26th January 2005 - Udipur to Pushkar 7 hours

The hassle of Pushkar starts as soon as you step foot off the bus. We had to get a rickshaw from the bus stand to the center of Pushkar so after a round of haggling we ended up in a vehicle that is like an extended version of a rickshaw that has two additional seats at the back. The whole back is open and the seats are facing out so your back is to the driver. This is a journey I will not forget for the following reasons it was dark, when on the flat these vehicles can shift it was being driven by an Indian with a death wish, other drivers on the road thought it was amusing to pretend to ram us and we had to hold on to out rucksacks whilst trying not to fall out. It was absolutely hilarious and surreal at the same time as there was a full moon lighting up the baron landscape.
We found out cheapest room so far for Rs80 (approx 1 pound), which was not the lap of luxury as you can imagine but it had a bed and bathroom. Pushkar itself is quite small and the main place being the holy lake, which is surrounded by white washed buildings. It was nice to see the ghats of the lake being restored. Unfortunately priests that are not always genuine offer to bless you, which involves throwing a flower into the lake and then pressuring you to give them a ridiculous amount of money. We avoided them as this is a well known annoyance is Pushkar. The buildings around the town are beautiful with a lot of Haveli (ornate) style buildings, which is common in Rajasthan. Unfortunately tourism has spoilt Pushkar. The streets are lined with the normal travelers shops with pushy annoying sellers charging too much. I don’t know if we were missing the point but once you have seen the views, which can be just spread out over 2 days, it felt like it was time to move on. We came across travelers that spent weeks hanging around Pushkar. I did find one reason that would tempt me to stay longer and that was the yoga class I found. The yoga master was a real character with his white long hair and beard orange lungi and big sandalwood beads. He looked very god like. The class was held next to the ghats whilst the warm glowing sun was coming up over the holy lake.
We climbed the hilltop where the Savitri temple stood and watched the sun setting over Pushkar, I guess I could think of worst places to be.