Hotel Peacock Holiday Resort Pushkar

... pilgrims come from all over to visit, and bathe in the waters of Pushkar lake, as such this is cow city here they are adored, and people go out to collect nice grass and sell it to the pilgrims so they can feed the holy cows in the holy city. As a result they are everywhere, but as ever pretty good natured you just have to walk around them. So we are following our man with the luggage, and are keeping up nicely, it is about 2pm and very hot ...

... was one that I had picked out from the guidebook: Hotel Seventh Heaven. It is a very popular place and consequently was full. I asked the manager if he could recommend another place and he suggested the Everest Hotel. As I was leaving Seventh Heaven, a little old lady was waiting in the doorway of her hotel next door. It seemed to be her practice to sit at her door catching the people who were ...

... ich gelernt. Wenn die wüssten...<br><br>Weiter ging's nach Pushkar, einer Stadt, die für die hohe Qualität des verfügbaren Grases bekannt ist und die deshalb nicht nur Studenten sondern auch reichlich ausländische Touristen anzieht. Ansonsten gibt es einen heiligen See, der aber aufgrund des fast ausgebliebenen Monsuns dieses Jahr schon jetzt so gut wie ausgetrocknet ist. Und es gibt natürlich reichlich Fotografen, die große und kleine Europäer fotografieren wollen ...

... have the same experience, his priest respected his right to the privacy of his donation, didn't try to throw in some silly chant and overall he seemed to have had a great cultural experience down by the sacred lake. I wish I could say the same....but can't let it spoil the trip, right?? <br><br>Just a bit of info about the Brahmin's...they are the highest caste, making them the top social class in India. So they are required not to work, study at the ...

... aload of gobbeldey gook after him whilst sprinkling water on my hands and forehead.<br><br><br><br>I tried not to laugh and hoped I wouldn't get stung by the swarm of wasps now gathered around me and my silver plate, but I knew wasps or no wasps, the real sting was coming. The inevitable, quintessential, Indian intonation..."SHOW ME THE MONEY!"<br><br><br>Fecker hit me up for 300 rupees for local charities and another 100 for himself and his family. <br>In exchange I got a warm fuzzy ...

Yaarit and I woke up and decided to go to Cafe Enigma for breakfast. I decided to have the English breakfast (fruit salad, nutella toast, juice and scrambled eggs). The scrambled eggs were listed as 'scrambled' or 'screambled'...which is funny. No alcohol, meat or eggs are allowed into Pushkar because of the local religions and general holyness of the place. But there are always places that find ways to sneak it in and get the tourists what they crave. After breakfast we went to Seventh ...

... as best we could, they refused payment, and then showed me how to properly wash dishes. You take the rag in the giant bowl filled with ash and scrub the dishes with the ash before rinsing the it off - it totally works! Their family gathered around for a photo and their charming daughter was very interested to have her photo taken. Kindness abounds here in India everywhere I go!

... us it will take an hour though - we agree not realising what we are letting ourselves in for. The following rituals show the fakers in town up for who they really are. First we are taken into the Ganesh temple and Shamji, our new guru, recites a mantra into our ears. We are then told we must chant it for five minutes silently. He tells us we must switch off our minds - no easy task when your trying to sit cross legged with my stiff legs! He ...

... sanitiser onto it. It's constant. It's wedding season at the moment. Hindu weddings are very bright events, filled with ritual and celebration, that continue for several days. They are not small affairs, often with 400-1000 people attending. Though most marriages are arranged, some couples in urban areas have love marriages. The true Indian wedding is about two families getting wedded socially with much less emphasis on the individuals involved. There's all kinds of parts ...