peace and quiet in pushkar

pushkar was like a dream. it was just what i needed to recharge the batteries and refuel my love for india. a very serene and spiritual place... buildings set around a small lake with desert hills surrounding. it was very laid back and definitely drew a hippie crowd. i almost felt like it was india's version of burning man a couple times. saw plenty of neo-hipies with crazy dreads and bizarre fashions. who knew?

getting there was quite an adventure. the bus ride from jodhpur turned out to be desent. it was air conditioned and i had a seat to myself. and the meds the frenchies gave me worked! i managed to get all the way to pushkar without crapping myself (although the stomach cramps were pretty awful).

the crazy part of the story was when the bus desided to drop me on the side of the highway. the guy just pointed to me and said "pushkar." i followed a couple others having no idea where i was or what i was supposed to do. the guidebook said this can happen sometimes but it didn't say how to find the connecting bus. i asked a nice looking man "bus to pushkar?" and he sort of motioned to come with him. he hopped in a ricksaw so i came along. figured it must have been close.

minutes and miles go by. no one speaking english. just me, my backpack and no sense of what to do in the middle of some random city WITH stomach cramps and a possible diarrhea attack. YEEES! as we continued on, the man i followed finally got off. i wondered if i was supposed to get off too but he made the motion to keep going. ok, i thought. seriously, no clue.

as we kept going and the streets and noise got more congested, i started to worry a bit. did this driver know where he was suppose to take me? then a big family piled in. they all just stared and laughed at me. next 4 school boys climbed aboard. with no more room for my backpack, one of the boys just picked it up and held it for me. i think there were about 10 of us in that tiny ricksaw at that point. luckily one of the boys spoke english and apparently i was going the right way. i asked him to tell the driver to make sure and it was all good.

finally made it to the ramshackly bus station. again, no english or white people anywhere. and no clue what to do. another kid from the ricksaw who i didn't even notice popped up and told me what bus to get on. ha! too much. this was my first gov't bus. it cost about 5 cents and i know why. they packed about 100 people in there. literally men were hanging off the sides. i was so tired and sick but really amused and loving it. a sweet older woman sat next to me and we shared a giggle when she was trying to push back some of the men falling in her lap. i made the elbowing motion, signalling to her to tell them to back the fuck off. she LOVED that.

about 30 minutes later another random bus stop. the woman yelled "PUSHKAR" and i grabbed my shit and got off quickly. again, no idea. just started walking and asked a few people for the white house (yes, ironically my guesthouse was called the white house). after getting only slightly lost, i finally found it. SUCCESS. i seriously felt a huge sense of accomplishment for making it that far all with a sick belly.

the guesthouse was perfect. clean white sheets with a soft bed AND squishy pillow and a window AND a balcony AND a hot shower. bliss! i slept so soundly that night and was over my illness.

next morning, up on the roof of my place for breakfast, i met a lovely dutch girl, laura, who offered to show me around the town. so we went around. i grabbed loads of photos (coming soon!). she was keen to do a camel trek. i'd heard not the greatest things but when i heard you could do short walks it sounded cool for a sunset ride. so we booked it and i'm SO GLAD we did. turned out to be one of my favorite moments of the whole trip.

desert silence. open spaces. little farms and workers in the fields. total peace and serenity. my guide spoke maybe 5 words of english and tried teaching me some hindi words for what we were riding past. very sweet. at one point, the english speaking guide asked if we'd like to stop for chai. sounded great but where were we going to find chai in the middle of the desert?

soon enough, our camels took us to a little shack where i could make out a woman in a bright pink sari was waiting for us. she walked over to a goat tied to a post and began to milk it into a metal pail. i was amazed! she was milking the goat that was going to be in our chai! a huge smile came across my face. this was too cool.

next, she knelt down over a small fire pit and began to break up sticks and started a fire. she stirred the masala ingredients together with the goats milk and soon enough, we were sipping the most indulgent chai ever. a few men from the fields came over along with another gypsy woman with a giant nose ring attached to her ear. we all sat around sipping chai. i was the happiest girl on earth at the moment.

we said our shukriyas (thank yous) and namastes (goodbyes) and got back on our camels, bellies full of warm chai and rode off into the sunset. as we rode, the sky turned from pink to dark blue and a few miles ahead, the stars came out. i sorted wished we had booked the whole night to stay over in the desert. it was a much cooler experience than i imagined. but i took notice of myself in that moment and i felt 100% content. nothing can ever take that moment away and i'll remember the feeling forever (sorry to be all gushy about it, but it's true!).