Blogs from Pushkar, Rajasthan, India, Asia
March 30th 2012
Hello readers! Well it has been an eventful few days- less in India actually than back home! I have been accepted to medical school! After all those years! Will start at Leicester medical school in Sept, very exciting. And expensive...makes me want to spend less here! Also... James and me are getting our own flat! He and his parents are buying a place as an investment, and we get to live in it! And decorate it how we want! Exciting. So lots of things to look forward to planning when i get back!! Meanwhile in India... my time in Pushkar was ok. I know loads of tourists love the place but for me the magic was kind of lost in the hundreds and hundreds of tourist stalls. I mean you get shops everywhere for tourists but ... read more
March 26th 2012
Monday 26 March 2012. Mr Barun collected us from the hotel at about 9.00 am and we set off in the direction of Jaipur. It was a long drive on bad roads and we passed many camels and witnessed much more of daily life in the rural areas. We passed fields and fields of Khejri trees, which, Mr Barun informed us, are used as camel feed. We bounced along as fast as we could go as we needed to reach Pushkar and pick up our guide before the temple at Pushkar closed at 1.00 pm. We arrived at about 12.50, collected our guide and after parking and taking our shoes off were inside the temple with 5 minutes to spare. This was long enough for us. We caught a 30 second glance of the statue of ... read more
March 8th 2012
by Jan We arrived to Pushkar with two goals. Objective one, to attend Holi festival, and a personal one (Polona's) to go shopping. Polona was looking forward to this for ages, talking about it, making lists and explaining her wishes to anybody with two ears. But first, we had to get there. It was the longest of our journeys in India, a 19 hour train ride and a an extra hour on a bus. The train ride was just like any other, we arrived in the evening, went to sleep, but when we woke up it was like we changed countries all together . Rajasthan, one of the most visited states of India, reminded me of Morroco and Brane of Iran. At a first glance it's a desert, the houses change and people ride camels. It ... read more
Pushkar - Heiliger Ort der Hindus und der pluderhosentragenden Althippies
Published: March 6th 2012Asia » India » Rajasthan » Pushkar
March 6th 2012
Nach einer weiteren unklimatisierten dreistündigen Autofahrt nach Pushkar (Harish hat es in Jaipur leider nicht hinbekommen die Klimaanlage reparieren zu lassen) kommen wir gegen 16.30 Uhr leicht entnervt dort an. Wir checken in einem sehr einfachen Hotel mit schönem Garten direkt am See ein und kommen gerade richtig zum Sonnenuntergang, der auf den Treppenstufen am Ufer des Sees von zig Touristen gefeiert wird. Hierbei wird deutlich, dass Pushkar, der kleine Ort mit nur 15.000 Einwohnern nicht nur der heilige Ort der Hindus ist sondern auch der der kiffenden Alt-Hippies und filzlaushaarigen ständig in der Gegend herum meditierenden Backpackergemeinde. Denn trotz der gerade hier sehr strengen Moralvorschriften der Hindus (einige Plätze und eine Brücke dürfen z.B. nur ohne Schuhe betreten werden, im ganzen Ort wird kein Fleisch und kein Alkohol serviert) haben sich einige Ausstei... read more
January 21st 2012
Days 9 - 11 (14/01/12 to 16/01/12) Not been well so I haven't done much this last few days. Got a 1hr full body massage for 350Rs (about £4), did a whole load of shopping having decided to try to sell some of India's wares at the craft fairs I do back home. Have found the experience of shopping much more enjoyable here. There is less pressure to buy and if you look to buy larger numbers you are invited in to chat and drink chai as you negotiate the price. The kindest shop clerk I have met is Raj who sold me numerous scarves for a very good price and even gave me one free. He has offered to walk me and Ben (who arrived yesterday) up to the temple on the top of the ... read more
January 21st 2012
So I've gotten a little behind on my blog and since I last wrote, some strange and interesting things have happened. Including a night of what felt like hallucinations and very bad sleep, bumping in to three people (separately) that I've met previously on my travels having had no idea that they too were in pushkar, making friends with a local and a fairly comical event involving a busy bazaar and an unfortunate Indian man... Pushkar has been such a great place to chill out, it's easy to see why some people get stuck here for months at a time. There's really not that much to do apart from the usual tourist attractions like camel safaris, horse riding and yoga but I've done none of that to date. I've not even been to the one and ... read more
January 17th 2012
It was an early morning as we left for the train station at 5:15am. Danesh had to wake up the hotel employee in order to unlock the door for us to leave the hotel. It was a quick 15 minute rickshaw ride to the train station and then we waited about 40 minutes until our train left. It was pretty empty at the station due to the time I believe but we wanted something warm to drink while we waited. There was a man selling masala chai (Indian Spice Tea) and he kept repeating “You want Masala Chai” in a VERY loud and strange voice. It has stayed with us the remainder of the week as an inside joke. I also got some Parle G cookies that I have fallen in love with here, too bad ... read more
December 30th 2011
A cold day dawns in the Aravalli mountains at the Ananta Spa Resort. After a stressfulnight deciding between seat belts and a super driver, seat belts win. Mr Mukesh drives us into Pushkar, parking in the Camel fair stadium and escorts us into town, fending off guides Brahmin, Camel ride touts and Indian musicians. Pushkar is a peaceful Hindu Mecca with a lake surrounded by temples and ghats where one can create good karma for oneself, ones friends, ones family and one’s nation for a few hundred Rupee. We return to the bazar, with red dotted foreheads, rice bespeckled hair and a karma band around our wrists, so we are sorted ;). Mukesh introduces us to street cha a delicious mix of tea, milk and fresh ginger. For a few hundred rupee the three of ... read more
December 28th 2011
28th Dec ’11 Train from Udaipur to Pushkar via Ajmer The train was ok, we got off at Ajmer which is the closest station to Pushkar and using a kind of overgrown minibus went up and over the high hills and down to the dusty desert. We kept passing signs for the Pink Floyd Café………hmmmm Pushkar might be an interesting place! Our hotel – The New Park is a big empty looking place about a 15 minute walk into town, but the water’s on so it’s all good. Our room is vast, with a vast bathroom and its own sitting area in a turret! Late afternoon and it was time for the camel safari. They were all sitting in a line outside of the hotel and I did not fancy it – I kept remembering falling ... read more
December 25th 2011
Christmas Day in the car! We visited the Amber Fort in Jaipur which was amazing. Such a huge imposing structure, it looked like the Great Wall of China rolling over the adjacent hills. The Water Palace was also beautiful along with the Palace of the Winds (literally a facade). We arrived in Pushkar, a very holy city for Hindus, up there in importance with Varanasi. It was really nice and quiet compared to everywhere else we had been. It is also the site of the only Brahma temple in India. We couldn't take a photo of it unfortunately. Brahma's wife also has two temples on either side of the valley, we hiked up to one of them to get a nice view of Pushkar and its lake. As always we were shown the presidential suite at ... read more
