Pushkar, Rajasthan, India – Our bus pulled into Ajmer station, Pushkar’s sister city at 3:15 a.m., so we piled out and hung around the station until 4:30 a.m., the departure time for the first bus to Pushkar. They announced which bus was going to Pushkar and literally everyone on the station headed for it. Nothing like an early morning workout battling the Indians for a seat on the bus.
Arrived in Pushkar at 5:15 a.m. and after walking through the dark streets, we got a room at the Sunrise Hotel just down the road from the chai shop in post office. We rested while the sun came up and I chatted to the guy who owns the hotel. The dude is 20 and he and his father and mother lived in the room below, a real family establishment and the nicest people.
Pushkar is a Brahman village, which sits on this small lake. It is water, which is considered holy. Because it is Brahman, no brews, drugs, which are legal in parts of India or eggs are allowed in the city. Brews and drugs I can understand, but eggs. It makes the cakes the y serve all over town, a touch dry. They use banana instead. Pushkar is also known for its shopping. Nikki showed us some amazing stuff she brought when she was there.
Once the sun was up and we were not as delirious as we were when we arrived, we went for a walk through the main bazaar. There were cows and people on bicycles everywhere in addition to tons of embroidered bed spread bags etc to purchase. As we were walking, this man gave us some flowers to throw into the holy waters of the lake to help our Karma. Of course a Rs.10 donation was asked for which Rs. 1 was received. We wondered through the bazaar to the Brahmin temple, the only one in India, but were less than impressed with it as it was really run down in addition to the fact, I was still having Ranakpur flashbacks.
We had walked through the city for a few hours and during our return walk to the hotel to escape the heat of the day, we bumped into Neil, the British man from our hell bus ride from Himatnagar to Udaipur. Funny, how you meet these people here and there as you are travelling. Made it back to the hotel, where I chatted with Jassa, the hotel owner’s 20-year-old son for a while. This family was so nice and they really went out of their way to make your stay as pleasant as possible. We rested in the afternoon and ventured out in the early evening for the first and only, all you can eat dinner we had found in India. The restaurant owners really know how to make some money. Met Neil at dinner and once we were all finished, went to a lakeside café to drink tea and watch the sunset over Pushkar.
Pushkar is a total hippie city. Rich and I said numerous things to each other that we both felt like we were back in Berkeley. Only a degree or two stronger, the hippie parents with their children, Jasmine and Moonbeam were definitely all over the city and we even saw Karen, the drug addict, we had met in Udaipur walking down the street. When I spotted her, I went running to Rich telling him to try not to draw attention to himself as she passed.