Advertisement
Published: October 17th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Chittorgarh
A king's residence - privacy assured There is a small village about 110 km from Udaipur, officially named Chittorgarh, but we call it Cheatorgarh now. The pictures of Chittorgarh are on the previous entry already, forgive me for repeating them.
We endured an entire day of dealing with a taxi driver and bus people who were doing all they could in order to get as much money as possible from us.
In Udaipur, we found a Spanish couple (from Barcelona, not singing the Barcelona song however) to share a taxi to Chittorgarh, and join us after that to Pushkar. I was doing my picture uploading stuff in an internet cafe, while Gaelle had gone around in town to find a taxi. She got a deal for 900 INR, and the people selling the deal explicitly confirmed that everything - fuel and taxes - were included. After 30km or so, there was some kind of a customs office. It resembled the peages in France, but here they were asking for 80 INR taxes. The driver pointed to us for the payment. We refused firmly. The driver paid, and we stopped a few km further down, in order to phone the guy with whom Gaelle had agreed on
the "all inclusive" price. The guy simply denied that he'd told us that the taxes were included. Gaelle got quite upset with the guy, but felt sorry for the driver, because the money would come from his pockets now. But I think that it was all a set up game. And even if the driver was a "victim" here, it would teach him not to work with people like this guy anymore. If we had paid the driver, we would only be feeding the assumption that tourists always pay anyway.
In Chittorgarh, the driver tried to convince us to book a room for the afternoon, to leave our luggage (so he would collect a commission). He also offered to drive us around in the fort, as all the temples and ruins are spread over quite a distance. We agreed to that, and that solved the luggage issue also, because we could leave the bags in and on the car. We went to a bus office to book tickets for Pushkar. We were told there were no buses to pushkar, only to Ajmer, and no sleeper buses. They said they'd arrange a minibus by 19hrs for us for the price
Pushkar - Quest for dirt 1
Gaelle went on a quest to capture the incredible dirt. This is Pushkar, but it is much worse in many places in India. of 120 INR per person.
The sights in the fort were once more stunning. A few times during the history of the fort, all the women threw themselves on the fire in order to avoid being captured by the enemy. Thousands of women did this, on various occasions, in all the forts spread over Rajasthan. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chittorgarh
After the tour, the driver took us to a restaurant of his choice. We were too tired and there wasn't much time to protest and find alternatives. The restaurant had a dark atmosphere. The smoke took our breath away, the food was disgusting and the prices triple the normal prices (and I'm sure our concept of "normal prices" is probably higher than the prices the locals would pay). Anyway, we sat out the ordeal, and went on to the bus station to catch our mini-bus.
Suddenly, there was no mini-bus, and we were "handed over" to some hassler, who would do all he could to keep us from getting on a bus that would not pay him commissions. We ended up on a crappy, noisy bus for the next 4 hours. I tried to sleep, but the screamy music
Pushkar - Quest for dirt 2
Creatures on the floor in front of a place where paneer (cheese) is prepared. After they saw us taking this picture, the owner would not allow us to take a picture of the rest of the place... Does this mean he is aware of the lack of hygiene? prevented that very efficiently. I asked them to turn it off at some point, but by then we were almost there.
Upon arrival in Ajmer, a bunch of rickshaw drivers swarmed around the 4 of us again. We needed a ride to Pushkar, about 15km away. The first number I heard was 600 INR, we finally got it down to 300. We arrived in Pushkar around 23:30, and we went looknig for the 7th Heaven Hotel, but everything was closed. Almost like a ghost village. Only dogs on the streets (some were following us and didn't look like they wanted a hug). We knocked on several doors of guest houses, until one finally opened the door, and showed us his rooms. We took them, as they were reasonably clean and cheap. We drank some hot chocolate milk to comfort ourselves :-)
We found a cleaner and lighter room the next morning, and spent the next few days hanging around and shopping in Pushkar. It's a nice place to be, but the shops are not really inspiring. They sell the same things we get to see in the Indo-European shops back home. We did have an interesting conversation with
Pushkar - Quest for dirt 3
Cows are holy....but hungry a guy who sells singing bowls however. Didn't know these bowls can actually be used for healing purposes during massages. It was refreshing to talk to someone again who was not after our money.
We visited some of the temples, did the obligatory prayers for our families (but not for free however, luck comes at a price apparently), and got to see the wonderful sunset by the lake with a stoned hippie next to us. On the last day in Pushkar, Gaelle went to some yoga classes in the area, and I did some organising and running around to get my purchases sent off to Belgium.
We took a bus on Monday to Jaipur. This time, we'd booked a room in a guest house beforehand, so we were picked up at the bus station. Much easier. The people are nice, the room is large and clean, the water is hot and there is no noise in the street... what more could we possibly want? For those interested: Prem Abhilasha Guest House (google on that and you'll find them).
In Jaipur, we went to the City Palace and the Amer Fort and got to have a short (but
Pushkar - Singing Bowls
Friendly guy, had a great conversation overpriced) elephant ride. The Fort was very crowded. It was a special day apparently, as there were huge waiting lines for the temple inside the Fort. Child-beggars were following us around all the time, and adolescent Indian boys wanted to have pictures of us with them. The Fort was a little different in style from the other ones we have seen (I think more Muslim influence), but not maintained as nicely. The domain around the Fort is huge and beautiful.
We also went to an Ayurvedic doctor around noon, to have our Ayurvedic body type determined. I have to avoid cold he said... I am in the right country :-)
We are booked on a bus to Delhi tomorrow morning, so Gaelle can catch her flight on time. I am not sure yet where to go next. Probably one night in Delhi, and maybe fly to Nepal asap, because I must be there before it gets too cold.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 62; dbt: 0.0482s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Alexander
non-member comment
amazing
amazing...never heard so much from you before, Sabrina. I'm joking a little bit...No, really, I'm very happy that you're doing what you really wanted to do. When I'm reading your blog , I'm very proud to be your brother. So far, so good, go on now with it. Even alone for the next trip you'll be fine. Looking for more news from you...