Day 1 - Wacky Races! - Traveling to Pushkar
Given we are having slightly different India experiences, we are breaking this part into 2 sections:
Glenns Account:
We're finally leaving Bloody Delhi - Hooray! After breakfast we were promptly picked up at 9.00 by our driver Babu for our next destination Pushkar.
Pushkar is a very holy city to the west of Delhi (About 500km), Where there is a created from when Brahma (god of creation) dropped a lotus flower into a valley and hey presto a lake was born. The lake now has 52 Ghats surrounding it where Pilgrims can walk down and bathe in the holey waters and prey. There is no alcohol and is strictly vegetarian (Doh!). Also it is the town where they have the annual camel fair (In November though - so I can't trade Shelley in!)
The drive to Pushkar was hair raising to say the least! There appeared to be no set rules for driving in India apart from who dares wins, this was confirmed by a driver later who told us you need 3 things to drive in India: 1. A good Horn, 2. Good Brakes & 3. Good Luck! Along the way you encounter cars driving the wrong way up a 3 lane highway, cows in the middle of the road and other drivers deciding to to a U-Turn across the 3 lanes to join the opposite side of the road. Our driver Babu (AKA - Klingon Ears) did not have very much english and what english he did speak was only to me not Shelley.
About 3 hours in, during which time we had our eyes closed or tried in desperation to read our books we stopped of for a lunch break and had some traditional Rajeshstani food, accompanied by around 500 flies! We then headed off again but shortly stopped as there were monkeys lining the road, Klingon Ears got out and bought them some fruit and fed them to the monkeys (good photo opportunity), it is in fact good luck and monkeys are considered very holy (something to do with their monkey god).
Another tea break and 3 hours later and we finally arrived in Pushkar. Our hotel was quite pleasant but was about 700 metres from the holy lake (Not overllooking it as Smramy Bastard in the travel agency had shown us in the photo!). Also the redeeming feature of a swimming pool was empty!
On the way there we asked Klingon ears if we could purchase some beers before we got to Pushkar (Not desperate alcoholics or anything!) to which he replied as he generally does 'Everything is possible in India!' and once ensconced in our hotel room he arrived with 6 beers for us!
Unfortunately we were too late for the evening ceremonies by the lake, so we took a stroll into town and then to have a look at the lake.
It was very quiet so we decided to go to a restaurant overlooking the lake and get some drinks. We noticed on the menu that it has 'Special Lassi's' which were Banana flavored milkshakes with 'added extra' which made them a bit gritty, after consuming two of these we suddenly developed the munchies and devoured the food we had ordered. As it was very quiet there we then headed home feeling ;very relaxed'! We stopped of for a bit more food at a Thali Cafe for some more food before heading home for the night, once home Shelley had a very large craving for chocolate - I'm not sure
why!?
Shells Account:
So we woke early and packed and got ready to get out of dodge!, unfortunately Glenn was still feeling rough from the pollution and sore from being ripped of by everyone we encountered.
We met our driver Babu and Glenn made it pretty clear that he wasnt up to small talk with him, this made things a tad difficult as Babu appeared to not want to communicate with me at all, he'd answer my questions directly back to Glenn who would just shrug...should make for an interesting few days?
Spacious seats, smelling nobody elses farts (other than Babu's) and windows you could see out of. The journey took 3hrs longer than we were told but who cares, we wasn't on a train!.
;
We were promised an upgraded 'Heritage' hotel, what we discovered is that this means that its an old building which was (i'm sure) pretty spectacular in its day but today, its a run down, slightly seedy cold damp 'Best Marigolds hotel'. Glenn had a moan about being stitched up and then off we set to find out what Pushkar was all about.
A bit of research showed us that whist everything down to eggs is forbidden in Pushkar, Ganja isnt!, in the form of a 'Special Lassi' so we researched this for the blog and we (Shelley not Glenn) went home and had the best nights sleep on the trip, post about 20 Roti's which accompanied our 50p Thali dinner!.
(Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma and any other god out there, please let Glenn enjoy tomorrow!)....
