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Published: February 8th 2006
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Pushkar
Our hotel room, perched on the edge of the lake. Hello everyone.
Well the last few days have been just grand. Our stay with the Maheshwari's was wonderful, and after getting a firm grasp on the (partially skewed) rules of cricket from eight year old Akosh, and having our palms read by his father Alok in Jaipur, we headed on to Pushkar.
First, our palms: Apparently I (Keif) will have a long life, become a great scientist and inventor, and will only have one wife and one child. Blythe will be the money maker with a very good job and will only have one husband and also only one child. However (here's the disclaimer) only 7% of these predictions come true, the rest relies on environmental factors, so who knows what's to come.
In Pushkar we enjoyed the beautiful holy lake from our hotel perched on the lake edge with spectacular 360 degree views. Pushkar is a laid back (hippie-esque) town of only 14,000 people. The lake is a holy Hindu site - Pushkar is very significant for its relation to
Brahma, one of the gods, who is only worshipped at a temple in town (temples devoted to him aren't found anywhere else in India or the world for
The Ghats
Pilgrims bathing in Pushkar Lake. that matter). At six o'clock every morning a man rings a bell and calls everyone to prayer on the ghats (stairs leading into the water) where the participants ritually cleanse themselves with the holy water. Pushkar is also known for the famous camel fair that happens once a year and the towns population explodes to more then 200,000. Wow!
We took the night bus from Pushkar to Udaipur, a seven hour journey which was uncomfortably overbooked. I spent the night crammed on the hump of the back seat meant for five people, but somehow there were six tickets sold. I couldn't really stretch my legs due to the person sleeping on the floor in front of me. This was not too bad until the large man next to me started leaning against me and resting his head on my shoulder. This compounded with the fact that Indian roads are notoriously dangerous and the MIGHT means RIGHT mentality meant that all night our bus was honking its unbelievably annoying horn and swerving back and forth passing the slower vehicles. Needless to say we didn't sleep much that night.
Udaipur is a beautiful town situated next to Lake Pichola and
Kites of Jaipur
A sky full of kites with construction workers working on a new building. Fatch Sagar (a second lake) and has scrub desert hills surrounding the town, it's known as the most romantic city in Rajasthan. The lakes islands each house various islands palaces, parks, fountains and observatories. The infamous Lake Palace is situated in the middle of Lake Pichola and not only serves high class citizens such as James Bond (This palace was used in the filming of the movie Octapussie), but we heard that Chelsea Clinton was here just a few days before we arrived. Although it was a little too expensive for our budget (900 rupees or about 22 bucks for high tea!), it was still quite magnificent to view from the shore. The hills surrounding the town have beautiful 1000 year old temples and the crumbling Monsoon Palace, a magnificent (although unfinished) structure perched on the side of a cliff over looking the town. The town is famous for its Rajastani style miniature paintings, which are amazingly small paintings with meticulous detail depicting various Maharajas, Hindu legends, or various animals.
The City Palace, perched on top of a hill in the center of town is amazing. The rooms within the palace are immaculately decorated and each uniquely designed, with
Dodging Traffic
While traffic in LA or Seattle might be bad it's nothing compared to trusting a bicycle rickshaw driver while in Jaipur. paintings, glass inlay, open court yards etc. It's difficult to imagine this place when there were Maharaja’s in power. However it was sad to see this beautiful place deteriorating before our eyes. While was still very spectacular the paintings weren’t sealed from the moisture in the air and the paint was chipping and falling off on the murals, much of the glass inlay work had fallen off, etc. Of course the open air design of the palace didn't help any of these factors either. While this is disturbing, I guess this is India, so many civilizations have come and gone through the ages that unless some how things are sealed from the elements in another thousand years maybe only the stone carvings will survive like in so many other ancient civilizations.
While in Udaipur we met up with another SERVAS host family, the Mehta’s, we were planning on spending only two days in Udaipur, but ended up spending four due to the Mehta’s hospitality and enthusiasm. Blythe will write more about our time with the Mehta’s on another entry. I am just on detail duty and that's about all from Udaipur.
Enjoy the pictures!
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The Dean's
non-member comment
February 8, 2006
We are thoroughly enjoying your funny, interesting, and well written entries. Great pictures!! So glad your mom sent us the link!! Continue enjoying yourselves!!