Pushkar, Bundi & Bharatpur

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Jamie here,

Thought we'd try fit in all these different places into one as they are smaller and to keep it interesting!

Spent a good deal of time on buses to and from all these places which has been eventful! On one bus between Pushkar and a bus station in a city called Ajmer I ended up having a big argument with the bus conductor who was trying to grossly overcharge us for having bags, which was in hindsight, quite funny.

Pushkar seems to be a hippy paradise (especially for Australians and Kiwis); most of the shops seemed like they were from Glastonbury, and in fact a lot of the clothes sold at Glastonbury were made there! Meat, eggs and Alcohol were banned in the town because it had a special temple and lake for the Hindu Brahma. We found one restaurant selling beer under the radar, by putting it in Spanish on their menu! Something which was difficult to understand was how much they were trying to capitalise and exploit the fact it was holy. The "priests" (any male Brahma apparently) tried to force people to take a flower and throw it in the lake, at which point they were expected to make a "donation". They kept saying we HAD to take the flower in order to see the lake (which was surrounded by ghats for people to walk down), but we knew we didn't because our Hostel owner was Brahma and told us we didn't! When we said we knew we didn't have to, this was either lost in translation or ignored! We hiked up both hills (you're meant to climb one for sunset and one for sunrise, we did the one for sunset but didn't get up for sunrise!) The view around Pushkar was incredible and we enjoyed the relative quietness compared with Delhi and Jaipur.

It was a shame that we only stayed for two nights in Bundi because it was so fantastic. There was a big palace hanging off the edge of steep hill to the north of the city, in which the Maharajah of Bundi lives and had a collection of incredible murals on display. The fort behind it was left as (not-too-ruined) ruins, which we were allowed to explore. Bundi also has the nicest people in India, everyone says hello without trying to sell you anything, a miracle! We stayed in an old mansion and were upgraded (for free) to a room with a view across the lake which only cost about 5pounds a night! The owners of the mansion were interesting as they were the descendants of a Rajput commander-in-chief, and had a 1month old alsation-cross!

On the 29th we had a very long journey from Bundi to Bharatpur which started at 6.30 in the morning and ended at 21.30! Luckily everything went seamlessly except a bit of a delay with the train getting into Bharatpur. At the train station in Ajmer we had lots of Kashmiris talk to us because we had a few hours wait there and their train had stopped for half an hour on the opposite side. Their niceness made us wish we could go there! We then had what now seems to be a usual occurance in India of asking to have our picture taken with a group of Indians (or having a picture taken of us without permission and/or being blatantly stared at).

We're now in Bharatpur where there is a national park, which we've seen today. It was a really nice change of pace because we had all day to cycle around looking at the birds, antelpoes, monkeys and deer (and trying not to come across "the tiger" which may or may not exist). My bum hurts from the trail around the park but hopefully I'll survive! We're using Bharatpur as a base to get a bus to the capital of Akbar's Mogul empire Fatehpur Sikri tomorrow, and then after that were going to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

Hope everyone is ok!

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Comments

[Lali]

following the blog
Really enjoying your blog. Sounds so interesting and you've obviously seen some amazing places and met interesting people. all fine here. Sarah had a lovely night out with lu, charlotte, sean, michael, dan and johnny at Hilton Manchester. Glad your Mum has had op. will phone her tomorrow. Continue having a super time. Lots of Love L xxx

[shankar]

Hi Your post is good. Just wanted to clear the misunderstanding on the term Brahma / Brahmin. Infact there are three similar sounding words - Brahma, Brahmin, Brahmam/Brahman 1) Brahma is a god - one of the trinity, responsible for all creation. The temple in Pushkar is for him. The other two gods are Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma's wife is Saraswathi - goddess for education. 2) Brahmin is a caste, typically people who perform rituals in the temples. So the folk who sold you the flowers could be a Brahmin. Here in India, people often use the caste to represent a person. It is generally not considered offensive, unless the person referred belongs to a lower caste. The word Brahmin represents a person / persons who are in search of Brahmam / Brahman. 3) Brahman / Brahmam represents the truth. It is often referred as 'Para Brahmam' meaning 'Ultimate Truth'. All gods (and also everything including human beings, Animals, non-living beings) in hinduism are supposed to be manifestations of Brahman. So that is why hinduism has multiple gods - it does not matter whom you pray, ultimately it is to Brahmam. The split in hinduism - Vaishnivism and Shaivaite is because of the fight as to who is Para-Brahmam: Is it Vishnu or Shiva. I did not intend to confuse you further, so stopping my unwanted explanation here. Have a nice trip. regards Shankar.

[jamieandlaura]

ah, excellently cleared up, thank you :)