Steintore
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Steintore
Thu, 09.01.2014: Pushkar, sunny, 21°C
It was so quiet and peaceful that we managed to sleep for the first time in 3 days! The breakfast at the hotel was buffet style with both Continental and Indian dishes.
There was a power cut in our room when we returned and we'd forgotten to take our tablets before breakfast. Kirsten dropped one of hers and couldn't find it. She said she didn't need to take them anymore and decided to keep them for "the next time!" There's positive thinking for you!! Once the power came back on we tried to get internet but that still wasn't working.
At 1pm we drove into the town and arranged to phone Yadav in about 2-3 hours to pick us up where he dropped us off. He had given us several warnings about tourists being hassled here and that we should be careful.
We set off along the busy market street heading towards the lake and within minutes Kirsten had accepted some petals from a man to throw in the lake. I told her not to take them but she didn't see any harm in it. The result was that we were followed by the man and in the end she gave him the petals back. One Italian tourist later told us that she had fallen into the trap with the flowers and other similar traps and had ended up paying over 1,000 Rs! ($160)
Pushkar Lake is a Holy Lake and has one of the few Brahma Temples in the world. It is also the site where Ghandi's ashes were spread. There are 52 Ghats around the lake (bathing places) but the water is not safe and tests showed it to be toxic! Still, we watched several people bathing here.
We went to 'Honey and Spice'- a restaurant recommended in Trip Advisor. We had freshly made spinach soup and apple cake and then wandered back through the Bazaar and felt ill when we saw a pig eating freshly dropped cow dung in the street - Ugh!! Kirsten bought herself a scarf which she used to go into a temple around the corner - no cameras allowed.
Later we drove out to Savitri Temple but only managed the first 242 steps to a viewing platform. There was no point going further because the view was very hazy. There must have been well over 700 steps to the top and we are not exactly fit at the moment as we haven't eaten enough lately.
On the way back we stopped off at the lake to wait for sunset and to get some photos of the lights reflecting on the lake. That evening we went to 'Nature's Blessing', a restaurant virtually next door to our hotel that was also recommended in Trip Advisor. The owner is also the chef, speaks excellent English and is a very good cook!
Kirsten had grilled Tofu with rosemary potatoes and I tried a Thai Massaman dish that I was ensured wasn't spicy just aromatic. It still had a bite to it and I hoped that my stomach would cope. We took some home made blueberry cheesecake and chocolate mousse back to the hotel with us!
Fri, 10.01.2014: Pushkar, cloudy/hazy, 17°C
Kirsten took a side trip to Ajmer to go to the Dargar Sharif Mosque. She had read that it is the second most important pilgrimage place in the world for Muslims, after Mecca. Yadav told us that it would be difficult for two women as each has to be accompanied by a man. Yadav is Hindu but he is still allowed inside and said he would accompany Kirsten.
I spent the morning washing all the dirty clothes that had been accumulating since we'd been ill whilst Kirsten went through various rituals to visit the Holy tomb of Christi, a holy man who died here after 6 days of meditation and has since been worshipped. The Holy day falls in the seventh month of the lunar calendar.
Yadav told her that Muslims and Hindus can go to each others temples and mosques without any problem and this second holiest religious site for the Muslims is only 30 minutes drive away from one of the most important Holy Hindu sites - Pushkar Lake.
There are very few problems between the two religions in India, the Kashmir region being the exception, and there were riots that broke out in 1992-3. But otherwise they accept each others religion peaceably and are welcomed into each others places of worship.
Yadav also had to cover his head to enter the mosque and played the part of Kirsten's husband and she had to follow a few steps behind him. She could only takes photos outside and the streets were extremely muddy around the mosque. She seemed to enjoy it though.
We went back to Nature's Blessing for lunch. Kirsten ordered a whole wheat and buckwheat open sandwich with Gouda cheese, spinach and beetroot which was a huge plateful! I had home made muesli which was delicious. We also took more cheesecakes back to the hotel with us. We spent over an hour chatting to the owner and found out that the Honey and Spice restaurant (the only other restaurant we have been to here) is owned by his sister!
We had a short visit to the Gurudwara Sikh Temple made from local marble - no photos inside, shoes off, scarves on, and you have to walk through a trough of water before entering the temple. Back at the hotel we watched a tour group going off on their dessert camel ride. It was fun watching them mount their camels - you have to really lean backwards whilst the camel is getting up and sitting down, otherwise you will get thrown off!
It was very,very cold in our hotel room again as the temperature dropped back down to around 4°C so we put on more warm clothing and worked on the website. We were kept awake until around 2am by a very noisy group, singing and banging doors.
Sat, 11.01.2014: Pushkar −> Bikaner, sunny, 18°C
Kirsten had another bout of sickness and diarrhoea overnight and hoped that she was now "empty" so we could drive to Bikaner. We drove for 5 hours and a lot of the roads were very bad with lots of potholes. We were bumped around a lot and then stopped at the "Rat Temple" about 30km before Bikaner.
The Karni Mata Rat Temple is where 20.000 rats are worshipped and fed. They are running everywhere, both inside and out! Kirsten did not want to miss out on this sight so we walked towards the temple. Fortunately, we had a sick bag with us which Kirsten used outside the temple, then took off her shoes and went inside! I decided I didn't want to walk through rat shit and expose my feet to their teeth and couldn't understand why Kirsten went inside after throwing up!
Karni Mata Rat Temple
She managed to survive the short trip inside but her socks would have to be decontaminated! We went back to the car and Yadav went into the temple. He came out very happy because he'd seen two white rats which are supposed to bring luck. Maybe that's why he went out and got drunk that evening - despite alcohol being against his religion!
We checked into our hotel at 5-30pm and I put Kirsten to bed with a hot water bottle and a cup of tea. Our room is medium sized but the bathroom smells of sewage. We are on the second floor and the rooms are all spaced around a central courtyard where the restaurant is.
There was a live singer who was absolutely terrible and very, very loud - typical Indian music and singing complete with warbled voice. When I went to look down over the inner balcony, he was singing to an empty restaurant! Drove Kirsten mad, poor thing. Are we going to survive this trip?
Sun, 12.01.2014: Bikaner, sunny, 18°C
Kirsten managed to eat three pieces of toast for breakfast and I had some bananas. In the afternoon we drove to Junagarh Fort built in 1589 which was the stronghold of the Rathore rulers until 1949 when they merged into the Union of India.
It cost 200 Rs each and includes a guide, but now that it is part of the entrance price, there was no one rushing to be our guide. We set off on our own and saw a few of the ornately decorated rooms featuring a lot of work in Gold and some of the original wooden doors.
But then Kirsten felt sick again and I had to help her out, past all the crowds, stopping people so that we could climb down the very narrow stairways that are essentially for one way traffic, and back out to the car.
I put her to bed again and went out to hunt for bananas, crackers and water. This is what we are surviving on at the moment. There is no way either of our stomachs can cope with anything spicy at the moment. Just to round off our day, the terrible singing started up again at 7pm for 4 hours!
