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Published: January 18th 2009
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Oh, how sweet it is.
We love Pushkar.
With a slower pace than most places we have been, it gave us a perfect place to just chill out.
And you know how much we love to do that.
Some highlights (there are SO many);
The city is set upon the seriously sacred lake where even Gandhis ashes were spread. Its a very peaceful and serene place to just sit and absorb the atmosphere. There are bathing ghats. like in Varanasi, and many holy cows wandering and plopping about the place.
There are Brahman priests trying to trick us into giving them outrageous donations for doing PUJA (prayers and wishes) on us. We said no, that we didnt want their pujas and they got seriously mad at us and it scared us a little. Though we didnt take them all too seriously either, they are just sort of con artists trying to exploit the magical and holy lake and their god too, I might add.
Jasmine and I did an afternoon of Bollywood dance lessons. Video provided. You have my permission to give us a standing ovation. It was the most fun Ive had on this trip so far and
You do NOT
want to run into a gang of street cows at night. I am desperately seeking out more dance studios along the way to continue my new found passion.
The shopping in this place is unreal and Jasmine and I should NOT be let alone wandering the streets here. But with Guillaume back at the hotel with some sort of Indian Influenza (poor guy)...Jasmine and I were free to roam and get stuck for hours on end in some clothing warehouses trying on anything in sight.
Also, with the sacredness of the city there is a total ban on alcohol..and MEAT! You got it, totally meat free city and it is so cool (for me!).
The food has actually been great. Lots of surprisingly good western food. Falafels, hummus, pizzas and actual homemade pastas! We have had fun eating here.
The no-alcohol point seems to be a tricky one here. We have noticed a LARGE amount of people here acting very strangely. And we sort of came to the conclusion that with the absence of alcohol comes the high intake of other things, probably mostly Bhang (derivative of marijuana).
Guillaume, once recovered from his little illness, and I took a walk one afternoon and had just TOO many run-ins
Um
Cant tell if you like the chai or hate it, Jas. and incidents with incredibly strange people. Not forgetting to mention the sadhus walking around with a cow in tow who just so happened to be growing a FIFTH leg out of the side of his belly (which someone strangely painted PINK). Hmmm...and they were asking for donations (not so strange).
Speaking of strange people...I should not forget to mention the PEDICURE FROM HELL that Jasmine and I endured a few days ago. Filled with pain (oh so much pain), confusion, and a coat of nail polish that looked like it was licked on by a street cow with five legs. The pedicurist was unsure about the pedicure, hesitating after every few minutes and staring into space (perhaps as if trying to remember what his imaginary friend, the pedicurist, told him to do).
One thing that he wasn't unsure of...my state of health.
After the pedicure he decided to give me a health analysis, free of charge...gee whiz, lucky me.
He grabbed my head and started squeezing, all the while panting and grunting. After five minutes, threw his hands down, stared me in the eyes and screamed
"THREE MONTHS, NO BANANAS!"
He claimed that my stomach was hot and that
Powdered paint
Apparently you can do ANYTHING with this stuff. bananas were so bad for me. He was begging and pleading with me to promise him that I wouldn't eat bananas.
I said that I couldn't promise anything. We paid, and got the hell out of there.
Ahem.
Next point of interest...our guesthouse! Its amazing. I splurged ($10) for the Maharaja room (literally meaning...the KINGS room) hoping that Guillaume would recover quicker ( I think it worked). It's very nice and comfortable. The guesthouse is run by a very nice family with a puppy. There is a rooftop with green grass and hammocks, giving plenty of sunshine in the afternoon and a perfect place to read a book. You can imagine just how great it is.
Today we went on a little trip to Ajmer, a city only about thirty minutes from here by bus. It's famous for its Muslim pilgrimage sight called Dargah which is the tomb of a very important saint.
The street leading up to the tomb has got a market feel to it. Lots of action, lots of things to buy and , sadly, so many beggars. Disfigured, starving and mentally unstable, it was very sad to see. It always seems to be like that,
Temple
that we were only allowed to look at through the entry gate. the less fortunate come to beg at all of the very important religious sights in India. So, it was a bit overwhelming making our way to the entrance.
Once inside it was very hard to understand what we were supposed to do there. It seemed to be just a hang out for Muslims and i DID NOT feel like I fit in very well. Until we noticed that we could actually go INSIDE the room with the tomb in it. It was SO packed with people, stuffy and the floor was absolutely and completely covered with rose petals. It was very moving to see all the people coming in with giant plates covered with roses, fighting their way through the crowds of people, and once in, just throwing the flowers all over the actual tomb. And on the way out you get hit in the head a few times by a priest holding a large bouqet of peacock feathers. We then realized that it was the atmosphere that were supposed to soak up there, and we did. It was great.
After meeting some very nice people here, and once again, getting way too comfortable here, we will have to leave.
YUM!
Its about time that I get a grilled vegetable sandwich on a deliciously hearty brown bread! Heading further south (one day we WILL make it to the beach.!!).
Jasmine will make a break from us, temporarily, and head south in a dash. She is desperately trying to get her feet into some sand (apparently the desert sand just doesn't cut it!) and we will make our way there slowly. There are a lot of places that we want to dilly dally in on our way to the beach.
So that's that.
Next stop....Udaipur. Home to the James Bond movie..Octopussy. Maybe I should get around to seeing one of those movies one day.
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cjperry
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Standing Ovation
Standing Ovation...you got it, girl! Each time I see this video, I have to clap and smile. Are you sure you only had one lesson??