The Adventures of Smell and Snott: Chilling out in the holy city of Pushkar

Ok then, we will! A great cause.

The holy lake at Pushkar is believed to be one of three places in the world where water spurted forth after Brahma, the Lord of creation, laid down a lotus flower to begin the world. So it’s very popular with Hindu pilgrims, and the lake itself is square-shaped, bordered on all sides by the steps of bathing ghats. We have to admit, all four of us got suckered in, and followed some Brahmins (religious caste people) down to the lake to put the flower they gave us into the water. Of course it was more than that, and they made us repeat mantras after them and sprinkle flowers, coloured powder and sweets into the water, then gave us a coconut to hold while they started to tell us about how much money other tourists usually give them. Unsurprisingly “donations” were asked for afterwards.

Pushkar was a chillout place for us – we spent a fair amount of our time in an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet ($1.50) where Scott got our money’s worth and Shelley enjoyed as much muesli as she could eat, and everyone experimented with pancake toppings. We spent lots of time wandering round the lake, climbed up a mountain to the little temple at the top to watch the sunset (and marvel at the disco lights surrounding the idols in the temple – did they bring electridcity all the way up the mountain just for that?). Here's a few hill-climbing photos...

We also witnessed a couple of days of the leadup to an Indian wedding, which included much decoration, boys carrying lanterns in the streets, horses and parasols and jewellery-encrusted women, but most annoyingly, the loudest and most terrible brass band you have ever heard. Not one member seemed to understand melody, rhythm or the point of listening to anyone else in the band. And unfortunately they had that dreaded combination: loudspeakers and a superhuman stamina. We’d go to sleep to their clashings and bangings – no matter what part of the city they were in – and wake up to them 8 hours later. But it’s India, and you couldn’t really get mad at them, you just have to smile at the inanity of it all!

Scott has come up with a great analogy for India – it’s like kids cooking a mother’s day breakfast. You might not get what you wanted, the food will probably be cold or undercooked, and it might come 2 hours late. But it’s delivered with love and a childlike innocence, and there’s a certain beauty in the earnest smiles, so you just eat your cold burnt toast, and sometimes you even like it.

Oh, and Pushkar was also the place where, against all odds and expectations, we managed to get Chris onto a moped! Admittedly she clung onto Drew the whole way and used up a year’s supply of swear words, but we think she might have even enjoyed it by the end of the excursion! They weren’t the flashiest mopeds, but we had lots of fun whizzing round the desert scrub and little villages. We were looking for some Shiva temples – didn’t find them but it didn’t really matter! Shelley had a go at driving this time – so Scott found out how much bumpier and scarier it actually is on the back – and now we both want to get a motorbike back in Oz!