We left Jaipur by train to Ajmer. Once again to our surprise the train was on-time! It was a short 2 hour train journey to Ajmer. Once in Ajmer, we hired a taxi for 200 rupees that drove us the 11 km over Snake Mountain to Pushkar. The Hindus believe that Brahma (one of the main gods) dropped a lotus flower on the earth and Pushkar appeared. It is another Hindu pilgrimage town, with of course no meat, no eggs, no booze, and no kissing or PDAs. The town has one of the world’s few temples dedicated to Brahma, along with hundreds of other temples, that all surround the sacred Pushkar Lake.
We arrive into town and find a little restaurant to get lunch at. After eating, we leave our bags in the corner and go to scout out a room. After looking at some questionably clean places, we found the Lake View Guesthouse right on the lake, that had clean rooms, a private bathroom, and hot water for the bargain price of 500 rupees/night. We lounged around the rooftop restaurant the rest of the afternoon and then we both got a 90 minute ayurvedic massage in the evening. After feeling completely relaxed, we decided to wander the town a little bit.
Pushkar, although a holy Hindu city, does have a more western tourist feeling then the other cities we have visited. The main street/bazaar had a lot of clothing and souvenirs. We got to the end of the bazaar where the Brahma temple was at and a young guy approached us inviting us in. We decide to go in and remove our shoes. Next thing you know, flowers are being forced into our hands so we have something to offer Brahma and the kid has now become our tour guide through the Hindu religion. There was a ceremony going on as we entered with lots of bells and drums being clanged and banged. The kid tells us to give half of our handful of flowers to Braham here and the other half will be placed in the lake as an offering to ensure our and our families success and happiness. We walk around the temple, looking at the shrines, not only to Brahma, but to other gods and deities. The whole the time the kid is trying to explain a very complex religion to two Westerns who have no idea where to even start to grasp the Hindu faith. After our temple ‘tour’ is complete, we exit the temple, place our shoes back on, wash our hands before retouching our sacred flowers, and are escorted by the kid to the Brahma ghat on the lake. A ghat is a landing or steps that leads down to a sacred body of water or river. Our shoes are removed and we are given a tin plate to place our flowers on that also contains some rice, other flowers, a colorful string, and some red powder. Jeff and I are each given our own ‘priest’ to help us pray for our and our families’ karma. The repeating of prayers and holding of flowers is all fine and dandy until the subject how much money my karma and my family’s happiness is worth. My ‘priest’ suggested at least 1000 rupees and I kept insisting I needed to talk to Jeff first before I agreed to give any money. Then my ‘priest’ tells me that my karma is not connected to Jeff’s and my donation should be separate. I told him karma doesn’t come from money. My priest gets frustrated with me and says that my donation will be the same as my husband’s then. So he smears the red paste on my forehead and tells me to go drop my flowers in the lake. Jeff’s ‘priest’ in the meantime is trying to talk Jeff out of money too and answering cell phone calls in the middle of Jeff’s blessing. He obviously didn’t know he was talking too! Jeff haggled for everyone’s karma and agreed to pay nothing! In the end, we ended up donating 500 rupees for us and both our families and had all the relaxation from our massages sucked right out us. Hopefully, we are right and karma isn’t based on money!
The next day we sleep in and lounge the rest of the day in the sun, reading our books. In the evening, we decide to climb up to the Savitri temple located on a hill a several hundred feet above the town for sunset. It was a nice walk with amazing views. The sunset was lovely and the full moon was beautiful.
Next is farther south to Udaipur.
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| Bazaar in Pushkar |
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| Pushkar from the Savitri Temple |
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| Day's done |
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| Us heading down the mountain in the dark |
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| Pushkar by the light of the moon |
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