India: Ajmer

Entrance to the Dargah complex.

I woke up at 3:30 a.m. to catch my train from Jaipur to Ajmer, but when I got the station, I found out yet another train was canceled. Somehow, I managed to book a ticket on a slightly later train going the same direction. (Honestly, I'm not sure how I succeeded. Adam had already said there are limited decent seats available if you buy the day of. Plus, I don't speak Hindi and the ticket guy barely spoke English. Yet, somehow I managed a seat in the class I wanted to get where I wanted to go.)

I shared my train berth with a well-dressed Indian man who had an entourage accompanying him. After describing the scene as best I could to Adam, we determined this was probably a railway official of some sort. But it was interesting because the train porter covered his bench with a sheet and pillow before he arrived. Then he had one military/police guy who carried his briefcase and saluted him, three others who accompanied him to and from the seat, and then two sidekicks who rode with him. I mostly stared out the window and pretended not to be paying attention, even though I was paying attention. But any conversations they had were in Hindi, so I didn't understand a thing.

Ajmer was just a pass-through for me. I had planned to see a couple sights there and then continue on in a bus or car to my destination of Pushkar. However, I soon realized I wouldn't be able to lug my large backpack through the Dargah (a Muslim complex at the site of a tomb of a Sufi saint). So I opted for the more-expensive car option — and took a little risk in leaving my bag in the car while I took a detour to the temple. It worked out fairly well, though the driver made me pay for his parking, too. But my belongings stayed safe. The driver walked with me from the car to the outside of the temple. I couldn't take my little daypack into the temple, so I took yet another risk in handing it off to him as I went in. (I had my passport and money in my mini passport bag, but he had my camera with all my photos, Adam's phone, my journal with all my contact info, etc.)

The complex was packed with pilgrims. It included many stalls where they could buy religious objects, including platters of flowers to bring to the shrine. In some portions, men and women appeared to have separate areas. I wasn't certain exactly what I was doing and didn't want to be offensive, so I just made a quick trip through. I returned to the driver, who to my relief still had my daypack and all its belongings (plus my shoes)!