Amritsar also knows this about itself, maybe a bit too much. The are surrounding the main sites are really well laid out, clean, manicured and beautiful - white tile stone streets that are pedestrian only, really nice store signage. It's a glorious center of the city. Go a few blocks outside of that and you get into the bustling, dirty maw of any Indian city. Half of me wishes they gave more of the city that level of attention. But so be it.
I'll reverse the order of how I wrote about Lucknow, to focus on the food first. Punjab is a fairly heavy vegetarian state - some of their most notable restaurants, be it more street food "dhaba" style spots or what gets advertised as fancier versions of classic Punjabi cuisine. Not to say this was bad. Firstly, I had overindulged in non-veg in Lucknow (it is what is best), so getting a couple veg meals was quite welcome.
The first meal was at Swagtam Dhaba, a hole in the wall type restaurant taht serves basically set Kulcha meals - where you get a Kulcha (regular, or stuffed with onion, cauliflower or paneer; I chose paneer) with two dals, channa and onion pickle. It was a super simple meal, by far the simplest I had on the trip overall. But so good in its simplicity. So many of these Indian street restaurants hide fairly clean, cozy eating areas behind the veneer of dusty, grimy street-faces. You have to see what's within.
The other veg lunch needed no such act of bravery, as I had a meal at Haveli, a reputed fancy, old-style, veg restaurant serving Punjabi classic. The restaurant was a large, two story area, well adorned with classic Phulkari embroidery table runners and tablecloths. The food was graet as well, as I ordered a okra masala fry dish (great, crunchy, spicy), and a shahi paneer curry, which was so smooth and hearty. I can't do veg food day after day, but a couple lunches fit quite well.
Dinner was non-veg (has to be), and it was two similar spaces. Both far out of the city (to which it was a bit tough to get an uber back). Both were large spaces, with tables in lush gardens with ponds, trees, greenery, and a mix of indoor and outdoor seating. It was perfection in terms of a setting. I was indoors the first day, but outdoors the second, under a lovely breeze and fairly cool (for India) night. Both places also had fairly robust menus that combined Western food (e.g. pastas), Chinese food and Indian classics. I stuck, stubbornly so, to Indian food to quite good results.
The first place was called The Bagh, and the second the Elgin Club. The food was probably a bit better at The Bagh, but both were similarly quite strong. At the Bagh, I got a chicken kalbi kebab platter and then a mutton curry - both were presented excellently, with sizable portions as well. The Elgin Club was fairly similar in ordering, getting a mutton chapli kebab, and mutton roganjosh, with a nice roomali roti. The only real complaint was the mutton curry at the Elgin was too bony, but it is what it is.
Amritsar also has a decent nightlife scene, focusing around an up and comign area around Ranjit Avenue - a 4x2 block area Northeast of city center. In that area are multiple developments of 4-5 floors each, packed with restaurants (Haveli was here) and bars and lounges in the like. I went to a couple places, firstly being an outpost of Brewdog (yes, the Scottish craft brewery), which had live music and a really nice tap list. I tried another more local brewery (Brewmaster) which also had live music (seems to be a thing here), and four of their own brews. They were tasty, but contineud the weird aspect of too many Indian breweries serving beer close to room temperature. The final spot was the Liquid Room, which was a nice club, playing pretty great Punjabi music, with cheap, good drinks. Alcohol on the whole is fairly cheap in Amritsar, another plus about the place.
Okay, enough dabbling. Let's get to the sites. The best one is the Golden Temple, a beautiful, pristine, large Sikh temple complex that is one of their most holy places in Sikkhism. The complex has white marble 4-wall exterior, with a large lake with teh Golden Temple (gold leaf over the marble) in the middle. It is gorgeous, it is stunning. It was enthralling during the day, but doubly so when it was perfectly floodlit and I went back during the night (honestly, worth going to it for both). It is a staggering sight, especially with the throngs of supporters chanting, praying and singing, all circumnavigating the square.
Honestly, the site would be architecturally notable even if you remove the actual golden shrine in the middle. The artwork, the detailing, the beauty in the walls and gates and the like on the four sides of the rectangle are nice enough. But then add in the Golden part, and it is really say India's version to the Kinkaku-Ji in Kyoto. Incredible place.
Separately, there are great sights that speak to Amritsar's position as the one of teh first cities on the India side of the India-Pakistan border. Notably, when the British negotiated redrawing borders when India and Pakistan got its independence from the UK, they drove a line right in the middle of Punjab (which exists today as a state in both countries). Millions of Muslims fled to Pakistan, crossing through Amritsar. Millions of Hindus and Sikhs went the other direction. Hundreds of Thousands died. The Partition Museum in Amritsar goes through this in great detail, with rooms talking about the decades of rebellion leading up to Independence and Partition, and then the massacre and fallout thereafter. It doesn't play sides. It tells a true retelling of a harrowing time.
The other notable massacre in the town was at the height of Indian discord with the crown, when they quelled an uprising that killed thousands of Indian rebels in the Jailanwala Bagh area of Amritsar. Today, taht area is turned into a memorial park with more history in four exhibits. These areas are clean, solemn, picturesque and just overall great sights. Amritsar is like that a lot.
The final sight was maybe the most interesting - the Atari/Wagah border (Atari the town on the border on the India side, Wagah on the Pakistan side). Each day there is a demonstration, ran by members of the border guard from both coutnries, right at the border - as in the area near and between two fences. Every day at 5pm, thousands gather (literally, India built a 25,000 seat stadium there - Pakistan is currently buidlign one) to watch the border guards perform, dance, chant, march leading to the joint lowering of the flag. Sure, it is all a bit nationalistic. Sure, the patronage and cooperation in this display here is not representative of the deep fractures between the two countries in reality, but it is still a great time.
As was Amritsar as a whole. Granted, there is better food elsewhere in India. Secretly, I wish you can combine the food in Lucknow and the sites in Amritsar and you get a top tier city. That said, it isn't like the food is bad in Amritsar. It's fine - the veg stuff is unique. The nightlife is good. The sites are great. Amritsar was a great ending to the trip/
