Pushkar: The Holy City

Before we move on I need to write about two hilarious signs I saw in Jaisalmer (the desert fort)

1) You don't need Viagra, this is a magic bed sheet

2) Make your boyfriend look less ugly (in this mans outfit)

The second thing I forgot in my Jaisalmer post was that on the way to the sunset on the dunes we saw some deer in the desert. On the way back we passed a boatload of peacocks. It was neat to see them chillin in the desert as the only other time I've seen them is on display as extra special creatures in the zoo. It is neat to continually take my "normal" and have it flipped around by another part if the world's "normal". A rare and special bird for me is an every day occurrence in many parts of India. After all, as Teresa taught me, it is India's national bird.

We left jodhpur for Pushkar, one of the holiest cities in either this province of Rajasthan or in all of India. I can't remember. The key here is: it's holy.

It is a small town where everything is walkable, although from our hotel to one of the temples would likely have been 20-30 minutes. Still walkable. Our only mission at this point was to explore and see as many of the temples as possible. On the last day I was at school my colleague, John Terpstra, asked me to get pictures of me in front of as many temples as possible. That task began today. We saw a monkey temple and a Sikh temple. We went to the lake in town which is a holy place for Hindus. Theyll bathe in the lake or seek out holy men for prayer blessings or visit little shrines that are scattered around the lake. There's chantings, offerings, prayers and reflections. It was interesting to observe. It is said that a holy man could offer to pray for you and/or bless you. After he does he'll ask for money...and not just 50 or 100 rupees...it has been said they ask for hundreds of dollars. And if you don't pay they make a scene and if you still insist on not paying they'll tell you curses will fall on you and your family. Note: always be aware when travelling.

While there I directly observed/heard: chanting, people going to special temple coves to prayers and singing, saw people throw lotus flowers in the lake, saw a man about my age come down the stairs to the lake, kiss the ground, stand up and love in a circle with his hands waving and facing east, smiling. He turned and went up the stairs kissing his hands and then touching the stairs as he went. I saw boatloads of pigeons, many folks who wanted to feed them and a dog who scared many away. The sound of the hundreds of wings flapping was incredible.

At one point Michelle was shopping for Indian pants and Teresa and I were waiting outside the shop when a boy of, I'd guess, 8 or 9 approached us. He had a sparkle in his eye, a beautiful smile and he knew small phrases in many languages. This meant he knew how to get stuff from tourists ;) We chatted for a bit. He asked us about where we are from and about our families. After drawing us in for a bit with his 8 year old mature charm he asked if we wanted to see a magic trick. Right away we said no, thinking he's looking for money. He said "not for money. It is not good to give kids money. For food for me and my family". He kinda had me at hello so this response was a bonus. He had told us earlier, clearly intentionally, that he had five siblings and he was the oldest. I looked at him skeptically and he told us that he'll do one minute of magic and if we like it, we can buy his family some food. Well. He's a pro-star and his magic was magical: he made a rupee fall out of my nose. We bought him some food. A lot. But the way I see it: even if we got scammed, someone somewhere is intelligent enough to make money by reselling it or someone somewhere is eating. Either way, it's over and were each three dollars poorer.

As previously mentioned, Pushkar is known as the Holy City. As such alcohol, drugs, meat and eggs are banned; eggs because local religions, especially those dealing with reincarnation, take vegetarianism very seriously. Well, we were disappointed because we like having a beer with dinner. We went to a restaurant that was a knock-off Hard Rock Cafe. As he took our orders be crouched and said, very quickly, "oh and we have beer". Clearly we pulled an Al Capone and were bootleggers for the evening. It was such a hilarious experience: the beer came in cans wrapped in tin foil with straws and as they were put on the table our server told us to refer to them as Cokes. We had a table facing the world outside and we were asked to put our bags up to the window to shield the tin foil wonders. I don't know how else to describe it: it was just plain hilarious.

Throughout dinner the view from this second story restaurant was ever-changing and beautiful. Cows were communicating with each other and making passes at each other. Love was in the air. There was a legitimate fight between two teenage boys in the middle of the street. Food vendors cooked off to the sides. Shop owners vied for business. Rain fell. Dogs and pigs entered the scene. Fascinating.

There is a temple about an hours walk up a mountain that boasts magnificent views of Pushkar, especially its lake, at sunrise. After a freak swimming accident, Michelle had re-tweaked her already/previously injured knee and was unable to make the trek (Michelle's mom: don't worry, she's fine now. It was just tender that day). So Teresa and I got up just after four in the morning and hit the road at 4:30. We figured it would have been at least a half an hour walk before the walk up the mountain began. So when a dude on a motorcycle asked us where we were going and if we wanted a ride, we jumped at the chance. So it's 4:40 am, in India, and Teresa and I are on the back of a motorcycle with a dude. To most of you out there this likely seems dangerous. Not for one nanosecond did Teresa nor I feel endangered. It is hard to explain the ideas of safety, trust and fear when travelling and it is hard to explain where stupidity comes in. But we completely trusted this city from the day before, within reason of course, and we trusted this gentleman. Why? How? A gut feeling. 

He drove us to the base of the mountain and our trek, that ended up being forty minutes, began. At the top if the mountain, to the right of the temple was a penguin statue. We're pretty sure that means a SmartCentre is going to be built there. The temple was old and run down. Three men seemed to live up there. We removed our shoes and began to explore. They served us Chai Tea and we watched the sunrise. Ok, that's a lie. The tea part is true. The sunrise part, not so much. But not because the sun didn't rise. It did, in fact. It is an untruth because we couldnt see it. All we saw was cloud, kind of like Pico Duarte for the DR kids of 2012. We spent some time chatting with fellow travellers: Sarah from Tennessee and Becky from Liverpool, England, so it was still good times. Teresa and I trusted our motorcycle guy so much that we 'booked' him to come back and pick us up at 7:30. And he did. And all was well.

And that was the end of Pushkar. Well, not really. Pushkar still exists. That was the end of our adventures in Pushkar. On to Jaipur...