Post office, Golden Temple, Dishes

Today was quite a quiet day, for most of the day. The main event in the afternoon was visiting the post office to send two parcels back home. One of the presents we had received and second some heavier things we had packed, but we realised we did not need it. This turned into a long, complicated process. The office will pack a parcel for $1, and they do it well, but this takes two people about half an hour. Then they do the customs declarations, then you pay, then they attach the customs declarations. Total time a bit more than an hour. If you come at lunchtime, this could take 1.5 hours as the staff are allowed to drop tools for half an hour, and restart where they stopped, states a large poster on the wall.
The children studied and rested, as 3 of the 4 are not feeling 100%. Oscar is the only one fully fit.
That said, we did venture out in the early evening for a look at the golden temple at night and to partake in dinner at the huge free restaurant.
The atmosphere in the temple is similar in the early evening as it is during daylight. There are still lots of people, maybe 20% less than midday, and there is still the omnipresent singing and music. However, it seems fitting and adds to the experience. The golden temple itself is visually more prominent because it is lit up with strong lights, and it is reflected in the water.
We are not sure if we should eat at the temple, and Lennox and Lola don’t want to eat there as they feel a bit rough, but we go ahead, and I think even for them the visit to the restaurant was an amazing experience. The restaurant might be the largest in the world. It feeds 100,000 per weekday and 200,000 at weekends. Anyone can eat there for free, from anywhere, any religion, or none. Every 30 minutes, there is a sitting. As we enter, I get asked the usual question, “Where are you from?”, and then after I answer comes a very warm welcome. We queued for maybe 10 minutes, then we were in, and then sat like everyone in the long rows of mats on the floor. On the way in, we get a metal plate, a bowl, and a spoon. The plate is formed to hold 4 separate dishes. Food is prepared, cooked, and served, and the hall and dishes are cleaned by volunteers. The volunteer servers carry buckets full of daal, vegetarian curry rice, and sweet rice. All served with large serving spoons. Other volunteers hand out chapttis, and pour water from massive kettles or water drums. After about 25 minutes someone announces we should finish eating and take our plates back. We are about the last, but we finish more or less and take our plates out.
We brought our plates to the start of the cleaning. A massive human chain of more than 100 volunteers. The first step is to remove any uneaten food. See the video, as this is done with remarkable speed. After that, the plates go through multiple washing and rinsing stations. Each station has about 12 people. We looked at this in amazement, and then first, I, then, Nora, then all of us are invited to join in. We are allocated to the 1st station, a rinsing station. So we join in, and actually, it's quite fun, rinsing innumerable plates and bowls for 20 minutes more. All the Sikhs seem happy we are there. What an amazing experience. The photos and videos, don’t do it justice.Okumaya devam et