Day 127 Tuesday December 7th 6 hrs train from Delhi to Punjab-Amritsar. We don't have to sit on the roof.

This is our first experience of Indian Trains and we arrive at Delhi train station before dawn and are warned to step around the sleeping people. Indian trains can be 12-24 hours late although all of ours are on time. Poor people are begging. A man with a deformed face asks us for money and we give him some but then try and forget about him. More on that later. Now we are on the India/Pakistan border and in the early afternoon we watch the daily "closing of the border ceremony". Indian and Pakistani schoolchildren are bused in and it seems innocent enough and part of their education. Many are from outside of Amritsar and, of course, there are many tourists. This ceremony was started in 1965 with mutual agreement by both countries. It's like watching a soccer game between two, apparently, friendly towns-except in this case they have nuclear weapons pointed at each other. "Hindustan-Hindustan-Hindustan" is shouted by the (Army) Cheerleader and willingly taken up by the crowd. There is a pause and we can hear the Pakistani equivalent response. The Indian Border Army struts about with stylized frog marching-goose-stepping and then India and Pakistan jointly lower each other's flags, shake hands and close the border. Truck drivers sleep in their cabs and wait for the 6.00am re-opening...
Ranjits Svaasa (boutique) Hotel, about $200/night but pretty good.