at 5:45am. Sweet! So we kept the room for the night but really only got one hour sleep before getting in our taxi at 3am. We arrived in Delhi in the morning and began to tackle India once more. We were able to secure the last 2 tourists seats on the train to Amritsar and headed to the train station. Now all that i had heard about Delhi was that it was stinky and gross and busy and stinky. Well after all the build up it actually wasn't that bad, although I learned that the big part of the grossness was the fact that there were cows everywhere but this time they had all disapeared. So we walked down the Main bazaar street got some food and a new bag and headed to the train station for our 4:30pm train. Now this was the Shantabdi express, one of the few "luxury express" trains that this country have and the lowest class is pretty much first class A/C seating with full meals and all. We were being served some kind of food, snakcs, soup, meals, fairly frequently and the ride went by quite fast. We arrived in Amritsar in the dark and tried to start walking the direction that we thought would lead us to a guest house. But soon we were informed by a rickshaw that we were actually going in the complete opposite direction. So we hope on the rickshaw and return to the guest house area near the station and fight off the many touts on the empty streets before we found a guest house to our liking and price range.
The day, as we hadn't slept for 2 days, that's exactly what we did, sleeping until pretty much 4pm in the evening. We got up and decided to head to the Golden Temple area to check it out at least. We got some food, which proved to be quite difficult and went to the regional tourist office inside the complex. Here we were lectured on why we wouldn't spend the night in the free dorms and eat the free food. Well we must be rich he claimed, that would be the only reason. Yes, i'm a freaking millionaire, that's why i splurged for the $5 each room.
The next day we got up, had some breakfast and headed to temple. Now this is again a trully remarkable complex, with lots of gold and marble and expensive things. And so many people who are very dedicated. The line up to get into the temple was ridiculously long, it probably would have taken 3 hours to get through, at least. So we strolled around the edge and fought off the many people who wanted to take pictures with us. That night we had told to meet a rickshaw driver to take us to Attari for the changing of the guards ceremony, but after waiting for 15min, we joined a shared taxi instead because we didn't want to miss the show. (We learned later that he had waited for 2 hours, but i made it clear to him that we were in clear view in the meeting area and we are the ones that should be found, we are white remember?) Anyways, this "ceremony" was pretty much a big Indian pep rally with chants of "Hindustan!" and other lound cheers. There was also impromtu dacing to Bollywood hits (what would an Indian pep rally be without it). Now i didn't really see what was going on at the actually border because the Indians couldn't keep still for even 2 minutes and would jump again, all trying to see. The guards would come over and tell people to sit but the Indians just can't help themselves and stand up one minute later.
After getting back to Amritsar, we checked out this free eating hall and the chapati machine that makes the thousands of chapatis needed. It was a constant flow of people coming in, eating, leaving and then a new group would enter. Quite the system.
The next day we began our wonderful journey to Macleod Ganj-Dharamsala on the bus. First a 4 hour bus ride to Pathenkot and then another 4-5 hour bus ride to Dharamsala. To top it all off, i had paid for my breakfast and then had to leave it because the bus was leaving and just before we get to Dharamsala a group of drunk Indians get on and made fun of the whiteys for a good while, even while Justina was sick on the bus. I should have yelled at them and gotten really mad but I was really tired and just wanted to get there. But i still should have yelled at them. I need to work on that. Well we got to Macleod Ganj by taxi and soon found a very nice room at a hostel up a large flight of stairs. I went to get some dinner and left Justina in bed as she was sick. Then, you guessed it, we slept.