Sleeping on the streets of Pushkar

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Rushing through Mughal Sarai station we just made our train to Ajmer where we would hopefully get a bus or tuk tuk onto Pushkar.

Finally prepared for a train journey I feel we enjoyed it a bit more and even took the trecherous step towards train food (best to buy it on a train with a diner car served from train uniform wearing official food sellers). This journey wasn't as friendly as the first, and no one in our carriage spoke English. We got on the train at 10am and got off at 3am.

Yet again we hadn't booked our onward journey and just hoped that because Ajmer was the last stop on the train that there would be buses or something willing to take us to Pushkar.

Arriving exhausted in a busy train station when you have no idea where you are going is never enjoyable so headed straight for the tuk tuk and tax drivers. After half an hours bartering we finally persuaded a tuk tuk to take all three of us plus lugage on the 45mins uphill journey to Pushkar.

The drive did not start well as within 10mins of driving I had to get out of the tuk tuk and run alongside it as it tried to make it up a hill. A few false starts later we were finally on track again, as it started to rain. Visions of us being stranded in the rain as the tuk tuk can't make it up the rain drenched mountains began to plague my thoughts.

Fortunately at 3.30am we made it to Pushkar, where the tuk tuk driver dropped us off on the outside of the towns boundaries. Suddenly the previously light rain comes down in absolute buckets. The potholes start filling up and my Lonely Planet stolen map starts to break away in my hand.

Following signs to our guest house - Milkman became fruitless as they just kept taking us back to the same place, and an hour on we still weren't even in the right part of the town. As the streets became more and more flooded we set up a base camp in a doorway while Jamie went to investigate the Milkman's whereabouts. By 4.30am we had still not found Milkman so we decided that our best course of action would be to wait till light in the comfort of basecamp - the doorway to a photo shop.

After a two hour snooze (Jamie and Olivia slept whilst I sipped on a bag of Chai and attempted to take pictures of the river running down the street and the three cows on the opposite side of the street attempting to shield themselves from the rain in a shops 'awning'😉 we arose with the sun and set off yet again to find the Milkman.

Sure enough, in the light it was much easier to find the elusive guest house and the moment we were encases in our double bed bunk bed we had a quick kip to recover from our earlier street nap.

Today we are going to explore Pushkar and wander around the lake to see all the other tens of ghats!

Love

Chatty, Jamie and Olivia xx

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