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21/8 Lazy start to the day after our late night movie!!! Off to Pushkar a few Indian hours away .. very pleasant drive and a stop half way at Coffee Time - like Indian Starbucks!! Good coffee!! Checked into Pushkar Palace Heritage Lakeside Hotel!! OMG it's a beautiful old heritage hotel - wonderfully furnished - wide verandahs and a view over the lake!!! We are very happy Rustic Indians!! In no time we were booked in for massages and drinking banana Lasses on the verandah watching what was happening around the lake!! (Would have been gin and tonic but it's a dry state!!!) Just perfect!!!
Shared a massage room with Ray - he had a male and I had a female .. hmm me only in knickers felt rather exposed ... in front of the male masseuse but I guess he's seen lots a boobs before me :( !! Great massage, nice oil and a finished off with a good head rub!!! Ahh! The aches in my neck from the Yak Tail and the crazy mountain roads were soothed away ... wonderful!!!
Later we set off with Jassa and a holy man from the Brahman Caste who took us on a walking tour of the town. All along the way from Agra we had seen very colorful pilgrims walking along the road, apparently heading here. The Pushkar Lake is very holy and this us where the only Brahman Temple exists in India! So picture hundreds and hundreds of pilgrims, women carrying their bag or case on their head, baby in their arms, really colorful saris, some ladies with nose rings... all heading to this one temple along a very crowded street lined with shops on either side selling everything from bangles, clothes, huge vats of cooking oil bubbles with Indian sweets!! Throw in a huge amount of cows - mostly Brahmans of course siting and standing amongst the confusion and us wide eyed!! Not a lot of foreign tourists as such ... and some of the tribal woman looked as shocked at seeing us as we did seeing them!! Lots of smiles all around and photos taken and shown to their amazement!!!! We had to take our shoes off to visit the Brahman temple ... Jassa took care of them and our bags - nothing was allowed in the temple... as the monsoon rains have commenced .. we paddled in our bare feet .. slopping through mud, slush and cow s*** up the narrow holy steps with hundreds of sari clad women, children and men - all the pilgrims who had walked up to 300kms to get here. Tight fit was an understatement as we ascended the steps ... everyone was good natured ... we chatted to the squished children, smiled at their mothers .. as we ever so slowly made our way to the holy place - where a statue if a Brahman cow made of sapphire with silver eyes awaited us. Wet, squished by hundreds of holy pilgrims, walking in slop (still with my infected toe) I felt I was on the brink of 'too much India' lol!! First time ever!!!
We squeezed back through the masses, the cows, holy men in their saffron robes to to Jassa waiting for us in a cafe, talking on his mobile phone while a cow grazed at his feet, inside the shop!!! Oh yes!! I do still love India!!
Next we wandered back along the street to the ghats where the pilgrims bath and offer blessings to the gods. We sat on the steps with our holy man, who gave us a tin plate each of rose petals, rice, red colouring, safron and sugar - representing family, friendship, sweet life and good health. We said a few prayers ... repeating his chant .. he put some red colouring on our forehead along with a few grains of rice .. then we were to throw the rest in the lake!! A very peaceful experience .. glad we didn't have to actually jump in like the pilgrims - the lake looked far from clean!! At the completion if the service he tied a band of holy thread around our wrist - apparently known as 'The Pushkar Passport!'
As we wandered back from there to our hotel the streets we alive with so many people, motorbikes (also carrying pilgrims) a few camels were led past .. so much colour, so much noise - our senses overloaded with so much activity!
We stopped at one of the boiling vats and had some sweet pancake thing ... like it was made from condensed milk .. delicious!!!
Dinner at the Sunset Cafe overlooking the lake. As we sat watching the sun set, the holy men chat, the drummers beating out their tunes we felt very comfortable and at one with India!!
22/8 We wake to the sound pouring monsoo of We have another wonderful Indian breakfast in the restaurant overlooking the lake - very pleasant. Off on a road trip to Chandaleo!!
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kenny Wow! Sounds like a GREAT DAY. Would have loved to be with you! Keep on truckin'. Kenny & swmbo.