Pushkar

Another day, another train journey, this time a short 2 hour hop to Ajmer the hopping off point to hit Pushkar, a travellers hotspot where the cool, hip and freaky converge to live out their holy, desert dreams of Indian culture in the shadow of a huge lake which also doubles up as one massive holy ghat. (holy bathing pools).  Here in the desert it's like an oasis of a town, still Indian in nature with is rubbish strewn scrubby roads and hotchpotch of daily life throbbing around you but just a bit more relaxed and a bit more tourist friendly compared to other destinations in India. You could call it the Goa of the desert as it bends towards western tastes a bit more after the slog through central India. It's a place to recharge and relax devoid of any 'must see' sights before you embark on the next stage of your journey.

The view from our hotel window of the 'swimming pool'.

   The train journey was smooth enough and we arrived in the furnace of the afternoon heat into the jaws of the rickshaw drivers who again baited us with their taunts but this time they were out of luck as they were not allowed to make the 12km drive unless they had a special licence which none of them have got so we had to deal with the taxi sharks who were just as relentless and hostile. We were struggling to barter a price we felt comfortable with and after a few minutes tempers began to fray in the afternoon heat, another day in the upper 30's until Kathy spotted a local who was getting into one so she asked if we could share and he luckily agreed. When we arrived in Pushkar the taxi could only go so far as the streets are really small set out in medieval maze of narrow walkways frequented only by pedestrians and scooters so we had to walk the last stretch.

The Langurs on our balcony were upset we had no duty free left for them.

   The hotel was right on the edge of the lake and our room had shutters which opened out directly onto the lake. We could lie on the bed and watch all the comings and goings of the locals and there was plenty of that! On our balcony a troupe of Langars decided to make camp and watch us unpack, cows would routinely trundle through the reception area, stray dogs scavenging through the piles of rubbish, thick clouds of pigeons being spooked by Diwali bangers and doing circuits of the ghats and landing again. The water in the ghat did not look very clean to us although the cool water did look inviting in the desert heat for a quick dip, it was not a good idea looking at all the jetsam on top but this did not deter the constant stream of devotees making their way down the steps to the waters edge, barefoot of course as the steps are sacred, and submerging themselves into the murky water often taking all their clothes off to cleanse their souls of all their sins (or something like that). We just laid on the bed watching naked Indians carry out their ritual routines, marvelling in the elaborate sequence of actions they would carry out to satisfy themselves that the gods had been appeased to take themselves one step nearer on their journey to nirvana. My take on it is that if you went in that water and submerged yourself in it the only place you would be going is to hospital with some nasty contracted disease. Even the 'holy steps' which the Sadu's (holy men) made Kathy and I take our shoes off to walk around the ghats were covered in cow shit, pigeon shit, monkey shit and all kinds of other shit/rubbish which no one seemed to be bothered with but shoes were considered 'dirty' so had to be removed. Who makes this crap up?

We could not find anybody to hire us a jet ski.

  After our previous stops in Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, Kathy and I were both feeling the strain of navigating the Indian culture which is really difficult to explain without being negative in outlook as it is so different from our way of life, but anyone who has travelled India will know what I mean  so we felt exhausted and Pushkar was the perfect place to kick back and watch the world go by while we recharged our batteries. Our first 2 days we did nothing at all except wake up late, had breakfast, went and watched Pushkar from our hotel window do its thing then about 5pm go down to the far side of the lake and have a 'special lassi' which I am not sure what exactly was in it but made us feel very relaxed and we slept well every night! Its also worth mentioning that Pushkar is a 'dry' town so no alcohol is allowed (although we had no problem finding it) and no meat is allowed so every restaurant is strictly vegetarian thus we dined like kings for the 5 days we stayed there.

The snow conditions were below average at the top of the cable car.

Feeling guilty by day 5 we had not done anything we hired a motorbike and got lost a lot as there are no signs and the desert looks the same at every turn but found our way to a Hindu temple on top of this steep mountain which unbelievably had a cable car that went to the top. Classic Indian engineering was on display here, with spindly support columns and minimal safety considerations, it was mine and Kathy's forte so we bought a ticket which for the first time on our travels in India we were charged the same price as the locals (shock horror!) and boarded the basic gondolas to the summit which we shared with a nice Indian couple (as it is a holy shrine at the the top so they go and do their holy thing at the top). Half way up the ride it came to a shuddering stop with the gondola swinging wildly with the backlash of the jolt so for dramatic effect I let out a mock scream of terror pretending I feared for my life being trapped suspended in mid air 100 metres off the ground with the possibility of the cable snapping and all of us crashing to terra firma. The faces on the the Indian couples faces were priceless as they watched me screaming for my life and Kathy laughing at my foolhardiness.  When we started to move again they did let out a nervous chuckle but I am sure they thought we were on day release from Broadmoor.

The traffic was a constant menace in the desert. 

 At the top the temple was poop so we took a quick stroll as it was cool in the breeze and hassled the monkeys who live up there and admired the colossal views of the desert. Later on we picked some random road into the wilderness with a tank of gas and wanted to just see where it would take us. Nowhere much is the answer but our journey was entertaining as we went through mountain and desert villages where clearly they don't see white people at all and we were rewarded by people wanting to 'high five' us as we drove past, massive mountain valley views, curious locals and water buffalo who blocked the road and would not let us pass and one was giving Kathy the evil eye which she assured me it was "going to do us in if we messed with it" so at this point we decided to call it a day and head back to civilisation.

High five if you see these crazy white people on a motorbike.

   In Pushkar the annual camel fair was about to happen which funny enough is the highlight in the tourist calender and according to our Lonely Planet  book was a must see. Also Diwali was about to explode into town and it started to become extremely busy and our hotel advised us the town turns from a laid back retreat into 2 weeks of  total mayhem so we took this as our cue to chip as mayhem was not on our agenda. Next day we were again allowed to check out late and we took a taxi back to Ajmer to catch another train to our next destination Jodhpur.

Sunset by the lake on our last night in Pushkar.