Description
This is the last in a series of three videos aimed at showing not just the Indian Mountain railways visited as part of this Railway Touring Company “Railways of the Raj” holiday, but also to highlight some of the activities and places we experienced away from the rails starting with the Wagah-Attari Border "Beating Retreat" Ceremony.
The Wagah-Attari border crossing is the only legal land transit point between India and Pakistan. The Indian side the border is in Attari, a village located about 19 miles (30 km) from Amritsar and the Pakistani side lies in Wagah, a village located 15 miles (24 km) from Lahore. The border is on the historic “Grand Trunk Road”, which connects major cities in the Indian subcontinent, such as Chittagong, Bangladesh and Howrah on the Indian side to Lahore (Pakistan) and Kabul (Afghanistan). The ceremony itself was unlike anything I've experienced, our bus dropped our group off close to the border crossing where we joined the crowds making their way to the stadium passing food and souvenir stalls along to way, the atmosphere was similar to attending a major football match with people sporting their team colours and waving flags. The stadium flanked a road that led to the border gates, the crowd cheered the soldiers whilst waving flags, the atmosphere was electric, they had come to see the daily border closing ritual preformed by Pakistani Rangers on one side and the Indian Border Security Force on the other. The marching display has to be seen to be believed, it's fun to watch.
To learn more about the border ceremony please click on this link - https://www.britannica.com/place/Wagah-Attari-border
We move on to the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, one of India's renowned world heritage narrow gauge railways for one of the world's great train rides from Mettupalayam to Udagamandalam/Ooty via Coonoor. We finish off with a look at some of Ooty's highlights, including the botanical gardens and street markets.
00:52 - The Wagah-Attari Border "Beating Retreat" Ceremony India - Pakistan Border
22:52 - Mettupalayam Station
22:58 - Nilgiri Mountain Railway
23:32 - Mettupalayam Station, Nilgiri Mountain Railway
28:57 - Hill Grove Station
30:35 - Runneymede Station
33:35 - Coonoor Station
34:18 - Coonoor Motive Power Depot
36:32 - Coonoor to Mettupalayam Train
37:23 - Coonoor to Udagamandalam/Ooty Train
40:04 - Government Botanical Garden, Ooty
42:26 - Would you travel on this bus?
42:32 - Ooty Municipal Market
43:08 - My room at the Savoy Hotel, Ooty
Music - Track - Composer- Source
00:00 - ES_Serene Journey - Palace on Wheels - epidemicsound.com
00:52 & 03:16 - ES_Yami Ichi (Black Market) - Isaku Kageyama - epidemicsound.com
01:26 - ES_Do the Tha Tha Thaiyyan (Instrumental Version) - Aks & Lakshmi – epidemicsound.com
22:49 & 39:09 - ES_Archipelago of Relaxation - Mandala Dreams - epidemicsound.com
42:23 - ES_Kahaani (Instrumental Version) - Aks & Lakshmi - epidemicsound.com
00:47 to 04:28 – Cheering - epidemicsound/sound effects - epidemicsound.com
This trip was part of a tour “Railways of the Raj” organised by “The Railway Touring Company” - https://www.railwaytouring.net/ in conjunction with Travel Pals (India) Pvt Ltd
This video was recorded between the 29nd November and 2nd December 2024
To watch the first two videos in this series, please click on the links below -
https://youtu.be/USpFvfJCEZM
https://youtu.be/YvTmqFYM7Fc