Day 2 - The Holy Stitch-Up!
Glenns account:
We woke and had breakfast in the hotel gardens, after which we decided that we would go and have a look at what Pushkar had to offer in daylight.
Wandering through the town there were plenty of stalls selling all types of goods. We then found one of the Ghat entrances to the holy lake, on which we were approached by a chap giving us flowers to offer to the lake. After being led to the lake we were then handed over to two holy men who took us to separate parts (One for Women and One for Men - Or just to split us up!!) and preceded to take us through a holy ritual chanting various mantra's (Shelley loves this stuff, me being a aethiest hates it with a passion!). Anyway as I knew the sting would come at the end (After I got a silly red Bindi together with some rice affixed to my forehead), I then had to donate some money (apparently people give £ 50 - £ 100 !!). After protesting I offered 100 Rupee's, but then was informed that it had to be given each of the gods (3 of them!). Muttering something and not feeling very lucky (which it was supposed to do) I was then reunited with Shelley, who then had to get the same sum off me for her holy man! The only positive note was that we each had a wrist band/string thing that meant we would not have to do this again - affectionately know by the locals as 'a Pushkar Passport'!
After this encounter I was in a less happy mood even though there was no pollution and the sun was shining, however Shelley was quite amused seeing me endure this!
Anyway we then proceeded to walk around the holy lake. At this point I find it very ironic that you have to take your shoes off because they are dirty and then you walk round the holy lake in bare feet through bird and cow shit!! But enough of my clearly warped logic, it was a nice day and was interesting to watch the devotee's bathing in the holy lake, but not apparently as interesting as the english woman and grumpy tall englishman sitting watching the proceeedings. Shortly after taking a pearch we were asked by people if they could have photo's with us (various relatives siddling up to us), not so subtle people taking photo's of us from a distance and then the quite blatant people walking up to us putting a camera in our faces!! However I find this quite amusing as its exactly the same as we are doing ourselves!!
We then headed to a nearby rooftop cafe and had a nice Ginger & Honey Tea (In the hope it would do something for our colds). After this we wandered through the street looking at the stalls whilst trying to avoid beggars and people with freak show cows with legs growing out of their necks, we were looking for one of the famous religious temples but once found I could only see that we were going to be relieved of more Rupee's and decided against a visit (Sorry Shelley I know you would have liked a look!). On our way back we searched for a North India book to actually see what we should be doing whilst we are are India, a few shops later and we were now in possession of a lonely plant guide for £5 that immediately pointed out all the scams and mistakes we had made in Delhi!
In the afternoon we returned to our hotel to catch up on some blogging in the gardens, cunningly we emptied a bottle of our beer into our drinks canister we had purchased in Nepal for our trek and supped away happily in the garden above suspicion (Brown paper bag type job!).
As we had missed the previous nights ceremony we went back to the lake around 5.00 to try and catch the action. It seemed very quiet and at around 6.30 it was still very quiet, it would appear the devotee's are not too keen on cold water. Unfortunately whilst sitting in the cafe I decided to have a closer look at the lake to see if anything was happening at which point I was approached by a guy who put a flower in my hand to put in the lake - 'I have a Pushkar Passport' I protested as I showed him my wristband, this did not seem to mean much to him so I though that this was someone just being nice and genuine and I would just put this into the lake. Once at the lake I was jumped on by another holy man who informed me that my luck was only for the morning and I had to do this again despite having 'my passport'! Once again I went through the ritual and mantra with what can only be described as a less that committed prayer for my family's wellbeing (Sorry Mum), then after a bit of a squabbled I dumped the equivelent of 50p onto the ritual coconut before trudging back to Shelley at the cafe with another bloody red mark on my forehead - which surprisingly Shelley found hilarious!
After some very un-sincere sympathy from Shelley I cheered myself up with a couple of 'Special Lassi's and some very nice food before heading home for an early night and to watch a series we had downloaded for this trip (Peeky Blinders).
