Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Pushkar

After a long night on the bus, we arrived in Pushkar the day after its famous camel fair came to an end. While some people literally come to India just to catch the market-livestock-holy men extravaganza, the little town swells by tens of thousands and room prices skyrocket, so we probably lucked out not to have stumbled into the middle of the fair by accident. Instead, the town was returning to its usual tranquil state.

Pushkar is a very holy place (no meat, no booze, no kissing), with many bathing ghats around its small jewel of a lake. At the ghats people bathe themselves as well as give puja (usually flower offerings). Here we luxuriated in the peace of the place -- especially after Delhi -- taking it all in from our breezy hotel rooftop cafe and in walks through and around town. We also had our first introduction to India's very cheeky monkeys who roam the rooftops of many towns. The black-faced monkeys, such as those mingling with the kite-flying kids above, were friendly, but you have to look out for the red-faced ones: one of them jumped onto our rooftop, grabbed Ben's coke, poured it out onto the ground and slurped it right up!

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