Pushkar and Jodhpur
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2004
1
3
53
Trip End
Aug 15, 2005
Loading Map
Jodhpur,
India
Monday, September 13, 2004
After leaving the madness of Jaipur we headed west for a 3 hour hell raising (still can't get over the driving!) dusty, hot and fumey journey to Pushkar. Upon arrival in Pushkar it feels as though you just entered Glastonbury Festival except this place has a sacred lake, no booze and cleaner toilets!
Pushkar is a well visited, holy, and popular place especially for tourist who like to smoke bhang, which also makes it very popular for touts and people out to make a fortune by ripping rich tourists off. One way is for the sadhu's to give you a flower for you to throw into the lake which will give ever lasting peace and happiness and then preceded to charge you a fortune. However me and Rich are getting wiser and wiser to these devious ways and have managed not to fall for any of these tricks and are also getting the hang of bartering. I've already thrown away my expensive top from Jaipur and replaced this with a beautiful Sarong and top for a couple of quid. We are learning quick and are at least now sticking to our budget!!! That evening we took a walk out of the main hustle and bustle and headed to the country side where to Rich's delight we came across many young Sachin's and Ganguly's playing their games of cricket on dusty outcrops of land just outside the town. He managed to resist the urge to join in but I don't know how long he can hold out for!
We only had one night in Pushkar as we wanted to stay more nights in Jodhpur and Udaipur.
this was not really a bad thing as it felt not quite like the holy place we had expected but too many touts, scams and stoned Israeli's!
Another 5 hour journey and we are having our 2nd night in Jodhpur, Jodhpur is amazing, we really love it here and wish we could stay another few nights.
In a rickshaw in Jodphur
As you come in you can see the fabulous fort above and the blue houses by it. As we drove on up towards our selected guest house by the fort, the streets become more and more higgledy piggledy. It' such a cute place and there's a really buzzing market place in the center. The people are extremely friendly and children everywhere come up to you saying hello and asking "which country?" and "what is your name?" we spent all day in the fort -'Meherangarah' and all day we've had no hassle at all. This is heaven! At the moment there is a festival where people from all over Rajastan are on a pilgrimage to Ramdevara - a temple in western Rajastan. This is got to by foot for the majority (up to 300km)and the streets are filled with people as they are on the way through Jodhpur, replenishing themselves with food and drink, which is all given to them for free either by the social services or the owners of street food stalls for which they will receive "good karma".
The owner of our guest house is a very nice fellow and wishes us to treat the place as if it were our own - "the true meaning of guest house" so far all our accommodation has been brilliant and the most we've paid is 350 rupees (5 pounds) at the moment were paying 200 rupees and the room is really nice, with everything you need - fan, shower, hot water, comfy bed etc
And best of all, neither of us have had any slight sign of Delhi belly - thanks to citracidal and in fact with all the glorious food we are actually putting on weight!!!!! THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!!
Anyway, 'Alvida' for now as we've been sat at the Internet for 1 and half hours and we're hungry!
bye xxx
