Days 44-46 : Pushkar
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2009
1
37
51
Trip End
Mar 27, 2010
Pushkar, Rajasthan, India
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Train arrived in Ajmer around lunchtime, caught an auto to the bus station, half an hour later driving through some hills arrived in Pushkar where I caught a cycle rickshaw to my hotel...talk about different modes of transport!
Unfortunately the holy lake which Pushkar is set around was being cleaned so it was almost dry...
Took a walk through the main bazaar area (a 1km stretch of shops catering for both the Indian and foreign tourists) which was pretty interesting even with the drizzling rain and cool temperature.
Ate at a very new age and healthy restaurant called Honey & Spice and had a Tofu steak and vegetables and a strong cinnamon & ginger coffee.
Did a bit of shopping in the small clothes shop next door and headed back to the hotel, stopping for some delicious 'malpua' on the way (or malpura to the guji's)
Local woman feeding her goat in Pushkar
.13/11/09
Had a lovely breakfast of muesli, fresh fruit, yogurt and honey with some brown toast before heading to the most famous of the Brahma temple's in India followed by the steep walk up to the Saraswati temple on top of a hill nearby. After about an hour of walking I reached the top. The temple was not open for darshan but as I was shortly joined by a group of Gujarati lads the priest opened it.
The views from the temple would have been great had it not been for the clouds and rain. I got talking to the guji lads and walked back down the hill with them. They were all doing their MBA's in Ahemdabad and were on a whistle-stop college trip around Rajasthan for the weekend.
Relaxed at the hotel for a while before heading out for some more shopping. Ended up buying some 'Afghani' style bottoms which I had seen other tourists wearing but I thought looked ridiculous at the time (think MC hammer bottoms buy baggy all the way down). VERY comfortable though!
Had some dinner on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the dried up lake before heading back to the hotel (again via the malpua sellers :o\).
Palm Squirral....!
14/11/09
Checked out of the hotel and killed a few hours walking around before being dropped to the bus stand, catching an auto and taking the train back to Jaipur. Had about 3 hours to kill there before my train was due to leave (around midnight) but it had been delayed as there was a train derailment accident in the morning between Delhi and Jaipur. Had some dinner and chatted to a couple of auto-rickshaw drivers who were hanging around the station.
Everybody seemed to be sleeping on the platform everywhere I looked and I noticed quite a few rats running around... cute things but I would not be impressed if I met one while sleeping on the platform!
My train eventually came and finally left at 3am for a 12 hour journey to Jaisalmer...
