It was RebeccaM from IndiaMike who indirectly – via one of her posts – first put me onto Gurinder’s tour guide services and I’m glad she did. To be fair I’ve not used many guides before but it’s simply hard to believe you could find someone more knowledgeable, so easy to get along with and happy to do whatever you want to do.
Normally a guide would be hired for a whole day, half a day or just an hour or two, but that didn’t suit us at all as we only had 27 hours, from 1pm on Monday to 4pm on Tuesday. So I arranged with Gurinder that we would use him for a few hours in the evening and then the morning after. I should point out now that this was feasible as August is a low season in India and that Gurinder is often busy for most days during the high season.
I’d asked Gurinder to accompany us to dinner and walk us us to Kesar da Dhaba as I’d read so much about it, especially the bit about it being really hard to find. Gurinder suggested a heritage walk en-route, dinner then returning to the Golden Temple for an hour or two. The next days was planned for seeing the Golden Temple properly, followed by a visit to Jaiwallana Bagh – where the English shot over 500 dead in the early 1900s, this being the key act that set Gandhi on his course of non-cooperation and ultimately the regaining of control of India.
Arriving at our hotel well before we returned from watching the Wagah border closure ceremony, Gurinder greeted us wearing a traditional white kurta. I hadn’t seen a picture of him before – although I don’t know why because I’d been connected with him (DiscoverPunjab Tourism) on Facebook for a while now – so there was an element of confusion on our intial meeting, easily solved though. For the benefit of anyone who wants to use his services hopefully his picture above should help.
Gurinder’s knowledge of the Golden Temple was excellent and he explains the history and facts with clarity and enthusiasm, answering all of questions with ease. He made sure we were at the right place at the right time to see certain ceremonies going on inside the template.
I don’t wish to say how much we paid Gurinder as our plans may well differ from yours, if you’re interested to hire him. But he’s easy to contact and responds well to e-mail.
Web site: http://www.discoverpunjab.net/
Email: discoverpunjab@gmail.com
Mobile: India 0-98156-43953
Facebook: DiscoverPunjab Tourism
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