Sue And Graham's Excellent Adventure: Flooded Streets, Shopping, and Camels, But No Meat.

For a change of pace we ventured away from the big cities and headed for Pushkar, a little mountain town of about 15,000 people. The town is centered on a lake and the entire area is considered to be sacred in the Hindu religion and the site of one of the world’s few Brahma temples. While we saw the temple, there were no pictures allowed, and the same goes for the holy bathing ghats lining the edge of the lake. Besides being a holy pilgrimage site, the town is also famous for camels, or more specifically the camel fair, races and trading that happen each November. All this has put Pushkar on the tourist map in a big way despite its small size, so for the first time in India we saw more than a handful of fellow backpackers as we wandered the streets.

The view from the rooftop cafe on top of our hostel.

The rules of Pushkar.

The top of one of the multitude of temples (not the Brahma one)

The afternoon we arrived it had been pouring all day and some parts of the town were flooded. We had to walk about 10 yards in this to get where we were going, not a big deal, but once you've seen all the filth and manure below, you don't exactly want to go puddle stomping. Later that night Kristen realized the toenail polish on her big toe had mysteriously vanished.....whoa.

The main street was lined with shop after shop offering a great opportunity to hone our bargaining skills. We power shopped the afternoon away.

As with most places in India, the cows rule the roads. We stopped to look into a shop when this one came up behind us and gave Graham a gentle (seriously) nudge in the ribs, just like it was saying "excuse me" and went on it's way.

Lake Pushkar

Some monkey's hanging out by the ghats.

Half day Camel safari out into the surrounding country side. It felt great to trade the dirty streets and honking horns for some fresh air and nature.