Not so pushy Pushkar

Pushkar, allegedly sprung up from a lotus flower that Brahma dropped here. It is an important destination for Hindus, where they come to visit one of the world’s few Brahaman temples and bathe in the holy waters of the lake.

Despite the magical description, we arrived prepared to deal with scam artists. We had heard a few too many stories about the “priests” that lure tourists down to the lake to make a holy offering and then try to charge them a fortune for the deed. We arrived by train after dark and sharing a taxi with a British couple that we met on the train, saw our first car accident in India. I don’t know how we haven’t seen or been in one up to this point. After paying a mandatory “tourist tax” to a rather unofficial looking man (probably the taxi driver’s cousin) that was stationed at an equally unofficial looking card table at the side of the main road we arrived at Hotel New Park.

At the hotel restaurant we ordered a homesick meal of spaghetti (the town is entirely meat and egg-free) and a Kingfisher beer to wash it down with. We later found out that the town is also “alcohol-free” which is obviously a technicality since our beer arrived wrapped in a newspaper with instructions to drink it in our room- I guess Brahma won’t find out that way. Oh yeah, by the way, Indians do Indian food much better than they do Italian… we should’ve known.

The next morning it was time to make the small trek into town. We were pleasantly surprised at the number of people that said hello to us without trying to sell us on something or another. The main street of town is really like a giant bazaar which winds its way around part of the lake. You wouldn’t even know there is a lake there if it wasn’t for the occasional break in the buildings allowing for the gates that lead down to the ghats (bathing areas). We chose not to visit the main ghats, as we were a little unfamiliar with the expected code of conduct and because it seemed a little voyeuristic to go watch other people bathing as part of a holy ritual. Instead, we found a great café on the other side of the lake where we could check out the rituals at a respectable distance. Our day only got lazier as we walked the rest of the way around the lake and found a nice sunny spot to sit and soak in the atmosphere. We met a chatty little girl selling anklets on the shore. She had a quick visit and showed us her impressive printing skills on the back of a postcard that we had given her. Before moving on, she peeled the sparkly bindi off her forehead and carefully stuck it on mine, leaning back to admire her work.

Amongst the faithful that flock to Pushkar, there are also a large number of resident hippies. It was almost like 80% of the residents of Hornby Island had been transplanted into this little town in the middle of Rajasthan. Later that evening we were to find more Hornby-isms as we were offered Bhang (hash) Lassi’s during our stroll to dinner. I wondered if they too were served in a paper bag to be consumed away from the watchful gaze of Brahma.

The next day saw us breaking a sweat as we climbed a nearby “mountain” to the temple of Brahma’s angry wife Savitri (For details on the Brahma drama click here). The temple was a little anticlimactic but the views were great. Dodging monkeys on the way down, we found an interesting way home through a very poor village with some happy kids to talk with. While we tend to remember the good aspects of the journey, we are often reminded of the realities of life in this region. Today, a few dead animals on the side of the road had become dinner for the hungry dog population including one of their own.

On that pleasant note… time to move on! Jodhpur, we come!