Tuesday 18 November 2008

Pushkar!


One of the most recent trips I have undertaken was the journey to Pushkar, a cozy little town in the centre of Rajasthan, a state in the West of India which is mainly covered by desert. The whole trip started off rather typically since the train departed at six am and we were still drinking local beer the previous night at 2 am.. Reason for this was an unexpected visit of two British friends of ours. Of course we ran out of time early in the morning as Johan and I rushed through the main gate of the train station straight into our train that was about to depart.

The stay in Pushkar was great, as a camel fair was being organized during that very period (actually our reason for going there in the first place) and we got to see 25.000 camels crowded together on a few patches of desert. The town itself is worth visiting as well, as it is considered as sacred by the Hindu religion there are about five hundred temples in and around the place. A lake is located at the very hearth of the city and one would almost feel like being in the India of one thousand years ago whilst overlooking the sunset at the roof of a temple.



On Sunday we rented two motorbikes so that we could explore the surrounding countryside a bit. Unlucky as we were to get a flat tire ten kilometers out of town, we were fortunate enough to end up at a repair shop a mere two hundred meters from the place of getting stuck in the first place. And so we ended up in this cozy little village with hospital sweet people offering us tea whilst the guy took his time to put a new inner tire on my motorbike. All in all we greatly enjoyed the two hours we were stuck there, as the children were really sweet (picture) and we got to explore the settings of their dwellings.

Back in Pushkar we had the best time with the most random activities, as we were dancing on the street along with various processions and helping out shopkeepers to sell their stuff to random passers-by. The train journey back to Delhi overnight and the fact that I had to go straight to work from the train station made the impact of the journey last a bit longer physically than planned, but that was all worth it!

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