Pushkar

So Claudia has at last recovered from her gastro from hell, at last I have my travel buddy back!!

So it was couple of bus trips from Jaipur to Pushkar but we arrived and both of us felt the instantly mellow. No-one hassling us to buy clothes or craptastic puppets, just calm and serenity....and the usual gathering of cows and monkeys.

So Pushkar is a small and very spiritual town surrounding a lake. Ghats (stairs leading down to the lake to purify the body) surround the lake and with it come the many Holy men. Usually they are Brahmin as this is home to one of only two or three Brahmin temples. Thank God for the Lonely Planet who warned us against swindiling priests. It happened to our American friends who were here a couple of days before us. You are given a flower and invited place it in the lake as a blessing for your family and loved ones. After completing this apparently generous and spiritual act you turn to find the priest demanding however many hundred ruppees. Poor Americanas, how can you argue with a Holy man for money, especially when he slips in "your family isn't even worth three hundred ruppee??"

So when they came up to Clauds and I we said "We've already done it"

"Then where is your red bracelet?" ........dammit. They are clever, with a whole system of checks and everything. So now when they hand us the flowers I smile and say no thanks we just want to look. When they start there wheeling and dealing I smile,"these really are beautiful flowers. I won't put them in the lake but I will smell them as I walk and shop". They're happy to take the flowers off my hands at this point.

Pushkar seems to be divided between the holy and the hypocracy. There would be scores of genuinly holy men worshipping here but you can never tell which is which. Also there is a strict no drinking and no eating eggs policy, but Bhang is all the go. Bhang is a drink made from the roots and leaves of the marijuana plant. Suddenly the reason why the shop owners don't run after you trying to hock their wares becomes all too clear.

All that aside it is a beautiful place to relax. Yup, might go do that now

xoxo
Sim