Week 51: restday Pushkar: hippies and cow poo everywhere

March 16, 2016

Pushkar is a holy town for Hindus with over 400 temples and the only temple in India where Lord Brahma is worshiped. A pilgrimage to Pushkar is an essential part or duty of a Hindus life. It is said that after visiting four spiritual places in the country, Pushkar has to be visited to attain salvation. The pilgrim's aim is to take a holy dip in the lake as the water is said to have healing powers, bestow good luck and ward off sins and evils. And we saw plenty of pilgrims.

Pushkar Lake is surrounded by 52 flights of steps called ghats with three of legendary importance. Lord Vishnu is said to have appeared in the Varah Ghat in the form of a boar. Brahma took a bath here in the lake and performed Yajna at the Brahma Ghat. The ashes of Mahatma Gandhi were immersed in the Ghandhi Ghat.

Another tourist attraction to Pushkar is the annual Camel Fair and in 2016 this will be in November over a two week period. We can imagine the chaos that brings, when large groups of herders, camels, horses, nomads, farmers and traders arrive to set up camp and large bazaar. And tourists.

For breakfast, we walk the main street to the Sunset Cafe. Some shops are just opening, the bulk of the motorcycles are not out yet, there is a calmness and quiet. The cafe is close to one of the ghats. Mid afternoon, we return to the cafe for a potato sizzler and bean enchilada. The sizzler is just that, comes out on a sizzling hot plate, cabbage leaves hold the potato vegetable mixture with a cheesy sauce. Very nice!

A short day tomorrow to Ajmer.

View over the lake and bathing ghats of Pushkar.

Sunrise over Pushkar seen from our hotel roof-restaurant.

Early morning at the Lake. The guy in this photo is a priest with whom Patrick later gets in a spat. He tries to "give" some flowers to put in the lake for which he then later wants a "donation". When Patrick refused the whole spiel the priest tells him to leave which P refuses as well.

It is not allowed to take photos of the bathing pilgrims at the bathing ghats. When Patrick takes this photo he gets into it again with the "priest" who accuses him of taking photos of bathing women.....

Cows are everywhere, and many seem to have diarrhea. Nasty, nasty. Almost as nasty as the rough-looking western wanna-be hippies wandering the streets barefooted in their tie-dye. Watch where you step!

Patrick votes this the most polluted little lake in the world. Cows, pigs and humans sh*tting at the roadside. Incredible India is a land of contrasts.

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