Pushkar, Rajasthan

Countryside around Pushkar

No meat (but delicious replacements!), no eggs (but still pancakes for breakfast!), no alcohol (but everywhere bhanglassi!), no kissing (but having a private room!): welcome to holytown Pushkar. Being now used to Indians being mainly vegetarian but still using egg in many ways, following those easy Pushkar-rules is almost like being home again.

 

As we arrived to the busstation we were slightly disorientated without having a map. So we walked towards the lake, central point of Pushkar and by lucky chance ended up in Seventh Sea Guest House. Our hotel is slightly odd; it's the cheapest place we ever stayed (2€ per day) and we have a nice room with hot water & TV on 'our own' second floor. They have a restaurant but we've never seen anyone in there. There's seven rooms to let but we've only once seen (one) another tenant.  Most of the time we seem to be the only people in hotels premises.

Pushkar is not only one of the most holy Hindu pilgrimage sites (the only Brahma temple in India is here) but also famous for something lot more earthly - shopping. The streets around the lake are full of small shacks selling all kinds of Rajasthani handicrafts, tailors, jewellers and as we are living 21st century also plastic kitch items (mostly themed around Hindu gods) have reclaimed their space. We, not unsensitive for all those bright colorful crazy items, also finally bought some nice clothes to take or send home. 

 

Ghats

Pushkar is concentrated around the holy lake surrounded by ghats. As it is religious ground you are not allowed to photograph worshippers or wear shoes nearby it. This is kinda hard as stone ghats are boiling hot under desert sun.

 

Holi colours

Ritual-evening before Holi

Last couple of days there has been Holi Festival - a spring harvest welcoming. Or more commonly known as festival of colours.

 "after the party"

Bundi, Rajasthan

This time the nighttrain was nicely empty. We shared our 6-person area with only an older Indian couple that immediately offered us food; a sort of small pancakes with spicy cooked potato-pieces. The woman, chubby, loud and traditionally dressed in sari, clearly liked talking to us. After a while she layed down to sleep on the small bed, her scarf that normally covered breast and belly dropped off, shockingly reveiling an enormous amount of meat we wished we wouldn't have seen. A little uneasy with this halfnude personification of Gaia herself in front of us (everybody knows those beautiful round sculptures of mother earth), we also made our beds ready to hop in. Only once woken by conductor checking our tickets and dreaming/waking with visions of a very loudly snoring hippo with a red bindi between the eyes, we arrived in the morning to a warm and sunny Bundi.

Roadworks in progress

Bundi is a layed back, small town where time seems to stand still. Surrounded by hills and a beautiful fairytale-like fort and palace up in the air on a hill. We arrived early to R.N. Haveli and woke our new landlady from sleeping on her sofa. She is a sweet grandma, living together with her daughter and grandchildren in an enormous Havelihouse with very nice rooms. 

We walked up to the dusty Taragarh Fort, a steep rocky climb at first but once up the hill it's very nice to explore through ramparts and ruins of carved rock. We both had to carry a walkingstick to scare monkeys in case they would attack. 

A loyal stray dog kept us company the whole way, which made me feel like real wanderers! 

 Bundi as seen from the Fort

After having spend a few hours up there, we were so hot and dizzy that we walked down for fresh water, an icecold popsicle and for Jaakko a refreshing lassi (yoghurtdrink usually mixed with fruit,  spices, mintleafs or other 'special' green flowers).   

Bundi Palace

The next day we visisted the Bundi Palace and Chitrasala, the ladiesarea of the palace; a courtyard looking out over the whole town with it's lightblue painted houses and rooms with nice traditional (gold-)paintings and colored glass.

 Gold painting

 Bundi as seen from ladies courtyard

At saturdaymorning we took an early local bus that would bring us, after 5 hot and bumpy hours, via Ajmer to Pushkar.