Day 15: Pushkar
Trip Start
Sep 21, 2006
1
16
228
Trip End
Jun 01, 2007
Pushkar,
India
Friday, October 6, 2006
At the west end of the long bazaar is the Brahman temple, its tower painted a startling orange-red. The marble floors and walls are covered with dedications for births and deaths, some have coins embedded, including the image of 'Empress' Victoria.
A fork near the shrine leads up the steps to the Saraswati Temple. Striped crickets click and leap from beneath my feet as I ascend. A troupe of langurs guard their territory towards the top. It's a steep, exhausting climb even before the midday heat sets in, but it's worth it for the views, if not for the unimposing temple itself. Pushkar Lake looks ordered and square from this vantage point, surrounded by white and pale blue blocks
01 Temple complex behind Main Bazaar
. The city is set within a crescent of forested peaks. To the west, tents are erected in preparation for the forthcoming annual Camel Fair, when the city overflows with traders and tourists.Down towards the Gandhi Ghat (where some of the Mahatma's ashes were spread), I am led into a guy's own home and private temple to Krishna. He then expects a donation. I refuse and leave pronto. The ghats are also attended by fake holy men extorting vast sums for prayers. Others try to foist 'lucky' marigolds on you for a price. The holiness of the site is hard to imagine through the blight of charlatans, freeloading hippies, touts and tourists. Walking barefoot through pigeon shit and cow urine does not bring me closer to nirvana.
One good reason to come here though (and this tour is certainly a gastronomic adventure so far): the juices and fruit-salad muesli at the Sonu Juice Bar.
Back at the Ghats, a Rajasthani folk duo, swingball merchant, and a man without whites in his eyes, offering 'anything' pester the visitors, like me, here to watch the colours of the sunset.
Lights are coming on and bells are clanging in the temples. Bats emerge and scoop flies from the water. Ghat bats.
