Outside of India though, not many would have heard of the Jallianwalla Bagh – at least in English speaking countries. There’s a good reason for that though. In 1919, the British massacred unarmed civilians, killing at least 400 with over 1000 injured. Approximately 1650 rounds were fired on 20000 people.

Before the massacre, the area was mainly a public courtyard, but now it is a memorial of national significance. The brick building has white squares marked along the wall – each square marks a spot where a bullet impacted.

Nearby the garden, is the Golden Temple, a holy place in Sikhism. Anybody who goes inside the temple complex must enter barefoot and cleanse their feet by walking through a stream of holy water flowing in front of the door. Once inside, one can admire the golden plates of the temple reflecting the ambient light.

The Golden Temple is only a five minute walk from the Jallianwala Bagh, but when we visited the temple at night, we couldn’t actually see our destination clearly and actually got scammed by an autowalla offering to take us there! We didn’t need the car at all!

Just outside of the temple is yet another sight to behold. Literally dozens of people sleeping outside. Likely these are people who have just made the pilgrimage to the temple.

Unfortunately, there were too many people lining up to go inside the temple itself – it would have been amazing.

See more of Amritsar here

On the banks of the Ganges in Haridwar, people congregate to bathe themselves in the holy water of the Ganges. There were even naked little children doing the same. Since my trip here somewhat coincided with Kanwar, there were people (the ones in orange) here collecting water for their pilgrimage.

I seriously question the cleanliness of the water with so many people swimming in it and the constant stream of garbage that the locals throw into the river (at one point, I saw a rat run across the street in front of me in broad daylight). Despite this, the water is still considered holy.

Upstream of the Ganges at Haridwar, and situated at the foothills of the Himalayas, Rishikesh is another holy place to Hindus and is famous around the world as the yoga capital of the world.

Here, a bridge connects the two sides of the river. Both sides of the river have many temples and yoga retreats where travellers from around the world come to learn yoga, and Ayurveda (tradition Indian medicine).

Check out these links to see more of my trip to Haridwar and Rishikesh!

Many I saw travelled on foot, but some took scooters too. People along the way set up camps for the pilgrims to stay the night and to feed them.

At night there are huge parties dedicated to Shiva, with giant trucks playing music on giant speakers with lights shining everywhere. The festival lasts for five days with the streets blocked and the parties happening for every single day.