Pushkar

Date arrived: 13th November 2023

Date Departed: 17th November 2023

Favourite sight: The Brahma Space (our hotel)

Average Cost: £28.30 PPPD (on target at last!)

Pushkar is a small city in Eastern Rajasthan, and is very much a pilgrimage site for Hindus as it has the only temple to Brahma in existence. It is known as a very holy city, and it's small central lake is surrounded by 500 temples, and 52 ghats, where people take to the waters for various holy baths and other ceremonies. The lake is known as the Holy Lake, and one of the ghat's was the place where Mahatma Ghandi's ashes were sprinkled after his assassination.

This is the spiritual side of Pushkar, which hosts 3 times it's population in pilgrims and tourists every single day, most of them making day trips.

Once a year, Pushkar hosts it's Camel Festival, which is believed to be the worlds largest. For a week in November, the town is flipped on it's head as another multitude of visitors descends to join in the camel trading, racing, moustach contests, and other craziness that make up this massive event. We had the option to visit during the camel festival, described as a unique spectacle and a must-see-if-you-can event. We decided against it.

We actually chose to visit Pushkar in the few days before the festival itself. From our reading we'd heard that Camel Festival is transformative, and comepletely takes over the town for a week with craziness. Honestly - we quite liked the sound of what Pushkar is about. We'd also read that most of the major trading and 'camel' activity takes place in the week prior to the actual festival, which is largely about the parties and the competitions - so we decided to dive in and look, then leave before it all went large!

13th November 2023

We arrived into Pushkar on an Auto-Rickshaw, after some hard bargaining at Ajmer train station and an even harder journey over the Snake Mountain (yes, really) pass, which had challenged the poor little tuk-tuk somewhat. We found our accommodation, The Brahma Space, and immediately breathed a sigh of joy at seeing the immaculately clean steps up from the street, and then the sparkling reception, complete with intricate and beatiful rangoli on the floor. Out host, Ranjeed, welcomed us, and told us all about Pushkar. The holy lake, the imminent camel fair, the temples, and even the flower scams to avoid. Whilst the introduction was quite long, it was thorough, and we felt well informed. 

We found an eatery a few hunded yards away, where we enjoyed lunch in a quiet sunlit garden, far enough back from the street to avoid most of the noise, and with monkeys playing in the trees above. Tired from our early start, we settled back into our first floor room at the Brahma Space, and within 5 minutes unpacked ear plugs - the noise from the street below was quite intense.

We did sleep however, and after about two hours got up to work on our surroundings a bit more. This was when Ranjeed our host approached us and offered to move us to a quieter room, upstairs, and away from the direct noise of the street. I tell you, we were already in love with the place, but this gesture certainly allowed us to love it just a teeny bit more!

As dusk descended, we sought a restaurant for dinner, and had our first experience of the Pushkar bazaar. It was a strange sort of busy, with narrow streets limiting the quantity of traffic - pedestrian and motorised - significantly, but not stopping some of the moped riders flying through at quite worrying speeds! Anyway, food was good, and it became apparent that most places in Pushkar seem to favour an alcohol free, vegetarian diet, in keeping with Hindu norms.

We slept very well tonight in our beautifully quiet (by standards) room!

14th November

Today we booked an afternoon yoga class! Julie has been keen to practice some yoga while we're in India, which makes perfect sense, not just because of the heritage but also due to the warmer weather, which helps loosen muscles. As the class was not until 4PM, we decided to head up to one of the temples that overlooks the holy lake - in this instance the Savitri Matar temple.  You can see it silhouetted on top of the peak in this page's header image.

There is a cable car up to this temple, or alternatively a flight of 1,000 steps that you can take. As we set out towards the cable car station (also the bottom of the steps) we started to see the evidence of the Camel Fair in town - namely lots of camels towing carts, which seemed predominantly to be giving rides. We also realised quite how much Pushkar is in the middle of a sandy dessert, as within a few hundred yards of the busy bazaars, the roads were quickly covered in sand.

Looking up at the cable car, it looked to be almost stationary, although there was a decent queue of passengers waiting at the bottom station. Either way, we decided to brave the steps! Deceptive steps as it turned out, for what initially looked to be fairly regular banks of 3 normal size steps ended up as some very steep, high, climbs by the top. We got a small discount though, as I only counted 932 steps in total.

A the top of the climb was a busy temple, which shouldn't be a surprise for a pilgrimage city in the week following the Diwali festival. The views wold have been excellent but for the ever-present smog, and the incumbent residents up here - plenty of Monkeys! After a brrief pause and a few piccies - including several requests for selfies - we made our way back down the path, which was somewhat easier than the ascent. 

We returned to the market place in Pushkar town where we had Chai, then ate at a small local restaurant, where we actually went for Dosas. These are kind of like a big thin crepe, loosely rolled up and filled with something (or left plain) and served with a curry-sauce type dip. Delicious. After that we went for a walk around the holy lake.

