Poop Train to Pushkar

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It was an early morning as we left for the train station at 5:15am. Danesh had to wake up the hotel employee in order to unlock the door for us to leave the hotel. It was a quick 15 minute rickshaw ride to the train station and then we waited about 40 minutes until our train left.



It was pretty empty at the station due to the time I believe but we wanted something warm to drink while we waited. There was a man selling masala chai (Indian Spice Tea) and he kept repeating “You want Masala Chai” in a VERY loud and strange voice. It has stayed with us the remainder of the week as an inside joke. I also got some Parle G cookies that I have fallen in love with here, too bad they are only sold in India. I may have to stock up on some before heading back to China.



The train was to be 6 hours long on two “padded” benches with about a 90 degree back on them. What I remember most on the train is looking out the window and seeing over 20 boys and grown men pooping along the tracks. I never saw a woman so it must be a male thing, but not something I wanted to see let along it being so early. This is where the blog title “Poop Train to Pushkar” came from and why India is so hard on the senses for me. Our train arrived in Ajmer on time and then we got into a Jeep with no doors that took us over the mountain pass to Pushkar.



Pushkar is a holy city for the Hindu religion and also known to have lots of Indian and Foreign Hippies. It seems quite strange to hear but we witnessed it for sure, lots of people with dreads, piercings and hanging out at the cafes drinking and eating the “Special whatever”. We were advised about anything that said “Special” in front of the item meant it was served with marijuana mixed into the food or drink. Needless to say we didn’t participate in any of these activities.



There isn’t much to do in Pushkar except participate in the Hindu Pooja ceremony, visiting the only Brahma Temple in the world, hiking up the mountain and shopping. I did forget you can go on a camel ride but we had already done that in Jaisalmer so we didn’t feel the need to do it again. We did a little of all of these as we spent a day and a half in Pushkar which I felt was plenty of time, especially since our hotel had lots of power outages and they charged double for WiFi compared to the rest of the places we stayed so we opted not to pay their prices.



You can see the photos from our Pooja ceremony. The bracelet we received during the ceremony is called your Pushkar passport as there are many touts that will hassle you in this town for money, but if they see your bracelet they were supposed to leave you alone. For the most part it worked I think but still people are always hassling you in India for money, which becomes quite tiring while traveling in the country for 3 weeks.



We hiked up the mountain the next morning to see a view of the city and to get some exercise as we haven’t felt like we are working off all amazing food we have been consuming. I put my negotiating skills to work to get a deal on some gifts and Pete also bought a cotton shirt that he had them tailor into a short sleeved shirt instead of long sleeved. Pete and I also both started to feel sick to our stomachs while in Pushkar but can’t pinpoint what it was from but think it was the hot chocolate and coffee from our hotel restaurant. I never got physically ill but wished I had as I think I would have felt better. We each took Cipro 3 times and have felt better ever since.



We also got to have dinner at a local family’s home. The husband/father played a major role in bringing tourism to Pushkar and that was his connection to Intrepid travel. The downside of the family dinner was they didn’t speak English so our guide had to translate everything, we sat on the rooftop in the cold weather to eat and Pete and I weren’t feeling well so we couldn’t enjoy the food.



I guess the real draw to Pushkar for the hippies is they mediate and practice yoga there but I didn’t find it a place that I would ever need to return to. I enjoy yoga but didn’t feel well enough during my time there to participate in any class.



I think the best thing about Pushkar was that we really started to slow down on our trip. We had more relaxing time which was greatly needed plus we knew we had 2.5 weeks of travel left on our trip so we needed to take care of our bodies.



Stayed 2 nights: Hotel Kishan Palace

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