Lazy days in Pushkar

Sunday 8^th February 2015

I woke up super early this morning at about 5am thinking that was sleep done for the night but after a quick pee stop I was back in bed and by the time I woke up it was late. I felt pretty good apart from being ridiculously tired and so got up got ready for the day and headed to breakfast.

I had a hankering for porridge so that’s what I got and it went down a treat we didn’t have anything planned for today and ended up just lying on the grass in the sun all day reading and then getting food and having a picnic.

Late afternoon the weather changed and the sky rumbled with thunder the sky clouded over and it became windy and cold. We had planned to climb another hill to watch another sunset but the coming weather put a damper on our plans.

As we sat chilling the guesthouse guys appeared setting up heaps of chairs and tables it turned out that the grassy area was to be used for a pre wedding gathering spot and so we watched as people flowed in and ate and drank and danced to obnoxiously loud drums. Small children kept climbing all over Marks bike which I found hilarious but he was less amused, I started taking photos which only encouraged them much to his annoyance (although he hid it well) Eventually they left the groom looking as if it was the worst day of his life and everyone else having an absolute ball.

The Sad Groom is the one in white

We ended up watching several episodes of Parks and Rec and chilling with the dude that runs the place we are staying before heading out for food.

We had the most ridiculously cheap Thali at just 50 Rupees each (NZ $1) and it was unlimited meaning I ate far more than was necessary for one person to eat and then got two chocolate bars on the walk back!

I felt like I was about to explode and the only thing I could do was lay in bed and read and try not to be sick.

Monday 9^th February 2015

This morning was another slow start by the time we got moving for breakfast the morning was gone and by the time we were done it was midday. The sun was shining and we were feeling lazy so we sat in the sun a bit and I finished my book.

After a while we decided we should probably make a move and so got on the bike and drove to Ajmer the plan was to chill in the park by the lake there for a while but that lasted about 5mins until a massive crowd had surrounded us all wanting pictures and we had to run away.

We hiked up a hill to Taragarh which is a temple on the hill which we didn’t actually go inside but the view of the city was pretty spectacular. The way up the hill was lined with beggars, stray dogs and plenty of goats and pigs, we also saw the most bizarre sight of two ostriches in a tiny stone cage on the side of the path understandably looking like they hated life.

After being in Pushkar which is a holy city (no meat, no alcohol, no eggs etc.) Ajmer was crazy with every second shop being a butcher with dead carcasses hanging everywhere and animals waiting to be slaughtered confined to tiny cages watching their peers be hacked up. We stopped for lunch but even after several repeated conversations the ‘dahl’ that came tasted like chicken so I just ate the (amazing) naan bread.

We drove back to Pushkar and stopped by the samosa shop for me to have second lunch then chilled in the sunshine with books.

We attempted to go watch the sunset but couldn’t find the stairs leading up to the temple we wanted to go to and we kept being mobbed by children so we gave up, turning the bike around we almost fell in a rubbish pit which would have been a complete disaster.

We returned to camp and did sweet fuck all until it was an appropriate time to eat again. We went and ate at one of the rooftop restaurants in town we were so lazy that we drove there ate a shit load (including two desserts for me!) and then went back to the tent.

Tuesday 10^th February 2015

The plan was to leave Pushkar this morning but as we got packed up Mark fucked his neck (which was a little bit karmic as id just told him off for making fun of the dude chanting in the next tent over) so we decided driving 350km to Agra probably wouldn’t be the best thing.

We went and had some munch and then Mark got a massage while I wondered about the market and resisted buying new pants.

Back at our accommodation we spent most of the day laying out in the sun reading, napping and picnicking.

We headed for food pretty early getting another 50 rupee unlimited thali. On the way to food we bumped into a friend and so after we had eaten dropped in on him at his guesthouse. Bizarrely he was sharing a room with one of the girls from Vipassana and so we all sat about chatting, drinking mint tea (and I ate a shite load of chocolate as usual)