This involves making your way down to one of the 52 ghats, or series' of steps that lead down to the water's edge. You have to remove your shoes at this point, and then you can move around each of the ghats, which are in varying states of repair and busyness. Two in particular were very busy with ceremonies and pilgrims taking holy baths, which we later learned were the Ghandi Ghat (where the Mahatma's ashes were spread) and the Brahma Ghat - which is linked to the unique temple. The whole thing is a little tortuous, as there is a lot of muck, bird, and animal excrement all over the ghats, and some of the routes around are not clear, or indeed passable. 

Anyway - we managed to circumnavigate the lake, and found some parts of it really quite peaceful and pleasant, while others were quite busy. A group of small boys was making their way around in the other direction, setting off the last of their Diwali bangers as they went. With the structure of the lake and the buildings around it, these sounded somewhat like small calibre weapons being fired!

Next up: Yoga. Julie had booked us an afternoon class with a local instructor, who ran a session for beginner to intermediate level. We were pleasantly surprised to find we were the only yogists, so we actually had a very productive session, with some good stretching and lots of 1:1 coaching, particularly for mr so-not-bendy-I-can't-even-sit-down-properly. We enjoyed it so much we booked on for a morning session in two days time.

We ate that evening at an excellent pure veg restaurant with the unlikely name of Madam de Souzas - but the food was excellent, and we planned  to return for breakfast.

15th November

Today's plan was for a walking tour in the afternoon, which we thought would be helpful to better understand what was happening in Pushkar, and the history and importance of the town in the Hindu religion. WIth the morning free, we set out to visit the other hilltop temple, on the opposit side of the lake - the Gayatra Mati temple. This was much closer, reached from a rough trail that ran up from behind one of the city's small bus stations, and also much quieter. This felt a lot more tranquil than the much busier Savitri Matar temple, altough it was a much less impressive construction. It still gave a nice vew over the lake though. Or at least, a nice view of the smog.

From here we walked to the other side of town, through the main staging area for the camel fair. This was fairly intense, with lots of camels, horses and vehivhles jostling for space on the narrow roads. As well the animals there were numerous traders and stalls, and even three ferrris wheels in various stages of construction! I'm pleased we got to see the craziness as it was starting to unfold - but I think quite pleased that we missed the main event, as it mught have been a little intense!

Our walking tour with The Pushkar Route, was genuinely very good. Manish, who is the founder of the company and was our guide for the afternoon, met us at our hotel promptly. From there we went the the Sikh temple in Pushkar, where we waited for another couple to join us. Starting out with this very impressive and beautiful Sikh temple, Manish explained both the historical and (where appropriate) religious significance of each location we visited. This included various temples, including the oldest in Pushkar (the central stone of which is believed to date to 7000 BC), two Vishnu temples, and the unique and very significant Brahma temple. 

He explained the reasons why there is only one Brahma temple, and why this is a pilgrimage site which most Hindus would seek to visit at least once in their lives. He also took us to a "fire ceremony" at the Brahma Ghat, and walked us round some of the Ghat's we had visited ourselves previously, explaining a little more about them.

Perhaps most useful was Manish's explanation of the basic relationships of the three principle Hindu gods - Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu - and how some of the other gods are related to these three. Wives, children, or even just manifestations for given circumstances, the complexity of relationships with even the core Hindi deities is immense! We won't ever understand it all - but we're definitely a bit closer after Manish's patient explanations.

In the middle of the tour we spent a very relaxing 20 minutes at the lakeside, watching the sun set across the lake from us and, of course, enjoying a chai.

16th November

This was a quiet day for us, starting with yoga, then visiting a local cafe for breakfast. We briefly explored one of the two Vishnu temples that we had visited after dusk on the previous day's walking tour, but couldn't really see much more in the light of day. We also stopped for Chai (of course) and enjoyed a Croissant (!) from the exception French Bakery next door to our hotel.

We spent the afternoon relaxing on the hotel's roof terrace, which was just what the doctor had ordered, and helped us to recharge our batteries. As this was our last full day in Pushkar, the rest felt a bit like a phrophylactic pause, ahead of visiting two of Rajasthan's larger and more significant cities. We also managed to book a two night stay in the Ranthambore National Park whilst chilling here, with a good chance to see some magnificent Bengal Tigers!

17th November

We had little to do today but check out, grab some beakfast, and take our pre-organised taxi back to Ajmer to catch the four hour train to Jodhpur and the next stage of our journey through Rajasthan. When saying goodbye to our wonderful host, Ranjeed, he incredibly kindly gifted us both with little notebooks, with a Ghanesh figure on the front, to remember Puskhar by. Ghanesh is dedicated to new beginnings, and often given as a gift at the start of a venture or a journey, he explained. This was very touching, and appreciated. 

We will definitely miss Ranjeed and The Brahma Space! Next stop: Jodhpur.