Shells Account:
Dear Diary,
Hooray!, things are looking up!, clear non polluted blue sky and a breakfast of porridge and bananas whilst monkeys played around in the trees in the distance... i say monkeys but they are bloody huge and ooh ooh'd ahh ahhrd like they do in Tarzan films so glad they were at a distance!. It raised a smile from Glenn so today was going to be a good day!.
We headed down to the Ghat which was beautiful, steam rising from the lake, white marble steps leading down to it with assorted people (and animals) in wonderful colours saying their Puja's
I was handed some petals and then taken through the Puja ceremony with a holey man which involved scattering petals, washing hands, mantra's, OM's and being adorned with a Bindi on my forehead. The only thing that spoilt this was the muttering and death stares from a man in the corner with long hair and a grey beard which turned out to be Glenn!. The donation cost us less than one admission to the bloody tooth thing in Sri Lanka and did go to the poor but I feared for Glenn, we were back to square one!
After a bit of a walk about and declining to go into one of the only Brahman temples in India (would have sent Glenn over the edge!) we headed back and got ready to go and see the evening Aarti ceremony.
Id seen one in Varanasi previously and it was stunning! unfortunately it wasn't the case in Pushkar. As it was pretty quiet, we sat by a bar and ordered a lassi and I wandered off to have a look. Returning, Glenn decided to take the camera and go down to the Ghat to get some pics whilst I merrily caught up on FB and the like. A while later Glenn storms up and slams himself into his seat effing and jeffing about bloody India, I looked up to see a very hateful face adorned by yet another Bindi...he'd beed DONE, AGAIN!. the pic we will post will show just how much he's enjoying it. sorry if its blurred from the camera shakes of me laughing so much (sorry Glenn!). In truth it undid all the good stuff we enjoyed that day and the cynical Glenn returned (understandably)
However we HAVE met some wonderful people too:
Reality is that Glenn isn't built for this environment, he's honest, well mannered and cant handle poverty very well. He also cant be let out of my sight for a second for fear of some nasty tout descending on him!.
onward and upwards dear diary, onward and upwards!
Given we are having slightly different India experiences, we are breaking this part into 2 sections:
Glenns Account:
We're finally leaving Bloody Delhi - Hooray! After breakfast we were promptly picked up at 9.00 by our driver Babu for our next destination Pushkar.
Pushkar is a very holy city to the west of Delhi (About 500km), Where there is a created from when Brahma (god of creation) dropped a lotus flower into a valley and hey presto a lake was born. The lake now has 52 Ghats surrounding it where Pilgrims can walk down and bathe in the holey waters and prey. There is no alcohol and is strictly vegetarian (Doh!). Also it is the town where they have the annual camel fair (In November though - so I can't trade Shelley in!)
The drive to Pushkar was hair raising to say the least! There appeared to be no set rules for driving in India apart from who dares wins, this was confirmed by a driver later who told us you need 3 things to drive in India: 1. A good Horn, 2. Good Brakes & 3. Good Luck! Along the way you encounter cars driving the wrong way up a 3 lane highway, cows in the middle of the road and other drivers deciding to to a U-Turn across the 3 lanes to join the opposite side of the road. Our driver Babu (AKA - Klingon Ears) did not have very much english and what english he did speak was only to me not Shelley.
About 3 hours in, during which time we had our eyes closed or tried in desperation to read our books we stopped of for a lunch break and had some traditional Rajeshstani food, accompanied by around 500 flies! We then headed off again but shortly stopped as there were monkeys lining the road, Klingon Ears got out and bought them some fruit and fed them to the monkeys (good photo opportunity), it is in fact good luck and monkeys are considered very holy (something to do with their monkey god).
Another tea break and 3 hours later and we finally arrived in Pushkar. Our hotel was quite pleasant but was about 700 metres from the holy lake (Not overllooking it as Smramy Bastard in the travel agency had shown us in the photo!). Also the redeeming feature of a swimming pool was empty!
On the way there we asked Klingon ears if we could purchase some beers before we got to Pushkar (Not desperate alcoholics or anything!) to which he replied as he generally does 'Everything is possible in India!' and once ensconced in our hotel room he arrived with 6 beers for us!
