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Published: March 26th 2006
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I caught a bus to Ajmer at lunchtime. I had actually hoped to never take another bus journey in India, but the train connections to Ajmer are hopeless so I didn't have much of a choice. I'd been told that the bus was A/C, but that proved to not be the case. Strangely for buses here, it was never more than about three-quarters full.
The reservation system had allocated me a seat next to an old chap who was on a husband-hunting expedition for his 30 year old (i.e. on the shelf, by Indian standards) daughter. He had unearthed a good prospect via a marital agency - a doctor working in Ajmer, who he was on his way to grill. Unfortunately this potential husband was originally from Hyderabad, so my neighbour was then going to journey all the way down to Hyderabad to see if there were any skeletons in this doctor's closet, e.g. previous wives, a criminal record, etc.
Despite no obvious delays, the bus arrived nearly 2 hours late in Ajmer. I was the only foreigner, so the waiting crowd of auto/taxi men all converged on me. I couldn't be bothered with the cheapest way to Pushkar (i.e. taking an auto to the bus stand then catching a Pushkar bus), so I attempted to play everyone off against each other to obtain the best price for a direct trip to Pushkar. I did get a reasonable price, but the journey involved changing to a different auto part way through, having the driver pick up one of his mates, having the driver attempt to find other customers for the trip (who would all have been subsidised by me), locating and driving through every pothole between Pushkar and Ajmer, and finally driving around aimlessly on the outskirts of Pushkar until the driver admitted he had no idea where the hotel was (though not before trying to convince me to check into a hotel that happened to be yards away from where he ended up parking). It then turned out that autos weren't allowed into the part of town where my hotel was anyway, so I ended up walking the last few hundred yards.
Despite having booked the room at one price over the phone, the hotel tried to tell me it was more expensive but I expressed my disappointment at this and they reverted to the price I'd been promised. There are 2 scheduled power cuts per day here, but the hotel seems good otherwise. The restaurant looks out onto the lake (not visible at this time of the evening but you could see lights on the ghats on the opposite side). It seems as though Pushkar is dry, so my craving for a beer was left unsatisfied.
In keeping with the generally poorer weather I've been experiencing recently, there was a small thunderstorm and then (possibly related) several short power cuts. In between the power cuts, I was able to confirm online that getting to Agra from here will be nigh on impossible by train, so a long bus trip beckons. That will definitely be the last one I ever take in India, which is a promise I'm making to my legs.
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