Peaceful times in Pushkar

After spending some relaxing days by the lake in Udaipur we moved on to the hippie hotspot of Pushkar. It is considered a very holy city for Hindu’s given its location around a holy lake. The lake is where they scattered Ghandi’s ashes, the town is even dry (although they still sneak beer to foreigners) and they don’t even serve eggs anywhere….. I am not sure why this is holy but I will try and find out.

Beyond just seeing the 52 Ghats that surround the holy lake, we were really excited to visit Pushkar because it supposed to have a very relaxed, chill atmosphere and in that way in definitely did not disappoint.

Once we arrived we started to stroll down the main street of the town, which is essentially one giant, never-ending street bazaar supplemented with cafes and temples. Soooo many temples. The city really has a vibe all its own, really tough to describe but high on my recommendation list of places to see in India.

Camel parking lot in front of our hotel

Amazing colours in the market

Strolling through the market

Fresh juice man, which we still have not tried

Unfortunately it is also where we experienced our only truly off-putting experience so far in India. The city is a pilgrimage for most Hindus so as foreigners we try and be extremely respectful of how to act and behave especially around the Ghats on the lake but of course the scum that exist in every city around the world have found a way to make a scam preying on this very thing. And even though we knew about the scam and saw it coming a mile away, Jonny and I still got sucked in.

Essentially the way it works is as you are walking down the main street someone will shove fresh flowers into your hand, even when you refuse. He tells you not to pay, but just to go put it in the lake as a sign of respect. So you carry it around for a while, not really sure what to do and then someone approaches you near the ghat and tells you it’s disrespectful to carry the flower through the market and leads you down to the lake, all the while telling you they are a holy man and then they break into this routine around doing a holy ritual with you – separate you of course – and then start the ritual which ends with the fact that everyone has to donate after the ritual. Rather than put your money in the actual donation box at the top of the temple…… you must put in on this plate in front of them to finish the ritual. And to top it off they tell you it is more respectful to donate in your own currency of dollars. Needless to say I was not pleased at the way that they prey on people’s attempt to learn and be respectful of the religion to make a buck for themselves and they take donations away from the actual place that needs it. So we basically gave them nothing so they would go away and I told them they have no soul. Even with this experience, it did not dampen our time in Pushkar. We strolled a little further around the lake and found a quiet, more authentic holy spot to sit down and do some of our own reflection.

A more relaxing section of the Ghats

Jonny doing some reflection

52 Ghats surround this lake

After some quiet reflection on the lake we grabbed dinner at a place called Little Italy…our first non-Indian meal in two weeks. The place was great, and even grows all their own produce and basil right there on the backyard of the restaurant. It was so good in fact we went back the next night again.

The next morning we did a little more personal reflection only this time in was in the form of an early morning yoga session with a well-known local instructor who owns some fairly secluded farmland for his studio just minutes outside the city.  I actually can’t believe that it was almost two weeks before we got into any yoga in India, but it was worth the wait, because it was a great 1.5 hour class that we repeated again the next day. Afterwards we headed back into the town to stroll, we grabbed some real coffee, exchanged our books, chatted with some other travels and had a fantastic lunch at this hidden gem called Sixth Sense – the roof top restaurant on top of a small guesthouse called Seventh dream. This place had so much charm we choose to hang out there for a few hours reading. Bonus – they even wash their veggies in mineral water so we were able to have a salad for once!! A real treat!  After our afternoon relaxing on the rooftop we headed back to our hotel for a little siesta to get ready for a sunset climb we had planned.

Jonny relaxing at sixth sense

Amazing entrance way at sixth sens

To catch the sunset, and some unreal views of the city we hiked the 1100 steps up a mountain side to the Saraswaki temple, fighting our way through some less than friendly monkey’s along the way. It was totally worth the climb. We spent about an hour at the top taking in the views, chatting with other travellers and locals alike. When there was just enough light to get us to the bottom, we made the trek down and called it a night to rest up for our second round of yoga!

The not so happy monkey on the trail

Curious baby monkey

They all turned to stare at us as we walked away

Taking in the sunset

looking down on Pushkar

Jonny gazing down on the city

Namaste

OOO_Talia