Pushkar

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So Pushkar came and went, i ended up meeting a group of spanish girls on the bus from jaipur to Pushkar on the 25th. Ended up sharing rooms at a guesthouse with them for 3 nights which was cool, just hung out and enjoyed the street markets, bought a few gifts and caught up with friendss on skype etc. Managed to watched several lovely sunsets from different angles overlooking the lake and the town of pushkar. The town itslef was "quite relaxed but saying that sunday was very busy throught the narrow streets as there were thousands of pilgrimigers walking through the town all barefoot on their way to jaieslamer, a journey which would take them days.

The general atmosphere was nice, people were friendly and listening to drums playing at night whilst watching the locals bathing in the lake or washing their clothes was interesting. Saw somebeautiful faces and all colour sari's worn by the ladies who had the full outfit on, meaning bangles all over, nose rings, ankle bracelets etc.

Had some interesting conversations with locals at the dvd burning shop just downstairs from the guesthouse and found out some interesting details about indian culture with regard to relationships and marriage.

The spanish girls left me on the 27th and i stayed on one last day as had things to do like send the gifts back and planned to climb up the hill to the temple before i left. The last day came and went and most of it was spent in the post office dealing with indian procedures for sending parcels, which consisted of waiting for an old man to sew up the parcels in white cloth, pay him, then find out you had forms to fill out for each x 2 and then finally proceed to paying, all 3 hrs later! During that time met the first british people i have met on this trip and ended up laughing about the fact that it had taken ages for us to send these parcels and that it would be a one off thing. We then spent the remaining hours exchaning travel stories over lunch, as by that time it was too hot to walk up to the temple and wasn't sure if i would make it back 3hrs later in time to hit the road again on the next part of my journey, which was reserved by then. That meant i quickly headed up to pick up bags at guesthouse and head for the bus station. Got on the oldest bus ever and managed to find a seat in the middle on the very back seat, squashed between indians. Not being racist, but i was the only white person on the bus. Left Pushkar and watched an amazing sunset as we drove into the dark. The sun was red like fire and massive and it set behind the hills, something i watched and will never forget. It soon then became very dark as i forgot to mention, India certainly is the most colourful place by day and the darkest place by night.
On this 2.5hr bus journey to the Merta train station i watched many locals drill their noses and others be sick out the windows, but other than that everyone around me was ok and made me feel safe.
I luckily arrived in Mertha with time to cross the city to the main train station and having got chucked off the bus i soon came into contact with an english speaking indian who was heading for the train station too. Beforei knew it i was sharing a taxi with 3 others (helped reduce the fare) and off to the station we went. Once on the platform, i waited another 2hrs as my train for which i was a bit early for, was actually delayed. The time flew however as i ended up talking to some english speaking muslim indian teachers and the conversation about schooling and the indian systems was very ineteresting too. It passed the time for me and soon i was on my 17hr train journey and in my sleeper compartment where i layed for 17hrs. Slept through the night and passed away the day snoozing and watching out the window as we travelled through punjab state which was mainly green and sunny.

As time went on and we approched the arrival time in Pathankort at one point i noticed we were paused at a station, and not being able to read the signs had no idea where we were, so i asked the train guy how long till Pathankort where i had to get off. He said this IS pathankort and that i had to hurry to get off as the train was departing. I unlocked my bags from under my bed and jumped off the train as it was already in movement, something you would never be allowed to do back home! Once on the platform and asked for the exit of the stattion, was told that the exit was across the train tracks and that was the way to the bus station. I had no choice but to believe the guy so jumped down on to the tracks and crossed them and headed down this road which looked like a dead end. At this point you just had to believe what peoiple say and hope they really are guiding you in the right direction. It did lead to the bus station where i had to catch the bus to Dharamsala from. Luckily when i got there, a bus was waiting to depart in just 20minutes, so had time for a quick ciggy and then boarded the bus as it was another metal cage looking thing and again was not looking forward to the journey on it. Luckily i was sat right at the front with 2 others next to me and actually had a seat. This bus was crazy, not only did the bus driver not stop chatting to his mates sitting next to him for a good few hours, but he allowed the bus to go absolutely full max all the way picking up the most amount of people which did not have seats and were squashed in like sardines. Nothing like safety rules here, and as for the roads well you have never seen buses overtaking buses, or squeezing past eachother like they do over dangerous bridges, or speeding along and then slamming the breaks on when someone needs to get off. All this in the dark with headlights blinding you and also making stops for passengers to quickly buy their veg for their dinner and get back on the bus. Crazy stuff, this is only the tip of the iceburg buthey, i cannot sit here forever giving the full details, but atleast you can kind of imagine what it is like! The good thing was i finally made it to Dharamsala and got a taxi van (shoe box size) up the hill to Mcleod Ganj about 8km up up hill. There i went straight to the green lodge which i had been recommended and checked in. So will report in a few days what i get up to here in mcleod ganj. Have heard the dalai lama is in residence as he lives here so going to register to see if i can go shake his hand and listen to his speeches which he gives. Yes the Dalai Lama himself!!!!

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