Taxi!

Trip Start Jul 27, 2004

Trip End Dec 21, 2004

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Where I stayed

Hotel Lake View Uttarakhand

(Pushkar hotels)

Flag of India Pushkar, India
Thursday, December 16, 2004

After the excitement of seeing the tiger in Ranthambore it was time to think about moving on. We didn't have plans for what happened next but we'd heard about a little town on the edge of the Rajasthani desert called Pushkar; a holy town with a sacred lake & pilgrims galore. After some investigation it was also a pain to get to but we decided the effort would be worth it. We went to the train station & after ages of pratting around the connections we needed wouldn't work. A trip to the bus station confirmed that we wouldn't be getting the bus; Kerry took one look at the buses & refused point blank to get on one - they should carry signs saying 'Death Trap'. This left only one option if we were going to make it to Pushkar before our time in India ran out - a taxi. After much to-ing & fro-ing at the hotel & much haggling we agreed on a price of Rs3000 for the 300km trip. After handing over the money Paul didn't only feel an emptiness in his wallet but in his soul; his only legible words for several hours were '3000 rupees? 3000 rupees? That's like...3000 rupees?'

It eventually took us 7 hours to get to Pushkar despite being assured it would only take 4 (the bus was advertised to take around 5 so God knows how many days it actually takes the bus to complete the journey). The cost & the time were definately worth it, Pushkar was amazing. It had the same magical & chilled feel as Varanasi but was much cleaner & had more aggressive cows - i.e they didn't ignore you or get out of the way but felt compelled to go for you!

We stayed in the Lake View Hotel which lived up to its name - the views of the lake were spectacular, particularly in the early morning when a mist hung over it enveloping the ghats & radiating the hues of the sun rise.

V.

Cuppa tea ?

strange thing happened within minutes of checking in to the hotel. We were stood on the terrace overlooking the main street when who should we spot wandering around aimlessly but Roberto! We called him up & were having a spraff & a chai when Nick & Regina (who we'd met in Ranthambore) arrived - turned out they were staying in the room next to ours! I'm sure if we'd have found some, many beers would have been downed, unfortunately alcohol along with eggs & meat are illegal in Pushkar.

Overall didn't do that much in Pushkar; it was nice to wander around & do a bit of shopping or just sit on the hotel's sun terrace watching the activities on the ghats. Sunset is a bit of an event in Pushkar with hundreds of people gathering at the sunset ghat to listen to the many buskers & drink chai. The most energetic thing we did was climb a mountain to the west of town to watch the sun rise over the town. Got up at 5am for the 1 hour plus walk ready for the 6.20am sunrise. We reached the temple at the summit of the mountain in plenty of time as it was still pitch black by 6.15am & 6.30am & 6.45am. We'd been misinformed the sun wasn't due to come up until 7.20am! At least we didn't miss it!

The other main highlight of Pushkar was taking the p*** out of the local drug pusher, aka the Pushkar Pusher. This bloke seemed to ingest most of his stock & stumbled around offering whatever he'd got left to foreigners & taking abuse from people like us. Bless, he was probably one of the last people we spoke to in Pushkar as we stood in the bus station, he tried to sell us some hash.