Spiritual tourism
Finally arriving in Pushkar after a long day of multiple buses which all seemed very complicated and confusing. Somehow made it to the small city of Pushkar after teaming up with some Dutch ladies. A guy on the last bus was so instant about his hotel it was just funny “I know you are just joking about me madam but really my hotel is very nice!” I know you only need to tell me once though…ended up staying there, which was nice. Pushkar is a very small town set around a holy lake. Being a holy city, there is no meat, eggs or alcohol in the town. There’s lots of Sadhus, temples, ghats (bathing areas) around the water and lots and lots of tourists. It’s sort of a tourist hangout, which seems a wee bit odd and doesn’t quite fit the spiritual nature of town but does make for a very interesting place to spend a bit of time. When you head down to the ghats for the first time you are approached by a priest who does some flower/prayer/blessing thing with you which involves repeating strange phrases and blessing every family member I can name and throwing a flower into the lake. Now we all have good karma forever mum and dad….or something like that. Then you get a bit of red string ties around your wrists to stop being harassed by every other priest. All for a donation of course. Had dinner at this nice rooftop restaurant and watched some random fireworks before an early night. Only ended being able to spend one day there as had to get moving but had a nice last day walking around the ghats, more shopping, watching lots of very religious people do religious things and tourists following close behind with cameras. I think I could get the most amazing photos in India if I was invisible, I just feel too bad taking photos of most of the cool stuff I see. I went down to the main ghat to watch the sunset and just hangout as the whole place become filled with drummers, tourists, musicians and people trying to sell you stuff. It’s a great place just to chill out, and watch everything going on. True to India, I wasn’t alone for more than 5 minutes at a time as was constantly being talked to by everyone who had something to sell. As the sun went down the fire poi were all lit and I left the tourists smoking hash and playing with fire to catch my 10 hour bus to Agra…home of India’s famous monument. All the buses I’d been in so far had really nice sleepers, actual beds above the seats with door on then, but of course my sleeper bus had seen better days. I had to share my bed with my luggage and there was no door blocking me off from the bus just 1/3 of a curtain so everyone could happily stare at me all night. But anyway before I got on that bus I had to get another bus to a bigger town. This first bus pulled up in a dark seemingly deserted bus park….they dropped me off and told me my other bus would be here in 2 hours…great…..of course though I am never alone and was taken to the chai stand to wait. Every single one of the 30 or so people there turned to watch me for about 15 mins before their bus came and they took off. I was soon joined by 15 year old boys competing who could give me the most free chai and some other younger kids, it was great, they sung and danced Bollywood songs out for me and took lots of photos with my camera. Some Spanish guys turned up going the same way was me for the next few days, so it was looking hopeful for a few travel partners but they ended up being in a different bus than me so didn’t end up finding them again which was a shame. But anyway got on my crappy bus that arrived in Agra at the respectable time of 5.30am
Tags: India, Travel
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Kia ora Arnika! Its an age since I looked at your blog, but your grand parents have all raved so much, I’m back at it. Wonderful.