After almost 24 hours on trains and buses I arrived in Pushkar exhausted, I get a room in a great little guest house and settle in for some much needed rest.

Pushkar is a small Holy Town set around a lake in the middle of the edge of the Great Thar Dessert in Rajasthan. The lake is surrounded by Ghats where Hindu Pilgrims make offerings and perform Puja (All seems a bit familiar!).

There isn’t a great deal to see here in the way of sights (except a couple of average looking temples) but it is a great place to hang out for a while and meet people, and people watch. Some of the westerners here have obviously been away from home for too long and desperately need to get back for a reality check. You can spot these people a mile off, donning huge facial hair (the males normally!), a strange mix of Indian/tie dye clothing, and normally wearing a bindi on their forehead.

Pushkar like many places in India is a bit of a magnet for Israeli travelers, I don’t know what it is but India is full of them, it seems that at least 60% of the travelers here are from Israel. Maybe its because it cheap!!! Oooh. politically incorrect dig at the Jews, SORRY!!

Beacause of the holy status of Pushkar all meat, eggs, and alcohol are banned. This has left me on a diet of Toast and banana pancakes for breakfast. Don’t ask me how but they make pancakes without eggs. Dahl, rice, and veg curry for dinner and some unbelievably tasty humus, potato onion and tomato folded Naan breads for lunch. My blood alcohol level has now reached its lowest levels since birth, maybe even lower; I have heard stories about my mums Guinness drinking whilst pregnant.

I take a liking to Pushkar though and quickly fall in to the relaxed way of life around here, getting up late, eating all day, watching sun set, eating some more and going to bed early. It’s a real travelers hang out and I meet a lot of people here, and bump into others that I have met previously at other places, or on trains etc.

I stay for 5 days and decide to move on before I become too relaxed to ever move again. If that happened I’d end up with a big beard and tie dye clothing and that would never do.

I get the overnight train to Mumbai a mere 20 hours or so.