Imagine this: you book a train ticket to take you from one city to another. Expected journey time: 8 hours. You arrive at the station in time, but you don’t see your train – it’s late. In the UK (and possibly worldwide) this is not uncommon, but for a train to arrive seven hours late…that’s too much.

Fortunately, I was struck with great luck when Inder, a Sikh from Ludhiana, saw my plight and being in the same situation himself, offered to help me get to Amritsar. We were supposed to get on the train at midday, but at this point we knew it would be at least 6 hours late, so we decided to take a bus as far as possible. Having navigated the Delhi metro, Inder found a bus going up in our direction. BUT…I had no money, so I had to find an ATM. And how many ATMs do they have at the bus station? ONE. By the time I’d withdrawn my money, our bus was about to leave. Inder was running around the place looking for me (as he’d gone to purchase the tickets) and grabbed my hand and pulled me in a way that could only be described as Crystal Maze-esque.

We ran to the bus and just made it on in time. During the journey, Inder told me all about Sikhism, about why they wear the turban, don’t cut their hair and carry a knife at all times. When we arribed in a town south of Ludhiana, his dad and uncle picked us up and took me to the train station in Ludhiana, but we just had time to drink some chai. Then it was back on the road and the chaos of the train station. I’m not quite sure what happened, but Inder’s family got my on the train and by one in the morning I was in Amritsar. I took a tuk-tuk from the train station and hit the proverbial hay.

The next day, I met the guys in my dorm room (who I apologised for waking up in the middle of the night). We went for breakfast, then explored the Golden Temple grounds – a holy site in Sikhism. One of the fascinating parts of Sikhism is their duty to serve, which manifests itself in a free meal for anybody there. Considering the apparent disorganisation of so many things in India, this was a slick operation: Grab your plates, get a spoon, go upstairs, sit down, put your hands out, get some bread, wait for your plates to be filled with DHALicious food, eat. A beautiful experience and one everyone should do in Amritsar.

Following this, myself and Tom, another guy from the hostel went to the border with Pakistan. Was I already fed up with India? Nope, you see, every evening, the border is closed in the most surreal of ways. There is a huge ceremony, including gallant walking, intimidating stances and incredibly cheers from the crowd. It was one of the most surreal moments of my life and incredible to see the patriotism emanating from both sides. Though I have attached some photos, they really do not do this surreal activity justice – it really is a must see in Amritsar.

The next day, we had wanted to enter the Golden Temple, but unfortunately the queue was far too long. Instead we visited the site of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. A terrible loss of life in which the British Colonel Reginald Dyer ordered his soldiers to shoot on a group of peaceful protesters. The bullet holes can still be seen to this day and the site is a commemoration to their lives.

After this, Tom and I caught our bus to Mcleodganj, the next stop on both our journeys. On the bus however, I saw a familiar face – a friend from my time working in Colombia – a small world.

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