Celebrity Sightings and Pushy Babbas!

Sold for 2 table cloths and 100 rupees- to the man in the moustache!
see all photos »

Pushkar (meaning "water hand") is an important pilgrimage site for Hindu people, though now it has also become an important pilgrimage site for hippy pot-smokers.  The story goes that the Brahman king dropped a lotus flower and a lake appeared, which now marks the center of the town.  The lake is surrounded by different bathing ghats - different areas for different castes.

Upon arrival to Pushkar it is pretty much unavoidable to be "blessed" by pushy babbas (holy men?) swarming the ghats looking for tourists.  The entire "ceremony" takes about 15 minutes and includes a coconut, lotus flowers, rice, bindhis, chanting and a string bracelet - commonly dubbed the 'Pushkar passport' as it signals to other tourist that you are a sucker, BUT relieves you of further babba harrassment.  By the end, you are sporting a red and yellow rope bracelet, a red dot on your forehead with rice stuck to it....and the rest is chucked into the water (which also supports the local pigeon and fish populations).  You are encouraged to list names of family members and friends for which you would like to "bless", only to find out later that a 100 rupee "donation" is attached to each name (Meags was cursing her extended family).  Jen politely informed her babba that in Canada, donations mean WE make up the price (by the way, you guys are worth about 80 rupees collectively - I hope you are feeling the blessings).

Us looking very blessed, no? We picked the rice off right after we took this.
see all photos »

By far the highlight of our trip to Pushkar was the celebrity sighting of the year!!  You may recognize him from your Goan postcards...yes, he's the crazy old man with the umbrella hat and goggles on a scooter (if you were not fortunate enough to receive this one, we have included a copy)!!  While sitting eating lunch we spotted him scooting down the road and immediately retrieved the postcard for comfirmation - yes it was him...different hat, same great style!  We flagged him over for a photo and he seemed thrilled with the attention.

Umbrella hat guy!
see all photos »

Hoping to take in some Rajasthani culture, we signed up for a dance class with some gypsies - this proved to be an awful idea as they were 20 minutes late, and had no intentions of TEACHING the dance class, it made for a good laugh though.

Aside from the lake, Pushkar is also a great hub for shopping (as many of the textiles are made here).  With this in mind we headed out for some souvenirs - Meag sold Jen to a shop owner for 2 table clothes and 100 rupees!

Another favourite pastime was to hang out at the local juice stand and watch the kids flying kites.  Meag went overboard on the juice and had to resort to some Pepto the next day!

The postcard that made him famous.
see all photos »

We took a night bus to Jaisalmer and met a great Dutch lady named Saskia.  We tried to catch some ZZZs but were kept awake by choruses of semitruck horns (the have a number of horn "tunes" to choose from, which are all reminiscent of the icecream man or something from a circus - which is suiting because the trucks are decked out in tinsel and ornaments).  Dooo Duh Dooo Duuuh Deee Dooo DOO Doooo!