Indian Border Guard

The guards wore tall hats. The guards were all of similar height and stature, tall and lean. They would do very high kicks when walking. It's quite a thing to see.

Changing of Guards Ceremony at Pakistan Border

Then we went to the train station area to locate a hotel to rest for the night and get up early for our train. Linda used her Lonely Planet guide to locate a hotel. Well, the place was crummy but we were both tired and wanted to just park our stuff and head out for the changing of guards ceremony at the Pakistan-Indian Border.

We had to take a bus to get to the border and then take a tuk-tuk like cab for the last stretch. An Indian mom and her kids took us in to take care of us by making sure we got off the right place and get onto the right cab to drop us off at the border. That was so nice of them to do that for us. My entire trip I have experienced such kindness and generosity without any strings attached. People did it out of their effortless kind regard for others. It's so natural and so amazing to experience.

I learned that before India and Pakistan split into two it was called Hindustan. On both sides of the borders where stadium bleechers like at a football stadium. There was an MC on both sides of the border who rallys the crowd on with cheers like at a pep rally. But this one was one that celebrated the past unity and peace. The place was at an all time high, people showed a lot of enthusiasm for great spirit and pride.

Hanging On For Dear Life

After the changing of guards ceremony I searched for Linda and Kristina. I didn't find them and decided to stand and wait for the crowd to disperse. When I finally spotted them, they were surrounded by a group of young men and that was the reason I didn't see them the first few times I searched for them. All these young men were jiggling and consumed in both the ladies. They wanted photos taken but they didn't have cameras. They insisted to be photographed by Linda and Kristina's camera.

It was quite interesting to watch the boys’ reaction to these two western girls. Their physical interaction were way more intimate than if the girls were Indian. They looked as if they took lines and movements out of old western movies and acted it all out. For a brief moment, these boys left India while they joked and freely had fun.

We somehow ended up on the back of a rickshaw facing the back. We weren’t really sitting on any seats. We hung on to a bar for our dear life. The dusty sun was setting in front of us and in between were they boys in another vehicle hanging on the sides as they waved and smiled at us, the flirting continued. Both Kristina and Linda commented that any western girl with low self esteem should come and experience this, it should cure it all. It was fun to watch and it was very cold too on the back of a rickshaw. It was so cold I couldn’t feel my fingers griping the bar. We went through lots of pot holes, my bums hurt a whole lot.

We all had dinner by the train station as we sent Kristina off to the train for a mediation retreat. Even though I ate very little for dinner, I was still feeling very terribly sick. I was experiencing indigestion. Linda and I went to the internet afterwards. When we were done, I wanted to hurl. I just went back to the hotel and laid down. I felt so sick. I think I was too cold in the morning on the bus and too cold on the back of the rickshaw. I prayed for a healing and then my hand heated up like a hot pad and I felt much better.