Pushkar, Push cow

We left the day after Holi for Pushkar, which has a very important lake for Indian culture (the Pushkar Lake) and supposedly the only Brahama temple (this is the only place where he is worshiped, though is part of the Holi Trinity in the Hindu religion) as well as a market; that’s about it. The town is very small and windy. The first night, we decided to try Bhang lassis; Pushkar is a no meat, no alcohol zone, so everyone has “special” food and drink items on their menus. This was and awful idea. Sam and Jay are potheads, so they loved it; I, on the other hand, like to stay in control and when I could hardly move because I was so, um, effected, well, I wasn’t pleased. This body high takes forever to go away, as well. Boo. I hate drugs. Just because it is legal and accepted in a city or country doesn’t mean I should try it; I think I’ve finally learned this lesson. The next day I was a mess because I ate something that disagreed with my tummy and so I hung out in the room all day (thank God for a TV w/ English channels in our room!). Finally, day three, I got to see the lake, temple, and market. Nothing was too awe inspiring, to say the least. There were masses of flies in the temple surrounding the offerings of flowers and sugary beads (sugar, attracting FLIES...who knew?) and the lake is at a very low level due to maintenance.

I met a girl from the UK, Becky, who I was chatting to in the market when a cow (they roam everywhere) sauntered over behind me and rammed into my bum, nearly knocking me to the ground! Everyone stared, per usual; what happened to them being holy, docile creatures? We decided to rent bikes the next morning to try and go to the Shiva temples. When we left, some kids surrounded us and splattered her in paint yelling “Happy Holi!” We thought they were being brats because Holi had passed; apparently not. We were almost to the temples when a moped with two tourists drove by, hot pink from head to toe and yelled good luck to us. We looked past to see a bunch of kids running towards us; we turned around and ran out of there. The ride was beautiful and peaceful, except when bratty kids grabbed our bikes yelling at us for rupees and their vicious dogs chased us; it didn’t help that we may have had the worst bikes on the planet. That night it was time to say goodbye to the little windy town and head to Jaisalmer to play in the desert!