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After feeling a little disappointed with Jaipur we made the decision to move on to Pushkar - a 6 hour bus journey to the East. Our first exeprience of an India bus journey, we realised that stops were frequent, during which street vendors would try and sell you their products through the open bus windows (drive through shopping) - we almost drove off without one man collecting his order of bananas!! We had begun our journey with Julie, a girl from Holland that we had befriended from our hostel in Jaipur. We then added to the group at one of the service station stops (a loose definition) when we started chatting to Joe, a 22 year old guy from Cheltenham who was munching on a samosa at the time. As we drove past signs for our guesthouse we had booked in Pushkar (The Milkman), we realised the bus was going to end up dropping us a long way from it. In the end, after shouting at the driver to stop and enlisting the help of some of the locals, the bus dropped us off at the side of the road and we were quickly approached by rickshaws. Luckily the Milkman guesthouse had sent a rickshaw and a motorbike (Joe drew the short straw to sit on that) to take us back to the guesthouse. On arrival we realised we had made a good choice with the hostel, which had a great backpacker vibe and chillout area with cushions on the floor, along with tortoises on the rooftop garden!
Pushkar is a Hindu pilgramage town with lots of Ghats (an area of steps leading down to a river/lake, usually used for bathing) centred around a holy lake. One such Ghat is where Gandhi's ashes were scattered. All four of us went to explore the town and having read up in the Lonely Planet, 3 of us knew about all the scams down on the Ghats, where fake priests hand you flowers to throw in the lake while they do a prayer for you (a puja), and then ask for a donation! After laughing off the scam we turned round to see Joe with a handful of flowers...maybe it was bad luck that he handed them back as on the way he trod in a big cow pat in his flip flops. Apart from the priests, it was impossible to go down the ghat after having to take off our flip flops in the midday heat, managing to walk about 3 metres before our feet started cooking and we had to sprint back to the safety of our shoes...we decided to leave the visit till later that day!!
The whole feel of the town was much more backpacker firendly than we had previously experienced, with one main bazaar that ran along the length of one side of the lake, selling all sorts of tat, including didgeridoos, samurai swords and axes....!! This is where we fully embraced the 'Traveller look' by buying ridiculously low crotched baggy trousers and tops you wouldn't be seen dead in at home, along with a handful of bracelets and anklets to make us fit in more! A great deal of haggling was required here, but in the end we managed to get two pairs of trousers, two tops and a handful of jewellery for about 7GBP rather than the 20GBP they had first requested. The four of us went out for a meal that evening but Joe didn't stay as he felt ill....might have been that dodgy looking samosa at India's version of Little Chef earlier that day. The three of us enjoyed a mix of vegetable curry dishes at a very local looking small roadside restaurant (Venkatesh Restaurant, where we discovered Navratan Korma -- a mixed fruit and vegetable curry). Pushkar is vegetarian only, including no eggs - however we were informed at our hostel that eggs and beer could be secretly served underneath the table if we wished.
The next day in The Milkman Guesthouse all 4 of us decided to do a cookery lesson with the chef, and chose the following dishes to cook - Navratan Korma, Malai Kofta, Cashew Curry, and Paneer Butter Masala, along with Rice, Naan and Chapatti. We didn't get to do a great deal of cooking, more watching the chef in the boiling heat of the kitchen and getting in his way. Family at home will get to look forward to a load of random curry dishes tasting nothing like the orginals when we get back, for weeks. We went out for a drink after dinner to a Lassi shop (Sonu Juice shop). A lassi is an Indian drink made from yoghurt and various choices of fruit, of which Joe has now tried most, or a Bhang Lassi containing more dubious ingredients). We then went to Babas restaurant to carry on the night, culminating in getting home after the hostel door had shut (at 11pm and having to wake up the local family downstairs to let us in - Joe's a bad influence on us).
The next morning we went down to the ghats again and viewed people having their morning wash in them which was pretty interesting to observe. Afterwards we visited the Brahma temple, apparently one of the few in the world but not sure what it means, and watched locals come to do their morning prayers for a while. We then visted the Honey and Spice cafe to rejuvinate ourselves from the night before! We parted ways with Julie that afternoon as she left for Jodphur.
One evening in Pushkar we hiked up a small hill with a temple on top near the hostel to watch sunset over the town and escape the hustle & bustle, dust, cows, poo, hawkers and horns below.
Sadly before we left for our trip, Trevor's Aunty Clarice passed away,and we thought it fitting to visit one of the Ghats in the evening, raising a toast of masala tea to her, looking over the lake on the day of her funeral - one of the most peaceful and relaxing experiences we have had whilst in India.
After a final meal with Joe that evening we all made our way to the bus station to catch a 10 hour sleeper bus to Jaisalmer...we had no idea what was in store for us!
- comments
Pete D Keep it coming you two, great reading
Becky So basically u can come home now seeing as u have fulfilled your traveller dream - baggy trousers and crap bracelets :) Sorry to hear about your aunt, Trevor... A beautiful way to mark her life though xx