Day 53 (Tues 29 Aug) - Amritsar / Ludhiana

We got off early and headed off to the bus station to catch the bus to Ludhiana to see Sarb's family.

The bus left at about 9.30am and we knew it took about 3 hours but we had no idea when to get off.

When we reached Ludhiana's flooded bus station we knew we had arrived. The next challange was to find somewhere where we could ring Sarb's cousin to let him know we had arrived and arrange getting to his Aunt's house. It was pretty hot and we were pestered by lots of hawkers which was tiring.

Finally we found a hotel and Sarb phoned his cousin who had been waiting at the bus station. In no time Sarb's cousin, Sukhbir, arrived on his moped. He offered to drive us to my Aunt's place Indian syle ie. all three of us on a moped. We declined and said we'd take an autorickshaw and follow him.

He arranged a cycle rickshaw which was a trifle tricky as many of them were not keen on taking us; it transpired later it was because of the distance.

We seemed to travel for ages and it was very hot - Jo was particularly suffering in the heat. At one point the rickshaw cyclist had to get off his bike and push the rickshaw up over a bridge - we felt so sorry for him.

After abour half an hour we arrived at Sarb's Aunts house. Sarb had never met his Aunt or cousins before so conversation was all about Sarb's dad and various other close relatives. ( [1], [2], [3], [4] )

We showed them some of our wedding photos and they likewise showed some of Sukhbirs. Quite cosy as we had some samosas and tea.

We then got into a real bun fight as to when we were to leave. We said that we must leave at about 4.30pm but they insisted we stay longer. By this time another cousin had appeared and he really wanted us to go to his house. Very hospitable but we really did need to get back to Amritsar.

We asked about getting an autorickshaw to the train station but Sarb's cousins were keen to take us on their bikes. We said that we would prefer to take a rickshaw but when we came out of the house it was obvious there were no rickshaws around so we reluctantly agreed to be taken to the main road on the bikes. Jo hopped on the back on Sukhbirs moped and Sarb hopped on the back off his other cousins motorbike. We looked a right pair - Sarb in his Indiana Jones hat and Jo in her smart Indian outfit. It was quite fun, but we were glad to get off and get in a rickshaw.

We didn't have to wait long for a train. We boarded the busy commuter train from Dehli to Amritsar. We finally arrived back out our hotel at nearly 10pm. We had a quick dinner and went to bed - we were shattered!