The Best Vacation

What is your favorite vacation spot? I was finally entering “India” again, after a month-long sojourn into a world of Himalayan calm, yoga and Tibetan Buddhism (Dharamsala hardly feels like India). Was I ready to free fall back into the masala mania? While the traveler in me was excited to get back on the explorer’s road; the solo gal in me was dreading it. Having found roots for a month in my yoga-family cocoon, I wasn’t thrilled with going back to solo-roughing it. Fortunately when you flow with the universe, it provides you with what you need; thankfully, it granted me friends who wanted to visit the next city on my list– Amritsar.
I inhaled the new landscape, watching our six hour drive go from Dharamsala’s plush mountain valleys to arid Punjabi farmland, bhangra beats and turban coiffed men on motorbikes. Well-paved roads, an organized city layout and a stunning jewel of a gurudwara (the Golden Temple), we had arrived in the proud city of Sikhism. Was this India too? That warm and romantic feeling towards travel came over me again. India had surprised me with a different face again.
Amritsar was nicer and proudly distinct over other Indian cities and towns I’d been to layers cleaner too! The best vacation I had; even though it was short. But what can you see in Amritsar, if you’re short on time? The Golden Temple is an enormous Sikh Temple located in the heart of city Amritsar, and is the most important place of holy pilgrimage for the Sikhs. It is a powerful monument of immense historical importance that represents the magnificence and strength of the Sikhs spread all over the world. The glorious temple is a living example of the spirit of tolerance and acceptance that the Sikh philosophy propounds. In the other temples, the devotees have to climb up to offer their obeisance but, in the Golden Temple, devotees have to step down to offer their homage. You don't have to worry about not being able to find it as the temple walls dominate the surrounding