The entire town
is a highlight.
The place has a whimsical spiritual air and
along with its exotic architecture overlooking Pushkar Lake is one of the most
gorgeous places you will ever see.
Many people come
here to experience the spiritual side of India and it is a popular stop with
Indian devotees as legend has it that Lord Brahma dropped a petal and formed
Pushkar Lake. After a while you will find yourself being caught up in the
atmosphere of this intoxicating little town and whether eating a dhal under the
watchful eyes of the numerous cows or taking the puja with the pilgrims at the
lakes edge - you will fall in love with the town...
Once there just
simply relax. Accomodation is plentiful and because the streets are so narrow
auto-rickshaw harassment is not as prevalent as it is in other Indian cities.
Part of the experience is taking the puja on the ghats (lake steps) and once
you have your "Pushkar passport" you can wander around unmolested by
the pujaris.
Accomodation is numerous but only really gets
filled up during the November camel fair. Thousands of drovers and buyers come
from all over Rajasthan to buy and sell camels. It is meant to be quite a
spectacle with acrobats, snake-charmers, musicians, campfires and hundreds and
hundreds of camels.
In times gone by
you would arrive across the Rajasthan desert by camel but now most visitors
arrive by bus. There is no direct rail link, so most visitors arrive by bus
from the nearest station which is over the mountains in Ajmer.
The
best way to move around Pushkar is on foot and you will soon become expert in
traversing the narrow lanes and ghats with goats, motorbikes, pilgrims and cows
anyway. A note about the cows the only place with more cows in India is
Varanasi and each one is holy and harmless. It is quite amusing to be sitting
eating a vegetable dhal when a cow comes up and nuzzles you for food.
But
it is not quite so funny to bump into a brahma bull in the darkness. There is
no street lighting in Pushkar and it is like colliding with a sherman tank if
you bump into one at night
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