Time has arrived for us to leave the best place in India, or should i say the best in the world so far – Rishikesh. Up next is the colourful state of Rajasthan where our first stop is Pushkar via Ajmer train station. Packing up our overloaded baggage, we headed to the taxi stand to join our partners Ting, Shanti, Camila and Morena.
Holding back tears, we got up the tuk-tuk which Ting bargained using her veteran travelling hardcore skills. It was amazing how we cramped up everything and endured the one hour ride to Haridwar train station.
It was our first time riding India’s train and it was an amazing experience to have. The trains looked run-down from the outside but was pretty clean and comfortable inside. The air was heavily tainted with the aroma of iron rust and urine. People selling snacks and drinks were painstakingly walking from one end of the train to the other trying to offload their stocks.
We were lucky that the six of us miracalously managed to get seats together on such short notice. In fact it was a wonder that we even got seats in the first place as the typical Indian would book tickets about 2 months in advance. When the train started, the six of us talked for hours about our adventures in India. Eventually our eyes got the better of us and we folded our seats into beds to tuck in for the night.
When we awoke, we were in Ajmer where we observed subtle differences amongst the Rajasthan people in terms of their dressing and the way they go about their daily lives. Again, Ting aggressively bargained for a superb price for a car to get us to Pushkar. And then again once we reached Pushkar, she got superb accomodation for us as superb prices. Travelling with Ting was so easy. All you had to do was follow her lead. The only bad thing about following her is that you are so used to her doing all the difficult stuff that you wonder how you can make it independently once she is not there.
Pushkar was relatively laid back. Other than a central lake where a ‘priest’ tried to con us to pay for protective bangles, eating delicious vegetarian falafels daily and shopping for some really GREAT works of art in the forms of purses, table cloths and handmade diaries, Pushkar was otherwise a bland place after spending a few days there.
Next stop after Pushkar – Jodhpur, The City Of Blue.
P.s: linda beg to differ coz she loves Pushkar for the shopping extravaganza there.
The beautiful city of Pushkar atop our funky guesthouse rooftop.
Eudaimoniacs Singapore 