Poorly in Pushkar

a right poorly pair
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Although a popular tourist destination Pushkar was beautiful. The powder blue buildings and ancient stone ghats that surround the lake made for beautiful sunsets and the meandering narrow streets invited you to lose hours wandering and soaking up atmosphere that had clearly been hundreds of years in the making.

We found a wonderful guesthouse called imaginatively enough Lake View with rooms set out around a quaint courtyard and a roof top restaurant. Our tiny ancient room looked directly onto the lake ghats so we were woken each morning at 4.30 to the sound of hundreds of people praying, singing and chanting their first waking hours until dawn. Every afternoon the sound of tabla drumming came rolling in the ornate arched windows followed by the ever present dog chorus shortly after sun down.

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With me recovering and Tim suffering from a worryingly high fever (despite my teasing it really wasnt man flu), we  spent most of our five days in Pushkar in our room so were greatful for its inclusive entertainment.

When at last we were both better we finally got an untainted look around Pushkar and discovered what an effortlessly mystic place it is, really like a bottled concentrated India (albeit a cliched one... I'll have 3 snake charmers, a dozen begging, filthy children, a falafal sandwich and a smelly kaftaned yoga hippy please). Predictably enough the multi-cuisine rubbish has ruined much of the feel of staying - we were astounded that we couldn't find good dhal anywhere but where offered hummus and falafel at every turn!

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Still for being ill and recovering it was great and cheap. On our last day we mustered the strength for a climb and clambered our way up out of the town to a hill top temple with outstanding views of the lake and surrounding desert. We found a large flat rock and basked in the winter sun not quite feeling ready enough to leave on the night bus to Agra.