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Published: January 25th 2007
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Working our way across Rajastan towards Delhi, we found ourselves at the States capital city Jaipur, but not before a pit stop at Pushkar for a little R+R. Pushkar is a town clustered around it's holy lake, with a maze of streets winding around, set in a magical scene of desert hills. Surrounding the lake are 52 bathing ghats, where people come to wash and purify their sole in the waters. The lake is sacred for many reasons; Vishnu appeared here (albeit in the form of a boar), Gandhi’s ashes are sprinkled here and Brahma bathed here too (not sure who he is though). Pushkar is an important Hindu pilgrim center with up to 400 milky domes scattered across the town, and is also home to the famous Brahma temple. For the reason the town has a few certain rules to abide to, being appropriately dressed, a ban on all alcohol, meat, eggs (bugger) and no expressions of affection in public. This being said, the place is a hive of activity and is a popular tourist destination among travelers. Why you ask? To complement the holy spiritual guru crap that the towns into, the locals here enjoy getting stoned, and most
Puskar Lake
Bathing on the Ghats travelers come to satisfy there need to get stoned. There are government approved Bhang stores, bhang being the dried leaves and flowering shoots of the Marijuana plant. So… to cut a long story short, pretty much every shop, restaurant and local on the street is selling a Bhang Lassi. Basically a milkshake made of weed. And ‘when in Rome’ as they say! So first night I thought I’d give one of these a go to see how strong they actually were and what were the effects. Now it must be said that upon ordering I asked if they were strong (out of curiosity), and I think that the waiter took that as a request not a question. Forty minutes after downing the lassi it all started to kick in, a little bit of laughing and some weird shit that I can’t explain. Getting a little fidgety it was time to go for a walk to get some air, wandering down the main bazaar is kind of a haze, before heading back to the hostel for some personal time, space and bed. Not that I was going to sleep. Basically I climbed into bed and held on tight, as my mind
Coffee Shop
We found real coffee! went else where. If I had only a pen and paper at the time to describe my thoughts. Me, myself and I together, alone, thinking are not a good combination, by the end of the night I had solved world hunger, made millions in elaborate business deals and had a 10 year plan mapped out in every detail. Needless to say this all vanished upon waking in a haze the following morning, head throbbing and mouth pastey dry. All I was happy about was that I woke with most brain cells in tack. Just a tad bit strong that one. All that being said, you would have thought that I had learnt my lesson, but had to give it a bash the following night, just because I could not really because I wanted to. But this time I made sure I had only a mild one, umm…… and then another mild one, that wasn’t so mild. But I felt in good form that night and managed to control myself and my mind to some extent. Although I couldn’t resist the temptation of cake at some ungodly hour as we left the restaurant. Can you believe that they had a guy
Jaipur City Palace
Inside part of the old city, or the 'Pink City'. selling slices of cake (chocolate, banana, orange the works) outside a store that sells bhang lassi’s, pure genius, a winner, who can resist the munchies? Through the haze of the last couple of days, I do remember Pushkar to be a lovely, relaxing town and a get place to chill out and recharge the batteries, were just lucky to have gotten out of the town before it managed to get a strangle hold on us. It’s not uncommon for people to waste weeks here, soaking in the sun, enjoying the food and doing sweet f@ck all.
But enough of the hallucinating drug experiences (which have been few and far between), our next stop of course was the capital Jaipur. In all honesty I was a little disappointed with the city as there wasn’t to much on offer, other than the standard couple of sites. It lacked that little something special, but was typical of most Indian cities, busy, hectic, and dirty. The most bizarre part of the city was the Jantar Mantar Astrology Park, which at first glance looks like a selection of oversized sculptures. But the giant sun dials can accurately tell time to within seconds. The other
Jantar Mantar
Observatory, like a theme park for Astrologers. Weird. highlight was the Amber Fort and Palace about 11km from the city, but (don’t tell any one) I’m kind of wearing thin on Forts and they all start to look the same. The bugger is there still a few to go! I won’t bore you with the details as the photo’s are fairly self explanatory. I thought I’d keep this one short as I figure your all laughing at the first part of the story and aren’t too interested in the description of the town, I know I am.
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