Gays, Goats and Politics in Jodphur

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Hello from Pushkar,

Pushkar lies in the middle of Rajasthan surrounded by mountains and upon a holy lake that I am rather lamely yet to have seen. It is home to the mighty camel festival - which I have missed by a week. Still, it does mean that its quiet here and accommodation is fantastically, wonderously bargainous two fiddy a night!

Little sad, to leave Jodphur which was great for meeting people. Spent first night chatting with an American, Nick. Being from Washington DC originally, the conversation inevitably drifted towards the election and politics. This meant that although he was a nice guy - things gradually turned more and moer into smile and nod territory for me. Don’t think he noticed though and we may meet again in Kathmandu.

Second night I spent was with a mildy crazy Israeli, “there are 3 prices, Indian, Foreigner and Israeli”. Fair play to him, not only had he brought an Enfield (very popular Indian motorbike), which broke down in the middle of nowhere and he had to communicate with locals in what looked to me like dance to get it repaired; but he was of course called Nimrod.

Bumped into the Germans pair Klaus (still an awesome name) and Annette a couple of times randomly, so spent third night drinking big bottles of Kingfisher that cost a whopping 65 rupees (about 85p ha ha).

Fourth night was with a retired Austrian who seems to have travelled everywhere.

In slightly more interesting news, the cow savagery continues, i got tail whipped visciously. Loads of conversations with other travellers, commonly revolving around the idea that people here are a tad sexually repressed, they do ask fairly scary personal questions about girlfriends,wives and sex on an overly regular basis!

Waiting to cross the road whilst on a meander in the middle of nowhere and a guy walks up to me. His first comment, “You are very handsome man”. Clearly he had problems with his vision, but I digress and he continued, “You are very smart man”. Ok this was getting odd. He then took and shook my hand a little too much and a little too gently for my liking, so in classic Alan style, I traffic dodged my way to freedom with a very hasty and scared goodbye! Alarmingly, after visiting the bus station a short while later, i was given a piece of paper warning me against such people. He made me think I was special :-(

Almost got ran over by an army of goats today who were crossing a road and jumping over a wall surrounding me where I was sitting. Once again, this proves why walking into the depths of nowhere in India can be far more interesting than tourist sights!

Whilst on the bus to Pushkar I saw a fantastically shitty, derelict looking building that proudly proclaimed “Just like a sweet home”, had to laugh.

Ordered french fries from my guesthouse in Jodphur and chuckled to myself as two different waiters ran to find out what they were. They were on the menu, I wasn't trying to be awkward!

Anywho, here for 2 nights to get my religion on and apparently hassled by fake priests who want me to recieve blessings for everyone in my family and friends at 100 rupees a pop if what people say is true. The American claimed he acually haggled with his priest and get blessing at 25 rupees per person - wierd!

Hope everyone is well, feel free to insult me in the comments for using Blog site instead of facebook!

Bye!

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