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Published: June 18th 2010
India 2009 130
Shopping in PushkarWe arrived in Pushkar after a long but entertaining bus journey. We munched breakfast on board and watched more and more people pack onto bus. Everytime I thought it was absolutely full, another person appeared to fill the square few cm of free space. We stopped several times on route and wherever we did people lifted gorgeous smelling deep fried snacks up at the windows, very tempting!!!
We arrived late afternoon and walked down a track to our hotel which was by far the nicest one we had stayed in, with a warm shoulder too! Papi had even brought a pepsi bottle full of rum for Rum n' coke! Brilliant! We showered then headed out into Pushkar. Pushkar has a very chilled out atmosphere and obviously caters for tourists, evident from the multiple establishments serving westernised food including banana and chocolate pancakes and french fries! For some our group this was a welcome break but for myself, I must say I still had not reached my limit on proper Indian food and so avoided the temptations!
Pushkar itself has a reputation for being a hippy 'hot spot'. We came across some Germans tourists who although were dressed in the
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Brahma Temple, Pushkar requisite velvety trousers and tie-dye seemed rather stressed and decidedly uncool about the seating arrangements on the bus, they made a point of wanting to sit in the front so we moved and let them but then got annoyed when the front became more crowded than the back! No pleasing some folks! Well I hope they got to chill out a bit in reaching Pushkar, we never saw them again around the town.
One big itch that Pushkar satisfied was the urge to shop! There were loads of beautiful clothes, scarves, bags, shoes and bangles for sale. There were many stalls selling incense as well, absolutely gorgeous smells which were priced according to how popular they are. I bought 2 types, one called Cobra which Papi identified for us after we smelt at one of temples, it is divine! There were even bookshops and postcards for sale which surprised us as we've not seen any yet.
We had an explore of one of the only Brahma temples in India, walked around the holy lake and watched the sunset from a lovely restaurant on the shore. This was the place we felt most relaxed in. We stayed having a
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Ghats at Pushkar holy lake few cheeky drinks and chatting until quite late listening to the water lapping. Everyone was calm and happy and it felt great as the stars seemed to multiple every few minutes that we watched the sky.
We walked back through the streets stopping to buy a few essentials, only in India could you by Timotei shower gel (now essential to make the most of the magnificently luxourious shower facilities!) from a guy with one leg in the middle of the night! We went back, enjoyed a splash of rum on our balcony, Papi also treated us to some jazz on his laptop! Quality day in Pushkar.
Next morning, following a breakfast of toast, marmalade and fruit, the two Aussie girls and I (the hardcore shopping brigade) decided to spend the morning trying to find the stalls where we had seen things again the day before! We bought some lovely silk scarves after looking at perhaps every single one in the shop, much to the delight of the shop owner. We also tried on loads of clothes and bought some lovely loose fitting stuff which we hoped would help us 'blend' in a bit more. We had arranged to
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Temple Detail, Pushkar meet the other at a garden restaurant in town for lunch as they seen some sort of special bird at breakfast and decided to go bird-watching. We met and had a lovely lunch although the sun was beating down so hard we were burning our skin as we ate. I had some lovely curried balls of veggies which were delicious and a very large cold drink.
We ended up back at the lake were Papi told us about the various ghats and ceremonies which go on here. The group declined a 'puja' ceremony offered to us (which I was quite up for actually) on the grounds that it cost money and 'didn't mean anything to us'. Oh well, would quite liked to have learnt more but instead we found ourselves back in our favourite restaurant at the lakeside.
Overall I loved Pushkar, the chilled spiritual ambience focussed around the lake and the fresh, vibrant colours of this bustling lakeside town will stay with me on the rest of the trip. We're off to Udaipur next, can't wait!
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Heather
non-member comment
I LOVED your Pushkar photos and post! I have actually been thinking of featuring the city as a "destination of the week" on my community blog, if there's anything you'd like to contribute. We're always looking for travel photos, reviews (like maybe of that lakeside restaurant?!), etc. If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email us at dirtyhippiesblog@gmail.com. Continued fun on your travels! Heather :)