Navratan Palace Pushkar

... We didn't go in to the shrine and were surprised that we were the only people there apart from the Holy Man, who came out I think to have a look at what we were doing and to make sure we had taken our shoes off.<br> So off to downtown Pushkar which was now not the calm quiet serene place it had been, it had shaken itself and was wide awake for business and business is the order of the day. A small town with only one main road/bazaar we were first ...

... them this year due to the global economic crisis as well as to the waterless lake.<br><br>We had lunch at a falafel joint with an owner who appeared to recognize Gregory from his visit there two years ago. Gregory and I marvelled at this man's ability to recognize him after having had so many customers over the two years since Gregory had last been there - until we figured out his memory ...

... ways and move very carefully, just in case another disaster is about to occur. <br><br>Camel owners hire out their animals and carts to give tourists a ride around the desert. We walked the area each morning and evening to avoid the midday desert heat. We had fun watching all the people, their animals, and the various activity in the desert, before returning home each night for a cold shower.

... this guy didn't have a quickie during the 5 minutes he was taking photos. The sadhu guru eventually shows up, and he is just as excited to hang out with us. I then have the great idea to pull out my aviator sun glasses and have them try them on. They loved it and were acting like little rock stars. After 2 hash contraptions down our lungs, we gave them more money and bidies, and left. Hands down one of the most insane and memorable moments of my life.<br>

... all of which seem to have better food than most other places we've been eating). <br><br>"Bhramin priests" are everywhere. Many of the less honest ones attempt to hand you flower petals as you walk by in the attempt to make a Puja (prayer) for you... usually resulting in the demand of payment... usually an extremely large one, because obviously all white people have tons of money. It makes me wonder how much of the Hindu Vedas are related to donations, because quite a ...

... large halls supported by huge pillars. Altho&#8217; strictly a ruin, it was surprising just how many people were walking to the top and using the area as a recreation ground. Akbar&#8217;s Palace (1570 and under restoration) was also a small, uninspiring place, but was built to keep an eye on the local chiefs in the area.<br><br>The jewel in Ajmer&#8217;s crown for me was its Ana Sagar lake. Built in the 12th century, it has 2 lovely parks with marble pavilions ...

... she hadn't had any yet. It took a while but we finally found a vendor and then we were able to enjoy the creamy goodness of the original pistachio flavor. I also introduced her to SLICE...a mango drink by the Coca-Cola company that is 'mangolicious' (it says so on the bottle). It was the most hard core mango drink I have ever had from a bottle. It felt like I was drinking a mango from a straw. Seriously. Apparently though, due to its super high levels of additives and preservatives...it ...

... We leave Tuesday night around 4:30 and rode out (hardly into the desert) for about 2 hours, set up camp, ate food, slept, and then came back the next morning. It was a simple trip and I'm not sure you could really count it as camel trekking, but it was fun all the same. But we have now left our lazy days of Pushkar behind and took a train last night to Udaipur. Camera battery is dead, as always, photos to come later.

... imagine dropped jaws...hear deep intake of breath So anyway, we headed over to another travel agents who said he could do it. So I gave him the list of details (train no., dates, times of departure, origins and destinations) and we headed over to the PC. However, the frustration was not over yet!!! Each time he looked up a train he would insist, absolutely insist, on looking up the station codes in a massive book which took ages, typing ...

... intelligent street kid we call Kangaroo who adores us and often follows us around chatting in good English, he's a good kid and very cheeky and charming and we like that he never pushes us too far in asking for anything. We get hugs and give him arm and thumb wrestles. He wants to marry me but i told him that when his palm is as big a mine and his finger tips reach mine then we will go on a date. One day we bought him a pair of new jeans to replace his old ones that were ...