Pushkar

On the way to Jaipur we stopped in the religious town of Pushkar for 2 nights. On the first day our driver dropped us in the middle of town and told us to go down to the lake were we would be blessed by a Hindu priest. On the way we were given flowers we were told to place in the lake. When we arrived at the lake we were immediately picked up by priests and taken to the edge of the lake where the priest annointed us with sandalwood and recited a mantra for us and our families to give us good karma. It was quite a spiritual experience and very peaceful. After this we released the flowers in the holy water. I'm not sure how water so dirty can be so holy, but never mind. In typical Indian fashion we were asked for a donation of anywhere between about 2000 and 5000 rupees which we were told would bring good karma. Wasn't the point of the blessing to bring us good karma? Luckily we had been forewarned by our driver to give no more than about 100 rupees. This was a good money making scheme if you ask me! The guy was so relentless though we both ended up giving about 250 rupees just to shut him up. He then gave us a cotton wrist band and told us with this no one would bother us again in Pushkar. We then went for a wander through the streets and some ladies out of nowhere grabbed our hands and started shaking them and asking us questions. At the same time they started drawing henna designs on our hands without even asking us. We just went with it - a bad move in hindsight. Before we knew it we were being asked for 500 rupees each, you feel so sorry for them though it really is very hard to say no. The girl was about the same age as us and lived in the desert and didn't go to school as she had to look after her family. It becomes more of a donation than a payment.

Following this we went back to the hotel where our driver Babloo had organized another camel safari seeing I was soo sick on the last one I couldn't really enjoy it. We had some lunch and then hopped on smelly, arthritic camels for a 4 hour camel safari. Mine was called Mr John. We stopped out in the middle of a small village to watch the sun go down and drink a beer which surprisingly made the return camel ride a lot more comfortable. I guess you don't have to worry about drinking and camel riding.