India: The rest of Pushkar

A scene of the sunset over Pushkar Lake.

Note: I'm hoping to FINALLY finish up my India trip posts in the next week or two. The only thing I don't yet have is photos from the celebration of Holi, so I'll add that whenever I have them from my friend.

Hanuman Temple

This town is packed with hippies, but I've still not run into many Americans. Each time I think someone is American, they end up being from Europe or Australia or anywhere else. The hippies, however, are all over. They are also a pretty good indicator as to which locales sell the bhang lassi and other treats Pushkar has a reputation for. (See a place crammed with hippies? I bet they serve something special.) I chatted with a few hippies, and the conversation was rather fascinating in that some of them had come to Pushkar and planned to stay just a week and had ended up being there for four to six weeks (and counting).

In the rest of my time in Pushkar, I saw the Brahma Temple, the old Vishnu Temple, the new Vishnu Temple (from the outside because visitors aren't allowed inside), the Sikkh temple (Gurdwarn) and the Hanuman Temple (monkey god).

I spent my last evening at a place by the lake called the Sunset Cafe, and I watched the sun go down across the lake. A drummer was playing by the ghat and hippies were dancing all around.

Hot sun makes it dangerous to walk on
the marble steps at the old Vishnu temple.

As I left Pushkar, I got stranded in Ajmer. Once again, my train was canceled. The next air-conditioned transportation I could find left at 8:30 p.m. (six hours after my train was scheduled to leave). So I found a restaurant from the guidebook, ate and stalled a long time. Then I found a small Internet cafe to chill in. (But I didn't access the Internet. At that point, I figured I had gone more than two weeks without it, so I could survive a few more days. Plus, I feared seeing my overflowing inbox and preferred my current state of serenity.) But the owner was really nice and had some family in the U.S., even. He let me stay and watch part of the cricket game that was on TV. He even was nice enough to explain a little about the game to me (which is a lot more than I previously knew about the game).

My overnight bus trip to Delhi ended up being kind of fun. I met a family from Bangalore while waiting for the bus. It turned out they also had a train canceled so were taking the same bus. They all spoke very good English and were really nice. They had a 25-year-old daughter traveling with them who ended up sitting next to me on the bus trip. She was so amazed that I was traveling in India without my family — and alone! She said she was really jealous of the freedom to do that and hoped that someday she could, too. Basically, she made me feel like I was really awesome and also made me thankful for some of the independence that our American culture offers. She has a cousin in New York and was hoping to be able to spend some time in America eventually.

Sitting quietly by the lake as the sun sets.

See more photos from Pushkar here.