On Monday night Sarah and I packed up our stuff and headed to New Delhi Railway station to catch the “Golden Temple Express” train to Amritsar (scheduled to leave at 7:35). When we arrived, we discovered that it was delayed by 3:15 minutes. After going out for a chai, we found that the delay had increased to 4:30 minutes. We decided to go back to Mark’s apartment to get away from the crowds of people, and loud announcements. We returned a bit after 11:00 P.M.

We sat on the platform with an older man who was waiting for his wife to arrive on the train. With him was his neighbor, who didn’t want him to come to the station alone, since “Delhi is not safe at night”. The man had just spent two months in Los Gatos, California, and we had a good talk. Actually he saw more of California in those two months, than I did in ten years.
We arrived in Amritsar at around noon on Tuesday, and took a room in a hotel near the old city. After stuffing ourselves with Naan at a Dhaba next door, we took a cycle-rickshaw to Jallianwala Bagh. From there we walked to the Golden Temple. Even though I knew what to expect, it was still as impressive as on my first visit. Sarah was struck by the clean gold and white marble which shone in the bright sunlight, and by the humility of the Sikh pilgrims coming to worship. Again we both felt welcomed.
From there we visited a chai stall I had gone to on my first visit. The Chaiwalla remembered me, and asked lots of questions about my trip. We were soon joined by a group of locals who listened in and discussed what Sarah and I said. After chai we wandered the narrow back alleys of Amritsar.
The next morning we headed to the train station. After taking langar (in this case tea and sweet toast) with the richshaw-wallas outside the station, we boarded our train to Pathankot. Sitting in our section were three travelling salesmen, with whom we chatted. At one point, one of them (an older Sikh man who sold auto parts) asked if we could sing. I said that Sarah could. After some encouragement she began to sing a Hind movie song (“Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”), and all three of the men joined in. Afterwards Sarah said to the same man, “you have a good voice, you should sing us a song.” He first went to the end of the car to practice, and then came back and sang a song for us. Just a typical day with travelling salesmen.