A Hindu Pilgrimage Town

Kieran:

We arrived today in Pushkar, a holy hillside town beside a holy lake. Hindu's flock here in huge numbers to bathe in the ghats, cast flowers into the waters and say prayers.

It was also the place where Gandhi's ashes were scattered. It seems to have quite a relaxed atmosphere (for India) but for the moment we seem to have lost our driver, so are waiting for him at the hotel...

Nick:

Hey guys, we've got some time to kill at the hotel here in Pushkar, not sure where our driver's got to?! Oh well. We're kind of worn out today anyway, stayed up a little later last night talking to a young Australian couple at our hotel, who're on a round the world trip, they're hitting most of the same places as us with their driver. Nice people! Not seen much of Pushkar yet, but it's very quiet and serene, a supposed Hippie destination. We just took a walk around down a path, and photographed some parakeets, also ran into some Monkeys! Photographed an Indian roller from afar too. Also a pair of black birds with very long forked tails. hmmm

Our hotel here is one of the nicest so far, spacious and with pool, but it looks pretty murky!

Kieran's travel blog is here, he's got it mostly up to date I think! www.travelpod.com/kiza88

Last night we attended a folk dance, with live music which was really cool, but packed out with tourists in Udaipur! I got some cool sketches of people dancing. Then as we went to leave we were stuck in night time gridlock, which felt like a very Indian experience, hoards of people and motorcycles, with cars unable to move! Other than that not much to report since last e-mail. One favourite sight I forgot to mention, was a few days back in the desert, we came across hundreds of shoes, mostly black rubber sandals dumped by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. I asked if a container had dropped or something, but apparently it's people making a walk to the temple without shoes. They all leave them in the same spot and finish the (presumably very long!) journey by foot. It was really cool I thought...

PS Staying in Pushkar tonight, not seen the lake yet, still waiting on driver, hope to catch it for sunset! If not we'll see it tomorrow morning. Looking at pictures I believe we have a pair of Forktailed Common drongo. Not racket tailed sadly. Cool all the same!

Might have seen a spotted owl. There were lemon and mango trees all over! We have great views of hills here. Hot but peaceful, rocky and green. Give Dan an Mbuh.

I got a photo of our boy guide, and some kids who were following us. Just about to visit the lake in Pushkar.

Seen kingfisher, hornbill and small owl. Night Night!