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We had quite a quick stop over in Pushkar, more to break the journey to Ranthambore up. However on arrival our friendly Pushkar guide gave us a lift into town on the back of his motorbike. Pushkar is much calmer than many other cities we've visited as only local vehicles are allowed into the city centre. After wandering the streets and seeing some of the Ghats and buildings we made our way down to Pushkar lake where things got very interesting... We were greated by a holy man who had with him 2 trays containing many items, which after receiving his blessings we were to throw into the lake. These offerings included rice for never going hungry, sugar for a sweet life, red string for good luck and also red powder, yellow powder, petals and a coconut that I can't remember the meanings for. After we had gone through the ritual of blessing our family came the real reason tourists are taken down there. Money. We were asked how much we would like to donate to the charity for the local people and had to stick closely to our guns at 200 rupees as they tried every trick in the book to get more out of us. Having come to expect this of India it barely phased us and we soon forgot about it while sitting cross legged in a rooftop restaurant eating a delicious selection of curries...
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James Taylor When I was there, the local holy man i spoke to quoted Del Boy references and wanted 1000 rupees per member of my family and friends for a blessing. Couldn't take him seriously after the 3rd luverly jubbly.