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Published: January 23rd 2007
After another exhausting bus ride we arrived in the small town of Pushkar. It is a cute town set in the middle of the desert with a lake in the middle and 300 temples. Dave is set on the idea that a lotus flower was dropped in the desert and that is how the lake was formed..im still not convinced. In this town meat, eggs and alcohol are forbidden which makes all the menus a bit different from anything we have tried with weird substitutions. None of the restaurants are too sanitary and the hotels here are fairly dirty and not charming at all. Luckily we are only paying 4$..it is pretty disgusting but its only a couple days and we couldnt find anything better for even 10$.
There is really not much to do here since it is such a small town but it is nice to get away from all the crazy traffic to a town with some charm. The cows and camels out number the amount of vehicles here. Thankfully they are fairly peaceful other than a grunt here and there. We went and explored all the bathing ghats and did a hike to the top of
The Hazards of India
sometimes they warn us!a desert mountain to get a better view of our surroundings. Although there is not much to do in the city the things you see when you walk through the streets is intense. On our way up to the mountain we see a parade going through the streets carrying a dead body. A funeral procession going on right in the streets. A couple minutes later there is a cow all dressed up in Rajastani clothing with a hat on and his body painted rainbow colors. We took a closer look at the cow and it had a weird goats leg growing out of it. At first i thought it was an abnormally in that one cow but we walked a bit further and saw another one. Apparently they are known as holy cows. Strange stuff!!!
When we were walking around the bathing ghats there were a bunch of people acting as priests trying to perform pooja(prayer) for you. Of course most of them are not real and are just doing this to try and make some money. So we agreed to do one but we told him that we had no money and that karma was all that mattered.
Street Market
This market was cleaner than most we have seen in Asia So he performed the prayer he asked us all our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers names and prayed for all our family and friends and a long life etc. Every few words he added in for the money donation pooja. After we left him he wouldn't leave us alone continually asking for money and not just small amounts he wanted like 20, 50 or 100 dollars. That is more than we spend in 5 days let alone on one donation for a person that isnt even a real priest.
The last night we were in Pushkar the hotel that we were staying at was hosting an Indian wedding. The hotel owners invited us to join them for dinner and the reception. It seemed likea strange wedding because there was no alcohol but it was cool to see. The dinner was amazing they had about 20 differnet dishes and desserts all set up in buffet style. There was probably about 100 people there. The music that they were playing was a bit strange. It was hard techno music with the occasional hindi remix. Not something you would see at home. It was also funny the whole wedding the bride and groom
Wedding Parade
on the way to our hotel sat in a chair and had their pictures taken. That is all they did the whole time and they did not look happy! I gues that is what you get for arranged marriages though. Not mych else to say...leave some comments if your reading!
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mom
non-member comment
Okay you guys, you must be missing home just a little bit by now. I can't imagine what it must be like there. I am sure the pics don't do it justice. Hope your next stay is better. Thinking of you always. Love mom