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Published: July 14th 2005
Wow, an amazing 1900+ people have read our travel blogs so far, and we're still about 8 weeks behind with our updates. But don't worry, we're slowly getting there and those of you subscribed will be getting a whole lotta updates during the next couple of weeks. We're currently in Thailand but do read on about our past shananigans in India. I also want to say a big hello and hugs to all London based friends, thanks for all the emails I've received so far, I'm thinking of you xx Pushkar is one of India’s seven holy cities and it’s overflowing with temples and holy sites. This is where thousands of pilgrims come every year to visit Pushkar’s holy lake.
An even more usual site is the amount of tourists that visit the city, which is why the local businessmen are ready and waiting. From the moment we stepped off the bus the rickshaw pullers were swarming around us like bees around honey. Seriously stressed we started to walk towards our hotel with a horde of twenty pullers on our tail. We were told our hotel was “only one km away” and for approximately 12pence they would take our
Small mountain trek
4 steps done, 4000 to go...bags to the hotel, but couldn't disguise my stress levels and managed to scare them all off. But after a nice half hour walk later in 40 degree heat with our heavy backpacks we finally reached our hotel, sweating, swearing and totally exhausted.
Pushkar was a nice little city with a lot of character. We chilled out with our camel trek friends playing cards, dining, drinking bhang shakes and did some shopping most days. The town was very small and as one guy put it, "you could pretty much do the town in about an hour". We also got our 'Pushkar passport', which involved visiting the ghats of the holy lake and getting a blessing from a Brahmin priest.
On the fourth day we decided to get up at 5 am to walk up to a temple at the top of a mountain and see the city at dawn, a magical sight (see pics), and small challenge at that time of day as the trek up took about an hour. We rewarded ourselves that afternoon with some delicious Shepard’s pie at “Ragu’s” (where a big rat had crawled up from the toilet whilst a friend was taking a
leak) and went to meet friends and pick up laundry. After about two minutes of driving the scooter we had rented for the day, a motorcycle came up from nowhere and crashed straight in to us.
The other guys who were driving their motorcycle on the wrong side of the road took off without stopping to see if we were ok and a crowd began gathering around us. It was a very minor accident and I got away with a couple of bruises but Erik hit his nose pretty hard and chipped his tooth and as he came round a lady asked him where he came from and he answered "Afghanistan", then we knew he was ok. We sat on the side of the street with a bag of ice on his face whilst we waited for the hotel car to pick us up as nobody wanted to help us, all the locals seemed to scatter off and were only willing to help if you offered them money.
The damages weren’t too serious but they caused for a day in bed and taking care of Erik with the help of my trusted first aid kit -
thanks for buying it for me Sufiya- v. useful gift. :o)
With mixed feelings we left for Delhi the next morning.
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Janita
non-member comment
wish I was there!
Well I've been reading all your travel blogs and finally decided to add a comment! Sounds like your having loads of fun (apart from the bike accident) hope you're both ok now. Things are pretty normal back here apart from last thurs, don't know if you guys heard about the bombs in central London? It was a terrorist attack but people seem to be pulling together. Anyway keep trekking and keep us posted. Take care :)