Unfortunately we were too late for the evening ceremonies by the lake, so we took a stroll into town and then to have a look at the lake.
It was very quiet so we decided to go to a restaurant overlooking the lake and get some drinks. We noticed on the menu that it has 'Special Lassi's' which were Banana flavored milkshakes with 'added extra' which made them a bit gritty, after consuming two of these we suddenly developed the munchies and devoured the food we had ordered. As it was very quiet there we then headed home feeling ;very relaxed'! We stopped of for a bit more food at a Thali Cafe for some more food before heading home for the night, once home Shelley had a very large craving for chocolate - I'm not sure
why!?
Shells Account:
So we woke early and packed and got ready to get out of dodge!, unfortunately Glenn was still feeling rough from the pollution and sore from being ripped of by everyone we encountered.
We met our driver Babu and Glenn made it pretty clear that he wasnt up to small talk with him, this made things a tad difficult as Babu appeared to not want to communicate with me at all, he'd answer my questions directly back to Glenn who would just shrug...should make for an interesting few days?
Spacious seats, smelling nobody elses farts (other than Babu's) and windows you could see out of. The journey took 3hrs longer than we were told but who cares, we wasn't on a train!.
;
We were promised an upgraded 'Heritage' hotel, what we discovered is that this means that its an old building which was (i'm sure) pretty spectacular in its day but today, its a run down, slightly seedy cold damp 'Best Marigolds hotel'. Glenn had a moan about being stitched up and then off we set to find out what Pushkar was all about.
A bit of research showed us that whist everything down to eggs is forbidden in Pushkar, Ganja isnt!, in the form of a 'Special Lassi' so we researched this for the blog and we (Shelley not Glenn) went home and had the best nights sleep on the trip, post about 20 Roti's which accompanied our 50p Thali dinner!.
(Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma and any other god out there, please let Glenn enjoy tomorrow!)....
Day 2 - The Holy Stitch-Up!
Glenns account:
We woke and had breakfast in the hotel gardens, after which we decided that we would go and have a look at what Pushkar had to offer in daylight.
Wandering through the town there were plenty of stalls selling all types of goods. We then found one of the Ghat entrances to the holy lake, on which we were approached by a chap giving us flowers to offer to the lake. After being led to the lake we were then handed over to two holy men who took us to separate parts (One for Women and One for Men - Or just to split us up!!) and preceded to take us through a holy ritual chanting various mantra's (Shelley loves this stuff, me being a aethiest hates it with a passion!). Anyway as I knew the sting would come at the end (After I got a silly red Bindi together with some rice affixed to my forehead), I then had to donate some money (apparently people give £ 50 - £ 100 !!). After protesting I offered 100 Rupee's, but then was informed that it had to be given each of the gods (3 of them!). Muttering something and not feeling very lucky (which it was supposed to do) I was then reunited with Shelley, who then had to get the same sum off me for her holy man! The only positive note was that we each had a wrist band/string thing that meant we would not have to do this again - affectionately know by the locals as 'a Pushkar Passport'!
After this encounter I was in a less happy mood even though there was no pollution and the sun was shining, however Shelley was quite amused seeing me endure this!
Anyway we then proceeded to walk around the holy lake. At this point I find it very ironic that you have to take your shoes off because they are dirty and then you walk round the holy lake in bare feet through bird and cow shit!! But enough of my clearly warped logic, it was a nice day and was interesting to watch the devotee's bathing in the holy lake, but not apparently as interesting as the english woman and grumpy tall englishman sitting watching the proceeedings. Shortly after taking a pearch we were asked by people if they could have photo's with us (various relatives siddling up to us), not so subtle people taking photo's of us from a distance and then the quite blatant people walking up to us putting a camera in our faces!! However I find this quite amusing as its exactly the same as we are doing ourselves!!
