Ajmer and Pushkar
Trip Start
Unknown
1
5
44
Trip End
Ongoing
Ajmer, Rajasthan, India
Monday, March 29, 2010
So we got a nice room with a TV this time after the prison cell of Jaipur and pretty much straight away had to get a bus to Pushkar. Ajmer is a kind of station post for people travelling there. Its in the desert a bit and has one of the only Brahma temples in the world. It also has a reputation for scamming and particularly one where prists, or people who pretend to be priests, accost tourists and give them a flower or a wrist band and offer them prayers or tell them this is their 'Pushkar passport' and charge them 100R or, if its prayers, 100R per family member as each family member is surely worth praying for. Its all a load of bollocks but more on this later!!
So the bus to Pushkar was about 9R each which is the kind of prices I am liking and it was easy to get a bus. Its about 30mins to Pushkar. You drive though this mountain pass through a windy road. Also Ajmer is based around a really nice lake which we got to see on the way up. I got a few photos from the bus but theyre not amazing but....
Anyway so we landed in Pushkar and was expecting to be bombarded by priests but there werent any. The bus stop is a little but out of the town itself and it is actually based round a lake itself although a bit dried up. We walked round a bit trying to find where all the action, temples, shops etc were. We ended up going down the hill a little bit and came across all of the shops and stalls. It basically runs around the edge of the lake and there is some really great stuff from clothes, bags, herbs, oils etc loads of stuff. We tried to figure out which way to the Brahma temple and I ended up asking this little boy. He was really sound and basically walked with us right around the lake to the other side to show us where it was. He spoke good English and we chatted about the usual stuff - what our names were, where we were from, how long been here, how long staying, what we do for jobs and then just general stuff about Pushkar etc. We walked over this stone bridge and we had to take our shoes off. It was fecking boiling and to save myself from major degree burns I had to put my shoes back on. This lad just casually walked across tho. Asbestos feet is an understatement. Then we walked along the side of the lake and through this pass and low and behold we get accosted by a priest!! Now armed with our knowledge we werent having any of it. He was giving me all the shit about Pushkar passport and I need it to get in and I was like 'No Im not having one, I dont want one, Im not having one' ad infinitum and he was saying that I wasnt going to get in then. I literally kind of got chased through this doorway towards the lake again as we just said fine we just wont go in. Then Blaise waded in going 'It's not true' to which I echoed the sentiment and you should have seen how soon he shut up and left us alone. Priceless.
So we walked along and up and bit and came across some more stalls and shops which were around the temple. Then the lad said something about us going back to his and I said no we were ok. Then he said something about chapatti's. Now I thought he said that he was going home to cook chapattis and that when we came out of the temple he wanted us to buy on off him. I said no as I didnt want anything and then offered him 10R as he had walked quite a bit with us and he said he didnt want any money off us just about these chapattis. So I just went fine but Im not buying any chapattis. So we went to the temple and Blaise was little bit hot and flustered by now and his feet were blistering so he said he couldnt be bothered going in. I said Ive walked too far not to really so went in on my own. They stop you from wearing shoes and taking in cameras and phones so Blaise held them while I went in. To be honest I may aswell not have bothered. Unless I missed something it was pretty much the crappest temples Ive ever been in. There were just loads of white, marble type breeze blocks with loads of inscriptions like you would find on gravestones (ie in loving memory of) making the walls on either side but it was kind of a bit open plan too with only a roof on parts of it. There was quite a smll blue shrine mini temple/shrine in the middle where a few people were praying/worshipping. I walked round to the back and there was a little room with a yellow shrine type thing in there and then some steps/pathways outside which seemed to lead down to a normal courtyard type thing. I didnt bother going outside as it didnt look like there was anything there. So basically I did a complete lap and walked back out about 3mins later. Now somebody may tell me that I needed to go outside and I completely missed the most amazing thing ever but I think that was it. I can see why they stop people taking cameras in though. So that people dont see a picture of what it is actually like inside and dont bother going. Seeing as its THE biggest draw to Pushkar I think theres some shadiness going on by a few parties. Again maybe I am missing the point entirely but seeing as its one of the only Brahma temples in the world you would have thought they could have made it a little bit more extravagent. But maybe Brahma's a bit of a simple, chilled dude and this is how he would have wanted it. So anyway that lad was waiting outside for us and then was trying to get us to go to the chapatti guy so, I could have said 'Small boy, you have done a good deed in guiding us to the temple which we may not have found without your help. It has been a pleasure to talk to you and we appreciate all your efforts in guiding us to where we needed to be but unfortunately I shall not be partaking in purchasing any foodstuff for any meal for you this day'. But what I actually said was 'Im not buying you bloody dinner'. He was like 'Ahhh what can I get for 10 rupees' so I said Id give him 20R and again he was like what can I get for that. I said 'I dont you know, youre the one who lives here!' so he accepted the 20R and then, as we walked off, proceeded to utter that people should go and visit Spain or France as England was rubbish! I was like you cheeky tw@. How about you wind your neck in shag and go and help some other tourist until you have enough to buy a chapatti.
So we basically walked back past the various shops etc and if you were a girl particularly and we up for some shopping, maybe of a slightly hippy persuasion you would enjoy it here. We went to get the bus and got out onto the road just as a bus was coming past do we dived on. We saw a different species of monkey on the way back with black faces too. We went back to the room in Ajmer and had a chill for a few hours watching cricket and general sports. It is a joy to have a telly to be honest. Then we went out to dinner about 7.30pm to the Honeydew restaurant which is recommended in the book. We actually decided to plump for some Western food after so many curries and we both went for chicken pizza and finger-chips. To be honest the pizza wasnt amazing but it wasnt bad. It was nice to have a change. They didnt sell any beer either so we ended up having a few cokes instead. There was some sort of Indian family celebration going on outside with a buffet and stuff. Not sure what but maybe a birthday party or something. So we went back and just lay in the room and watched more IPL cricket. Thats Indian Premier League FYI. Thats 'for your information' just in case.
We woke up the next day and had already booked the train ticket which was at 3.55 so we just chilled in the room and watched telly. We were a little bit thick with checkout though. It said 'Checkout 24 hours' which we read as being you can check out any time. What it ACTUALLY meant is that you check out within 24 hours of your arrival. We arrived about 12.30pm the day before and checked out about 3pm the next day so we had to cough up another 100R for the extra hours. D'oh! Another lesson learned though. So a quick rickshaw to the train station and we were on the train with relative ease. The trains are really simple to use and stuff really. I thought it would be a bit more complicated. We got told about a site from Mark from Delhi to book on so you just go on cleartrip.com and print off your booking and all sorted. We downgraded to 'CC' which is chair car but it was more than fine. We had air-con and head rests and seats were fine. They have about 6-7 different classes on trains here from 1st class, 2nd class sleeper, 2nd class seat, 3rd class, CC loads of them but were all sorted anyway.
And...er....thats about it for that. On to Udaipur!!
