Bringing Lassi Back!

Pushkar is a small, very holy town (no meat, no booze, no PDA and cover up!), known for it's 100 ghats surrounding a lake and the annual Camel Fair it dawns every November. Because the camel fair jacks the prices of everything up about 9 to 10 times, JusFa decided to hit it up apres the camels. Quickly we found out this was a sweet deal as double rooms are about a buck fiddy each.

It didn't take much time at all to fall in love with Pushkar. As all must when they are in Pushkar, I got blessed. The deal is you go down to the lake and a priest will bless you for a "donation", after you're blessed you get a yellow and red string bracelet known as a Pushkar Passport which you can then use to fend off all the other priest that nab at you to be blessed while your hanging out in the town. Well worth the rupees. The blessing involved throwing flowers, coconuts, rice, lake water, reciting God names and thanks, reciting family members and blessing them, asking for good Karma and a long life and many children etc etc etc... It was a bit messy, a bit strange, and a bit hilarious but a bazaar and wonderful experience that ended with a bag of what Lifa and I have deemed 'Karma Balls', that our blessed family members now have to eat. Unfortunately Lifa got really hungry and ate most of hers and I left mine in our last lodge...

Other activities in Pushkar included shopping for the baggiest hippy pants possible, nice wrap-around shirts, getting henna and head massages (by none other than the son of the man who head massaged Queen Elizabeth when she was visiting Jaipur ten something years ago! That's correct, in Pushkar there are generations of highly skilled head massagers), drinking lots and lots of banana lassis, and hauling are butts up a mountain to a shabby temple with a wonderful view, and more shopping in the ghetto touristy areas, feeding the monkeys karma balls and all the like.

We are now heading off to get intimate and interactive with some camels and dunes on a wee safari outside of Jaisalmer...in the middle of the desert. Stay tuned for pictures of Lifa eating it on her camel, I'm sure hilarity entails...