We then headed to a nearby rooftop cafe and had a nice Ginger & Honey Tea (In the hope it would do something for our colds). After this we wandered through the street looking at the stalls whilst trying to avoid beggars and people with freak show cows with legs growing out of their necks, we were looking for one of the famous religious temples but once found I could only see that we were going to be relieved of more Rupee's and decided against a visit (Sorry Shelley I know you would have liked a look!). On our way back we searched for a North India book to actually see what we should be doing whilst we are are India, a few shops later and we were now in possession of a lonely plant guide for £5 that immediately pointed out all the scams and mistakes we had made in Delhi!
In the afternoon we returned to our hotel to catch up on some blogging in the gardens, cunningly we emptied a bottle of our beer into our drinks canister we had purchased in Nepal for our trek and supped away happily in the garden above suspicion (Brown paper bag type job!).
As we had missed the previous nights ceremony we went back to the lake around 5.00 to try and catch the action. It seemed very quiet and at around 6.30 it was still very quiet, it would appear the devotee's are not too keen on cold water. Unfortunately whilst sitting in the cafe I decided to have a closer look at the lake to see if anything was happening at which point I was approached by a guy who put a flower in my hand to put in the lake - 'I have a Pushkar Passport' I protested as I showed him my wristband, this did not seem to mean much to him so I though that this was someone just being nice and genuine and I would just put this into the lake. Once at the lake I was jumped on by another holy man who informed me that my luck was only for the morning and I had to do this again despite having 'my passport'! Once again I went through the ritual and mantra with what can only be described as a less that committed prayer for my family's wellbeing (Sorry Mum), then after a bit of a squabbled I dumped the equivelent of 50p onto the ritual coconut before trudging back to Shelley at the cafe with another bloody red mark on my forehead - which surprisingly Shelley found hilarious!
After some very un-sincere sympathy from Shelley I cheered myself up with a couple of 'Special Lassi's and some very nice food before heading home for an early night and to watch a series we had downloaded for this trip (Peeky Blinders).
Shells Account:
Dear Diary,
Hooray!, things are looking up!, clear non polluted blue sky and a breakfast of porridge and bananas whilst monkeys played around in the trees in the distance... i say monkeys but they are bloody huge and ooh ooh'd ahh ahhrd like they do in Tarzan films so glad they were at a distance!. It raised a smile from Glenn so today was going to be a good day!.
We headed down to the Ghat which was beautiful, steam rising from the lake, white marble steps leading down to it with assorted people (and animals) in wonderful colours saying their Puja's
I was handed some petals and then taken through the Puja ceremony with a holey man which involved scattering petals, washing hands, mantra's, OM's and being adorned with a Bindi on my forehead. The only thing that spoilt this was the muttering and death stares from a man in the corner with long hair and a grey beard which turned out to be Glenn!. The donation cost us less than one admission to the bloody tooth thing in Sri Lanka and did go to the poor but I feared for Glenn, we were back to square one!
After a bit of a walk about and declining to go into one of the only Brahman temples in India (would have sent Glenn over the edge!) we headed back and got ready to go and see the evening Aarti ceremony.
Id seen one in Varanasi previously and it was stunning! unfortunately it wasn't the case in Pushkar. As it was pretty quiet, we sat by a bar and ordered a lassi and I wandered off to have a look. Returning, Glenn decided to take the camera and go down to the Ghat to get some pics whilst I merrily caught up on FB and the like. A while later Glenn storms up and slams himself into his seat effing and jeffing about bloody India, I looked up to see a very hateful face adorned by yet another Bindi...he'd beed DONE, AGAIN!. the pic we will post will show just how much he's enjoying it. sorry if its blurred from the camera shakes of me laughing so much (sorry Glenn!). In truth it undid all the good stuff we enjoyed that day and the cynical Glenn returned (understandably)
However we HAVE met some wonderful people too:
- The man who ran after us after Glenn gave them a 1000 instead of a 100!
- The kind old man who bought us Chai and gave us home made biscuits on the train
- The numerous people who helped us find the phone repair shop
- The Sikh at the golden temple who explained everything to us and didn't want a penny in return
Reality is that Glenn isn't built for this environment, he's honest, well mannered and cant handle poverty very well. He also cant be let out of my sight for a second for fear of some nasty tout descending on him!.
onward and upwards dear diary, onward and upwards!
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