Pushkar - the place where the lotus fell down on the earth

second and third week India 128
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Dear all,

As you might have noticed we are getting a bit behind on our blog to cover every stop made along the way. So now then some words on Puskar. Puskar is next to Varanasi one of the holiest places in India. According to the Hindu mythology (or history what ever stand you would like to take). Brahma dropped a lotus flower on the earth and Pushkar floated to the surface. It consist mainly of a lake with 3600+ in the town and as you can imagine it is a major pilgrimage site for the Hindu’s and off course tourists. The town is a no booze no meat place but even although this restriction we still enjoyed the site and the great vegetarian meals (not! Although it was not that bad for 2 days).

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The town itself was surprisingly clean, must have something to do with the temples which are on every street corner, and peaceful. No rickshaws are allowed in town so this provided us already with some peace in that nobody asks you hello rickshaw. However this posed an issue on how we would move around luckily our hotel owner was so nice to rent his dad’s motorbike to us for a reasonable price. Off course I needed to get petrol first with the younger brother to ensure him that I could really drive in India. After getting ready the two of us set out on exploring the town. After stopping at some temples we went to the lake to pray a mantra with a Braham priest, I can speak for the two of us that this was truly a spiritual experience, until the priest at the end of the mantra asked how big the family was and demanded a gift to the charity per person in the family. This last bit was really a bit of a turn off as it was really nice until this moment. Yes families no worries we prayed for you as well and you should have a prosperous and happy life as of now as the donation given covered you all.

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After this exhausting experience we decided not to climb up a mountain for 2 hours but instead drove into the rough countryside to visit some Shiva temples (yes seriously that was the main goal of the ride not the ride itself). This was for me (Hugo) one of a truly cool experience… for the rest nothing special, sorry guys need to9 make an end to it now as we are being kicked out of the internet café! More later... as well as the photo’s.

Cheers,

Maite & Hugo