in Pushkar

(Here's the photo of myself on a camel the previous time I was in Pushkar, in November, 1999)....


I'm now in the pleasant little lakeside town of Pushkar, back east a ways (a ten-hour overnight bus ride last night) from where I was in Jaiselmer, but still in the same Indian state of Rajasthan. I was here during my first trip to India, I think it was in November of 1999, right before their huge camel fair. I actually just left Jaiselmer right before their own big desert festival. But after the camel festival in Bikaner, and the camel safari, I don't exactly feel like I have to see everything camel-related while I'm here. Besides a festival in India means massive crowds, and I'm at the point where big Indian crowds isn't really what I want to hang around too much, so I'll be avoiding the cities for the most part from here as well.

Although it's been a couple weeks since my last update, there isn't a huge amount of stuff to cover. I ended up staying in Jaiselmer for a total of 15 days (including the three days on the camel safari) partly because I was sick and then also simply because it was such a gorgeous and atmospheric little city. The one problem being that the prevalent tourism certainly dilutes the experience a bit, and makes it a hassle walking around at times, as you're so regularly turning down someone or other trying to sell you something. But the main thing I accomplished while being sick was that I got all of my photos up to that point developed, got a bunch of them printed as 8x10s, and then sent them all back home to get them off my back, literally.
My last couple of days in Jaiselmer, once I was feeling pretty much back to normal, I went on a couple of bike rides out to some nearby small villages with some Jain temples. Then, the day before I was planning to leave, I went by bus about an hour away to the village of Khuhri. It was mentioned in my guidebook and was where I was originally planning to start my camel safari, before I got sucked into the 45 rupees room. So I'd like to go back there sometime, partly just because it was a great place, and also to do another camel safari from that area as it would be a better location, plus a little cheaper.

So although I just went there for the day at first, I liked it a lot so the next day, instead of leaving Jaiselmer altogether I packed up and took the bus back to the village of Khuhri. I was planning to only stay for a night or two but ended up staying for five nights (thus the delay in writing, since there wasn't any internet acces there). It was basically just a tiny little desert village, but due to its proximity to Jaiselmer and the fact that there are nice dunes a short walk away, it's now on the tourist's radar, and so basic guest houses are springing up there. But it still mostly has an unspoilt feel to it, to the extent that there are no restaurants other than what people make for you at the guest houses, no bookshops or shops selling clothes and trinkets, etc., other than the usual snack shops where you can get bottled water, cookies, chips, soft drinks, etc. (which was important because at my guest house they served the same thing each day for lunch and dinner, so I usually skipped lunch and had snacks for a change. But the good thing was that they made a mean omelette for breakfast.)

I didn't do a whole heck of a lot there, other than go for some hikes on the dunes (excellent sunsets from on top of them), finish a book, do some yoga in my adobe-style hut, and walk around the village and inform little kids that sadly I had no pens, rupees or chocolates to give them (all of which I actually did have with me, but they don't really need them and besides once you give one something, then they tell all their friends and family, and pretty soon you have a crowd of kids around you all wanting the same thing, and they're pretty persistent about it).

So from Khuhri I came back to Jaiselmer yesterday afternoon, bought a ticket for a bus leaving that afternoon direct here to Pushkar, did a couple quick things around town and then hopped on the bus. It turned out to be one of the more enjoyable bus/train/plane/automobile rides I've had, as I paid (a whole $9) for a sleeper bunk, which was a completely enclosed little compartment above the seats, with windows you could open and close on both sides, either to the aisles of the bus on one side or else to the outside, but with curtains on both sides. Although it was only maybe 5 1/2 feet long and about 2 1/2 feet wide, it was pretty comfy and I would have probably gotten some decent sleep, except that the Indian roads keep the bus constantly moving around, going over potholes, train tracks, speed bumps, etc. So, not much of a smooth ride. Then the bus arrived here a couple of hours earlier than expected (simply because it took a more direct route than they'd told me at the ticket office) which was at 3 am. In this case it was a good thing that hotel touts were there waiting for the bus, so that I was easily able to get a room, and pretty soon I was stretching out on a real bed.

I'm not quite sure how long I'll be staying here in Pushkar. Since I've been here before, and it's another touristy spot with the usual annoyances, I don't plan to hang around too long, plus I've got a number of new places that I'm looking forward to checking out. But mostly it's a fairly mellow little town and also internet here is super cheap (a third the price of Jaiselmer) so I'll most likely stay here at least a few days. Then, I'm headed for one of the places I'm most looking forward to in India, Bundi. It sounds like one of those places on par with Rishikesh, Jaiselmer and Pushkar, except that somehow it's escaped much attention and so is far less touristed. Then I'm looking at a couple of other spots that I discovered in the book that sound great and are all more or less in line between here and Nepal, where I plan to meet a friend in early March.