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Published: February 11th 2008
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Our Mountain Climb!
up to savitri temple Feels like ages since I properly wrote one of these, especially due to how different I feel since the last! Since that nasty ill day we've had some of the best times so far. We've stayed in what's become our favourite place (to date) this whole time - Pushkar. It's a very small town built around a sacred Hindu lake, the lake where Ghandi's ashes were scattered, and sandwiched between the two sides of the snake hills; some rocky desert hills. There's no meat, drinking, drugs, fornicating in public etc etc as its so sacred but its also very chilled and traveller friendly! There are tiny little streets many of which have openings down to the bathing ghats around the lake where people go down to wash, and loads of bright, colourful shops with some amazing things to buy!
The hotel we've been staying at has been so nice and chilled and the people so friendly - such genuine indian hospitality has been really nice! On our first whole day here after feeling better we asked the nice owner - Raju, where we should check out in Pushkar today, he recommended visiting the Bramha temple, a trek up to the
View from the top and appropriate drink!
With little Pushkar and its lake behind. Savitri temple and a stroll around the holy lake where pilgrims come to bathe in its sacred waters. The great thing about Pushkar (after big cities) is that you can literally walk everywhere, theres no rickshaws and traffic is so calm. Except for the odd beggar here and there you don't get hassled on the street or anything, its such a nice break. Shop owners instead of coming out waving their goods in your face they just sit and let people browse at their own pace. Very Nice. The Bramha temple was a little temple up some steps which seemed pretty important to the Hindu people there but didnt stand out in particular. The story behind it was that Bramha (one of the Hindu incarnations to God) went to the lake to perform self mortification (whatever that involves) and his wife Savitri didnt turn up so he married someone else. Savitri was pissed off and swore that noone would ever worship Bramha anywhere else so this may be the worlds only Bramha temple. So I guess thats where it gains its significance!
We then stocked up on water as the next stop - Savitri temple, was on the top
of a jagged 1000ft of so mountain... The stairs started pretty easy but got progressively more haphazard with deathly drops back down and either side. It was tiring in the hot afternoon desert sun but good fun all the same. We met some evil monkeys on the way up who bared their teeth at us and looked pretty menacing but some indian boys threw some stones at them and we were all good, apparently it was a fun game! At the top the views were stunning! You could see for absolutely miles over the desert and really saw how small Pushkar actually was. There was a few nice wicker chairs to sit on, literally on the mountains edge so we took it easy and got some cold drinks (a pepsi and highly appropriate and expired mountain dew!) We met a nice american man in the temple who had sadly lost his wife to cancer but was taking their round world trip anyway and scattering her ashes in amazing places. So far at the Taj Mahal and now in the lake. We spoke for a while about anything from American Politics to Thai Brides before heading back down the mountain. When
Desert Scrub
On way back from Shiva temple on Raju's bike we got down we headed for the lake and down the bathing stairs in the bathing ghats. We put flowers in the water and wished good luck for friends and family, it was a nice peaceful place. Signs informed us that photography was not allowed so we respected that! Had dinner on the roof of the hotel again - a nice safe Pizza with some travellers we'd met the previous night from Sao Paulo and Bilbao which was nice before turning in early - a long but nice day and the sickness seemed a distant memory!
The next day we headed to the post office to send a few things we'd picked up home, it was horribly expensive! But so long as it gets there I suppose and maybe it would have been cheaper from a bigger place not so out in the desert! Raju (the hotel owner) had suggested we go to the Shiva temple about 9km out of town and offered to take us on his bike. It was really good fun and amazingly the first time I'd been on one, we all squeezed on ok and headed out down a dusty desert road with some green
Wedding - The Groom
There are men at the front in suits with brass and drums and beautiful women in saris behind fields on the left growing beautiful flowers which seemed odd and desert scrubland on the right. There was the odd farm and little children would run out smiling and waving shouting DA DA! (goodbye to me and you). We eventually cut in and headed into a small crack in the hills which was nice and cool in the shade. We stopped just infront of a collection of small stone buildings with a mountain stream running from a spring going through the middle. Raju greeted and chatted with an old turbaned man whilst me and katie looked around. There were more evil monkeys who watched our every move.. The sky was the deepest blue I think I've ever seen which created a cool contrast against the golden hills. Raju took us into one of the small stone buildings and down a tiny low set of stairs into the rock, only maybe 10 deep. At the bottom was a small round cave with a ceiling so low you had no choice but to sit. This was the Shiva Temple! We had been given a coconut each and 2 sticks of insense. There was a carving of Shiva on the floor and one
Other hill top temple
The swastika is everywhere in India - its a peaceful Hindu symbol and was so ages before the Nazis nicked it and ruined its connotations forever! of the elephant headed Ganesh in the wall. We placed our coconuts on the floor (for luck) and lit the insense. Raju said now we just sat and prayed for one minute, which he did. Didn't really know what about or who to pray to so I just sat with a kind of amazed smile in the dark looking around! After this we went up and the turbaned man was making fresh Chai tea on the fire whilst having a smoke. Raju said he was an old friend as he'd been coming to this temple since he was 12 - now 29. It had been pretty cool and very Indian! When we got back I had a nice warm shower and we went to a nice restaurant overlooking the lake. I had hummas, falafel and chips! Wedding music could be heard allover town and fireworks occasionally popped up! It was a nice setting to end another good day in Pushkar.
Today we sorted an overnight sleeper bus for the 10 hour trip to Bikaner for tonight (in 2 hours or so). Its going to be a shame to leave but we need to crack on. We headed up another
(slightly smaller) mountain to a tiny temple which was very tiring as the sun was soo hot today although the views were again great! Theres got to be at least 3 weddings going on in town at the moment, theyre everywhere in the streets! We had been reccommended two books by some other nice travellers at the hotel; Are you Experienced? - A book about travellers who come to India, which supposedly every traveller to India can relate too! and Shantaram - A book about an australian convict who escapes and sets up an amazing new life in Mumbai! We hunted them down in the bazaar and used our best haggling skills (we're getting damn good now) to get them really cheap. Katie's reading Are you Experienced and I'm reading Shantaram, we found a nice spot on the rooftop and theyre both really gripping us so far. Shantarams first chapter is amazingly good at summing up exactly how I felt at first in India! Now we're just catching up on some Internet etc before our bus to Bikaner! I've put some pics up on the last blog too now if you're interested. Miss you all, Speak soon!
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